A huge part of my job is reviewing students’ resumes, and often it will be the student’s first resume - or at least the first time they’ve had someone review it. A very common concern I hear is how the student doesn’t have any “relevant experience” or they haven’t done anything “worthwhile.” But, without fail, the same student will leave our session with more confidence, and with more skills included on their resume! What most students don’t realize is that ALL of their out-of-class experiences are valuable, and they have transferable skills. Let me demonstrate what I mean.
Let’s say you’ve been a cashier at a grocery store or a clothing store. Maybe you feel like this isn’t even worth putting on your resume at all, or you have it written down, but it looks like this:
Giant Food Store - Baltimore, MD
Cashier (May 2017 - January 2018)
Manned cash register
Opened and closed store
I promise that you can really beef this up, and you don’t even have to exaggerate! All you need to do is articulate the responsibilities that you assume nobody cares about, but are actually pretty significant. For instance, as a cashier, you provide customer service to a large number of patrons, sometimes during high-traffic times (showing the ability to work well under pressure). You can also mention how you organized inventory in the back room, or answered questions over the phone. Just the fact that you have experience handling money is a significant skill! So now your resume looks like this:
Giant Food Store - Baltimore, MD
Cashier (May 2017 - January 2018)
Provided quality customer service at the cash register and over the phone during high-traffic times
Accurately handled money transactions and applied discounts when necessary
Organized inventory as well as opened and closed the store
See? Nothing written above is lying or exaggerating. The key is highlighting what’s important and wording it in a professional, detailed way. Need more tips and how to spice up your resume? Check out the Career Center’s Resume Writing Page or make an appointment on UMBCworks or on the phone at 410-455-2216. The Career Center has 15-minute drop-in resume reviews every Monday-Friday from 2pm-4pm, so come give us a visit!
