Part and parcel of a university student’s journey is snagging that coveted internship position, which will hopefully land you a full-time job upon graduation – or at least a great referral letter for your dream job. For many students, an internship at an MNC is always their first choice, so here are 10 resume tips from a recruiter of a Fortune 100 company to help you score your first interview.
Address on your resume
Apart from your email and phone number, there’s no need to put your physical address on a resume. If you’re applying for an overseas stint, you can simply put your country of residence so that recruiters will know how to process your application.
Objective statement
Some people put an ‘objective statement’ on their resumes, but there’s no need for that since you’ll be there for an internship. It would be a different story if you have a unique statement or proposition to the company.
Your GPA score
Unless your GPA is above 3.6, omit mentioning it. Otherwise, it may hinder your chances of getting looked among a pool of candidates with a higher GPA than you.
Send a PDF format
Always send resumes in PDF – if you submit it in Word format, all that formatting you diligently designed will inevitably get messed up. It’ll be a waste of your time and the recruiter’s.
Naming your resume
When sending your resume, always name it with your first and last name, and definitely not just ‘Resume.pdf’. Recruiters get tons of resumes and if yours will get lost in a sea of files called ‘Resume.pdf’.
Job responsibilities
Many resumes put in “job responsibilities” but these are pointless because recruiters are more interested in what you’ve accomplished. If you worked in F&B, don’t just put “assisted customers” – quantify it with something like “served 40+ customers daily, praised by management for excellent attitude.”
Mention your graduation date
Always include your graduation date – don’t put something like “2016-present” because the company needs to know when you graduate, otherwise you won’t get hired.
Tailor your resume to the job
If you want to increase your chances of getting that interview, you should tailor your resume to the job you’re applying to by changing some keywords to match the job description. This is because these days, jobs often get thousands of applications so AI software is used by recruiters to sort out matching candidates. If your resume has the correct keywords, it’ll get put in the queue.
Cover letters
Unless you have the name and email of the recruiter or hiring manager, don’t waste your time on a cover letter. Cover letters should be sent directly to a person in charge, not to a generic email or recruitment website (unless the website specifically requires one).
How long should a resume be?
Unless you have at least 10 years of experience, a resume should always be under a page. No recruiter would want to read pages of a resume that lists your hobbies or reads like a dissertation. A resume is simply to get you an interview – so it has to hold their interest long enough to give you a call.
