By Arial Starks
Courtney Fain
If you are on the job hunt, one of the most important things to do is ensure your resume is relevant for the position you want and written in a way that best reflects your career story. Since most companies prefer a resume length of one page, it can be difficult to decipher which parts of your career story are most important to share. Courtney Fain, Associate Director, MBA Coaching and Advising at Vanderbilt Business, shares some ways you can use your resume to tell your career stories to future employers.
Be intentional about what you need to include in your career story
When preparing to send a potential employer your resume, keep in mind that yours will likely not be the only one being reviewed. Since you don’t have the time to highlight every achievement at each of your employers, it’s important to be intentional about experiences you include.
Avoid including every detail of your story. Fain says once you have sufficient work experience after school, you can start removing outdated things from your resume.
“I think moving away from college internships is probably smartest,” she said. “That frees up a great opportunity for you to highlight the post-grad, real-world opportunities that you’ve had.”
Use the format of your resume to tell your career story
Think of a resume as a chronological record of your career experience. Using a short bulleted list under sections such as education, professional experience, and skills, helps you pull out key experiences to expand upon your story with an interviewer. Fain suggests putting your most impressive experiences within the first couple bullet points of each section, highlighting areas such as promotions, big projects you have been a part of, and results where you can show numbers.
“You want to include things that will stick out to someone who is skimming a resume, and numbers really pop off of a page,” Fain said. “It’s reasonable to assume that an employer is going to read a few bullets under each section of your resume, so if you’re able to come in hot within those first couple of bullets it will make your resume strong.”
Fain also encourages people to take advantage of the ‘additional’ section at the end of the resume – “It’s a section where you can highlight certificates, early promotions or recognitions in your roles, and/or interests or hobbies that are really unique. This section is at the bottom, but it will most likely be the last thing someone glances at when reading your resume.”
Highlight your involvement to tell your career story
Showing involvement outside of work is a way to add personality to your career story as well as share significant experiences you have had. Fain says including relevant clubs and organizations in your resume is an indicator that you are someone who takes initiative and has leadership qualities.
“Especially at Vanderbilt, when you’re speaking to potential employers that may be alums, which you will during recruiting, it’s exciting for them to see you were involved at Owen with clubs that they were probably a part of,” Fain said. “For instance, if you are interested in consulting and join the consulting club, an alum will look at that as an indication of your sincere interest in consulting.”
Fain adds that while the ‘experience’ section of your resume should focus on post-grad work experience, the ‘education’ section is a good place to highlight your involvement in your undergrad community.
To learn more about Vanderbilt’s Career Management Center, click here.
