Your First Impression

1
Your First Impression

• By Amanda Granttham
• Lamar University

2
Objectives of Student Resume

• Display your best self on paper
• Increase your chances for interview

3
Basic Features of Great Student Resumes

• Name, address, phone, on top of first page
• Type of work youre looking for
• Degree, major, school, and overall GPA
• Work experience
• Extra curricular activities

4
Details That Impress Recruiters

• Neatness
• A cover letter that is tailored for the company
  and shows youve done some homework on company
  goals and needs
• Easy-to-find major and GPA
• Great verbs at the beginning of paragraph in work
  experience section

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Great Verbs

• Founded
• Initiated
• Invented
• Created
• Influenced
• Led
• Solved
• Institutionalized
• Optimized
• Assessed

• Revolutionized
• Motivated
• Designed
• Envisioned
• Decided
• Developed
• Succeeded
• Recognized
• Championed
• Volunteered

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More Details That Impress Recruiters

• High school activities, especially if you were
  president or held an office in an organization,
  were captain of a sports team, or editor of paper
• Girl/Boy Scout activities, especially if you
  achieved specific goal
• Involvement in volunteer community activities

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Details That Help Recruiters

• Month and year of resume preparation
• Publications and presentations
• Patents
• Military service
• Fluency in foreign languages
• E-mail address

8
Things That We Have to Ignore or That Dont
Really Matter

• Really fancy paper
• Family situation
• Age
• When you graduated from High School
• List of standard classes in a major

9
How to Ruin Your Chances for Interview

• Dont have a resume (are Freshman listening to
  this?)
• Dont bring your resume to a career fair
• Misspell words
• Dont include GPA, or put it in an obscure spot
• Lower GPA and little work experience and few
  activities

10
More Easy Ways to Get YourResume Into the Round
File

• Work objective doesnt fit company needs
• Assume we know what you did as design engineer,
  process engineer, project engineer, maintenance
  engineer, etc.

11
Keep Your First Impression Fresh

• Write your resume and keep it current
• Many work processing programs have good
  templates. Remember the hints I gave you when
  using them.
• Make your resume always a work in process

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Improve Your Chances NOW!

• Do great things so you can use some great verbs
  on your resume.
• Great grades help.
• Great work experience helps.
• Use the spell checker.
• Think like youre the one doing the hiring.