Under “experience”. You’ll chew up too much real estate creating another category and the difference between a volunteer role which is professionally relevant and an internship isn’t meaningful.
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Thanks. He had it separate and I marked to move it to experience with his internships. Saves a lot of space, but I wanted to be sure that was the way to go.
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I don’t think it’s bad advice to stick to a one page resume, but my son had a two page resume and he still got interviews and was hired and I know he’s not the only one. I think quality is much more important than quantity. If information is truly relevant to the job, it’s not too much. My son also included a link to his digital resume which is probably what got him hired.
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Is this separate from the link to his LinkedIn page (which is nearly required on resumes today)? My S’s LinkedIn page is more detailed than his one page resume, but haven’t thought about also having a digital resume in addition to LinkedIn.
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Nobody is suggesting that a two page resume is a knock out factor. But there are very few 22 and 23 year old’s whose history is so complex that it needs two pages.
I saw a resume this week which demonstrates this point quite nicely. Kid had worked one summer in college as a temp receptionist at a big law firm. Not an internship. A good old fashioned job working for a temp agency which sent her out to a big law firm for a two day vacation fill-in- they liked her and kept her on all summer as a floater covering vacation leaves.
She had 5 bullet points under “receptionist”. Answered phones. Directed visitors to the appropriate conference room for meetings. Coordinated deliveries from the mail room. Checked deliveries (supplies, catering orders, etc. ) against the invoice.
This is LITERALLY what every law firm receptionist does every single day. And there isn’t a single person reading or screening this resume who needs a tutorial on “what does a receptionist do”. So if you’ve got 5 bullet points- you are begging an interviewer to ask about those bullet points.
Do you really want to spend time during your precious 45 minute interview slot describing how you answer the phone? Do you really want to waste the precious real estate on your resume describing how you walk visitors down the hall to the appropriate conference room and ask if they would like coffee?
I’ll give you the answer. No, you do not. You want to talk about your senior thesis comparing the “planned economies” of China vs. the former Soviet Union and what the West can learn from their experiences. You do not want to devote time and real estate to your phone answering skills. But you’ve got one bullet under “Honors thesis in Economics” with zero description of the topic (the bullet says “won departmental award”) and lots of bullet points about what sounds prestigious (famous law firm) and the interviewer really has to be Sherlock Holmes to unlock the relevant stuff.
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It was different. I’m not even sure he had a LinkedIn profile at the time. It was an online resume that showed projects and experiences in a more interactive and visual way. It had links to GitHub and posters that were presented, academic transcripts, etc.
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Thanks, that makes sense for someone with github content and/or posters/publications. Hopefully his LinkedIn has all those links now too!
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That’s where “truly relevant to the job” one is applying for comes in. There’s important and not important and it helps if the applicant knows the difference.
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This sounds very similar to the portfolio I ask my students to make for themselves (I teach programming in high school). Very few actually do it; however, several (after starting collge) have told me that they should have done it, as they email me “do you by any chance have a copy of my project xxx from junior year”. The portfolio is not only a documentation of what they can do and have done, but also a proof of their progress and evidence when they claim to be fast learner, self taught, resourceful, etc.
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Sounds familiar. My son did at least four sets of these before he signed a summer internship contract. They were all 2-3 months long, twice he traveled to company HQ for in-person interviews with multiple levels of people. Our understanding is that some of these companies are using such recruitment procedures to strengthen their images as selective employers, meanwhile the participating students can use these opportunities to polish their skills, both technical and behavioral. It’s stressful for sure, and he’s going to have to do it all over again next year.
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Interesting. He had not run into it before this year. I can see what you are saying about being more selective, or at least appearing that way.
Ah, but that’s not how employers see it. At many leading firms, most full-time offers come from the intern pool (this is true at my firm as well). So they’re not really evaluating this as a 10–12 week summer gig; they’re treating it as the first step in hiring someone who could be there for years.
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I can understand that perspective. It does make sense. It’s definitely competitive out there. I can’t wait for them all to have jobs!
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However, that may cause some good potential employees to see those employers as being too much of a hassle to apply to. Perhaps that is not a problem for employers as the labor market becomes generally more favorable to employers and employees.
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Any young person who finds the corporate interview process too much of a hassle needs a reality check. They can ask their friends what the med school and residency interview process is like. They can ask their friends graduating from law school who are interviewing for clerkships how demanding and stressful that process is, or what it’s like interviewing with 20 plus law firms over three days to get that summer internship.
Reality check time. Someone who is unwilling to put themselves out needs to find a local employer or a small business which doesn’t recruit beyond its own geography. The national hiring market is going to involve some inconvenience. For the most part, it’s a learning experience for the candidate if they have the right attitude.
I remember one of my “prepared” anecdotes when I was graduating from business school. I thought it was a funny story about my job pre-MBA and showed my learning curve as I had to manage 30 people, all of whom were much older than I was. I must have told that story 25 times to prospective employers until at the end of one interview, the interviewer said “let me give you some unsolicited feedback in the hopes you take it in the spirit of learning. Don’t tell that story. Lead with your strengths, not your weaknesses”.
So I stopped telling the story (after getting over the mortification of yet another rejection) and got an offer from the next interview. But more important, I took it to heart- lead with your strengths. That’s what two dozen rejections does for you- it allows you to grow if you’re willing.
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Job fair strategy advice needed…
Next week my D24 will attend the coop/job fair at her school. Trying to help her map out a good strategy. She attended last fall, mostly just to get a sense of what it was about. This time it’s game time, as she needs to secure a coop for summer and fall. In the fall, she identified 5 companies where she was interested in speaking with the rep. She waited in lines for 3.5 hours, and in the end was only able to connect with 3, as she had to leave to get to class.
The list of companies has been posted, and there are easily 15-20 she would like to connect with. This is simply not going to be possible - the fair is only 6 hours long and she has classes (lab) that would be problematic to miss. Any advice on strategy? Thinking to obviously prioritize her list and queue up to visit in that order, but given that she is likely to only get to visit with a handful of reps…what else can she do?
Personally, I skip the lines. When I got my MBA job, the company I wanted (and everyone wanted) - had a huge line. The company I got - a clone but less in success and popularity, had no line.
I did drop my resume off at the one with a big line- and guess what - got flown in and interviewed with them so.
To me, it’s quantity over quality - but most don’t find their jobs at job fairs. Some do, a decent amount, but not most.
So it’s not do or die.
I do think co-ops have a better chance - maybe not that day - but even through blind application - as there are many more who want summer interns then co ops and many companies want co ops (in engineering, not sure the major) - so I do think there is a supply / demand imbalance vs. a summer internship - where the applicant has better odds of getting a co op (but maybe not from a job fair).
In my mind, if she has 3 or 4 hours b4 class and wants to see 15 and she waited in line 3.5 hours for one - well, that’s not a good strategy. You can always hit that one offline.
But if it’s got a 3.5 hour line and another has no line, guess where the better odds of winning overall are - and if it’s 3.5 hours at your school, what do you think it’s going to be at another school? And in general applications submitted not at a job fair. So that company/firm is going to harder to break into anyway. In other words, getting hired by Choice Hotels is likely easier than getting hired by Marriott or Hilton.
So to me, it’s pretty easy what I’d be doing, advise my kid to do.
Do they have any pre-register - where you submit a resume in advance and they give you a time slot? If so, that’s another strategy - and if you submit and don’t get pre selected and they don’t have a line, go talk to them….but if they do, depending on length, same thing.
At this point, with no internship - the goal is to get one - it needn’t be at the most popular/desirable or even most desirable to her company.
Experience begets experience - you need it more easily move further in life.
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My advice would be to go to a few with no line/short line. After, if time permits, she could go to a few that were on her original list.
I also suggest that she drop off her resume and follow up with an email.
I say this as the parent of one child in an education field, and another one in health care/research. I may be totally off base for your child.
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I would advise her to print up a note to attach to her resume and drop them with the companies she isn’t able to talk with. Something like this:
I’m very interested in learning more about your company and the co-op opportunities. Unfortunately, I had to leave for class and wasn’t able to speak with you directly, but I was hoping you might have a chance to review my attached resume.
I would welcome the opportunity to connect and learn more about how I could contribute to your team. Thank you for your time and consideration.
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There isn’t a job fair app that allows students to sign up for slots to talk to companies?
is there a co op office or clubs that hosts pre job fair events for students?
If no to above, I agree with prioritizing the companies with no lines!
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