At least 99% of the time, one only agrees to act as a reference is you’re going to give a positive report (or, depending on local HR policies, a non-negative one, which in those cases counts the same).
Don’t stress it. @blossom’s absolutely right about the content—and acquiring the agreement to be a reference effectively means that that part has already been passed successfully.
I think he’ll be fine but I’m shocked anyone ‘large’ firm, if they are that, will do a reference today. Both my employers and I know my son said the same, have to send references to hr who will simply validate dates of employment and at mine I know eligibility for rehire. If I did an employment reference and it was found out, I would worst case get written up but potentially terminated. So it wouldn’t surprise me if some kids couldn’t pull this off. So it’s great he could.
This story also shows the importance of having internships - as it sounds like he needed one for consideration of the full-time role.
Good luck to him.
I appreciate your professional perspective!
I agree that internships are important for many reasons. One valuable experience is to see if this or that field is interesting. The fall internship (junior fall semester) was with a large banking institution. He didn’t find the kind of work he may be doing that stimulating. This past summer internship was at a quant trading firm. His role is in software engineering. My full knowledge is limited, but I think these firms are not very large in terms of employees.
It’s out of my controls obviously, but I stress alone. My H does not stress at all and said all of this is life lessons S will have to learn and manage.
Here’s a question for the group.
How long should college resumes be? D24 adheres to the 1 page rule but after this summer’s internship, I think she should expand it to 2 pages. She has enough internships, school activities, etc to warrant 2 pages.
I’m not the norm, but I’m a one pager, even with experience. I may need to list long ago jobs but descriptions are long outdated.
So for jobs, I’m one page. When I get resumes, I don’t look past one page. I know I’m not the only who does the same.
But I recently had a 6 pager from someone I knew and asked me to refer. I couldn’t believe it.
In my opinion, it’s best to keep a college student’s resume to one page. She should focus on highlighting her most important accomplishments and the skills she’s gained or used. There’s no need for lengthy descriptions — leave those for the interview.
If she still has items from high school on her resume, those can usually be removed. The same goes for less important activities or information that doesn’t add much value.
For context: I have over 25 years of work experience and have worked at four companies in just the last 16 years, yet my resume is still only a page and a half.
Agreed. There are lots of ways to indicate other achievements without listing them all (no need to keep 4 years of Dean’s List if you are also PBK for example).
Editing a resume is just as important as the information contained. D20 keeps a running list of accomplishments, awards, grants, etc and then tailors her one page resume specifically to each job application.
Not all things get listed for a resume…her CV is almost 6 pages but that is a completely different beast.
stick to 1 page. it’s a great way to force clarity and highlight the most impact. most recruiters won’t skim beyond the initial page anyway.
S22 has 2 versions - one and two pages. He’s had 3 very different summer internships, so wants to keep them on. He has 2 major senior projects on as well. And he has a volunteer leadership position he also wants to keep on. So everything is from the past 3 years. His short version has just 1 or 2 bullet points per item, but he worries with the AI reading it no longer contains the right keywords to get through, as he’s dropped so much out.
It makes sense to make it shorter. However, she only has a couple of bullet points on every internship/leadership activity and left off her teaching assistant jobs with multiple professors. Once she adds her ‘26 summer internship, it’ll really be condensed.
Im not sure she should leave her TA jobs out.
I’ll probably talk to S22 tomorrow. He’s had a couple recent interviews and I’ll ask him what they ask about from the resume. See if they are looking at page 2 or not.
I wouldn’t think she should leave out TA jobs either.
I feel like his next level of resume will be easier to keep shorter. Once he has a full-time job, he won’t have to list the details of internships. So looking for a 2nd job could end up with a shorter resume.
Thanks! Id be interested to hear from a current student and their experience.
Yes. Once you have a full time job, no one cares you were editor in chief of your college newspaper or you interned three months at XYZ company.
Have your son ask the career center for their advice.
My son (graduated 2025) worked in his school’s career center, and kept his resume to one page. He also dropped or severely condensed notable achievements/awards/activities.
My son who graduated college in 2025 also had three internships and kept his resume to one page. The career center was pretty adamant about that. So there’s no summary statement/paragraph, nothing from HS (not GPA, not test score, nor any awards). Just succinct bullet points about internships, college activities, and relevant skills.
Same with my daughter (although, she hasn’t graduated yet). One page is the norm.
Appreciate the responses. 1 page sounds like what everyone is doing. I’ll have her check with her career center but Im sure it’ll probably be the same advice.
My graduating senior (with 3 internships) had at least 2+ versions of his resume, on 1 page only, tailor the resume content to
Keeping a long form resume is a good idea. I tell my students to do this, too. An old job might show a particular skill that will matter for something you want to go for in the future, and this way you remember the details.