College student resume example

What recruiters look for

• Your degree and progress: major, year, expected graduation and GPA if it is strong.
• Any work at all: campus jobs, restaurants, retail. They prove reliability and time management.
• Relevant experience: research, volunteering or projects connected to your field, even unpaid.
• Leadership: roles in clubs, teams or organizations, with numbers for members, events and budgets.
• Skills you can use on day one: Excel, data tools, languages, writing, customer service.

Writing the summary

Say your year, major and school, then your two best pieces of evidence (work, research, leadership). End with what you are looking for and when. Two or three sentences.

Bullet points that work

Strong lines for this role, beyond the ones in the example. Borrow the shape and put in your own numbers.

• Worked 20 hours a week through 2 semesters while keeping a 3.5 GPA.
• Answered 30 calls and emails a day at the admissions office front desk, with campus visitors rating the desk 4.8 out of 5.
• Grew a club’s membership from 40 to 110 in a year with a new social media plan.
• Ran the logistics for a 300-person career fair with 25 employers.
• Entered and checked 2,000 records for a faculty research project with 99.5% accuracy.
• Wrote 12 articles for the student newspaper, 2 of which were picked up by the local paper.
• Raised $4,500 for a children’s hospital by organizing a 12-hour dance marathon team of 30.
• Led a 4-person class project that produced a 20-page health needs report for a local clinic.
• Managed a $3,000 student activity budget and closed the year with a balanced account.

Skills to list

Certifications and licenses worth listing

• No certification is expected of most college students; experience and coursework carry the page.
• Microsoft Office Specialist (Excel): a small plus for office and analyst roles.
• Research ethics training (such as CITI): often required before you can work on human subjects research.
• First aid and CPR: useful for residence life, camp and recreation jobs.

Length and format

One page. Education goes first, then experience (paid and unpaid), then activities, skills and languages. Keep high school activities only through your first year of college, unless they are exceptional.

Common mistakes

• Listing high school achievements in your third year of college.
• Leaving out restaurant or retail jobs because they are not “related”. They show reliability.
• Club memberships with no detail. Give your role and something you did.
• A long list of courses. Pick the four or five most relevant to the job.
• Not saying when you are available or what you are looking for.