Building a Resume with On-Campus Experience

Mon, 11 Mar 2019 13:48:43 -0400
career-center, internships, jobs, on-campus, research, resume, shriver-center, student-organizations

Resume writing can be intimidating. You sit in front of a half-filled word doc, and suddenly everything you’ve done and accomplished in your life leaves your memory. You feel like there is no way you could ever, ever fill up this page. But never fear! The UMBC campus offers tons of opportunities to help round out your resume and feel confident in your experience.

Volunteering: There are a bunch of charitable student organizations on campus (see the full list here). Whether you're fighting food waste with donations or designing sustainable engineering projects, you’re sure to find an organization that interests you and possibly relates to your major. Reach out to The Shriver Center for more information about volunteer opportunities!

Extracurriculars: Service organizations aren’t the only useful club you can join. Consider attending meetings for your major’s council, or join a club to pursue a hobby! The commitment and leadership experience will look great on your resume.

Research: UMBC is a research university. This means a lot of the professors on campus have their own research projects in addition to teaching classes. Read up on your professors’ projects, ask them questions, and see if you can assist them in their lab! It's a wonderful experience and you get to work on a cutting edge project in your field.

Projects: Speaking of projects, think about starting your own! Whether you want to recruit a few friends to help you or go it alone, take some time and apply what you’ve been learning to apersonal project. There are massive amounts of resources on campus free for you to use, so start brainstorming ideas and get to it!

On Campus Jobs: Finally, consider getting an on-campus job. Come in to the Career Center to get your resume reviewed and approved, then check out UMBCworks for various on-campus job postings. On-campus jobs are a great opportunity to get involved on campus, and you supervisors will understand your student schedule as well!

Between those five options, you should have plenty of material to work with. Be sure to look at our sample resumes by major to explore how other students had added their experience to their resumes, and as always, feel free to drop by the Career Center any weekday from 2 pm - 4 pm if you have resume questions. Have a relaxing spring break!