The resumé objective for anyone applying for a job, especially new graduates should be single focused and simple. Get the interview. Period. Your resumé is the single most important job search tool you have. If your resumé gets you an interview it has done it’s job and then on to the interview where you can present yourself, in person, the way you want.
Too often graduates write their resumé as though it is a chronology of their lives when in reality, the employer could care less. The employer looks at a resumé thinking: “What can this person do for me?”
Your resumé should not look at the past but highlight accomplishments and achievements forecasting future behavior. This is not the time to be modest or understate your skills and accomplishments. The employer must look at your resumé and say: “I want this person to do these things for me…I want to meet this person.”
For young graduates the disciplines and skills you have learned at school and through part-time or summer employment are all applicable to any job you apply for…so do not dismiss them as unimportant.
Tell the employer what you have learned and accomplished in your past….not what you did. Just because you did something doesn’t necessarily mean you were good at it or learned from it. Employers are looking for results not effort, so you must write your resumé in a way that tells them what you know and what you will bring to the job.
An employer is not going to hire and pay you for your past. Your will get hired and paid for what you can and will do for the company.