Writing a student resume? Then, this is the best resume checklist for you

Are you creating a student resume to apply for internships and jobs? Then, you should make sure that your resume showcases your potential to employers. Writing a resume with less work experience may seem hard at first, but there are many elements that you can incorporate into your resume to add value. Here’s an excellent student resume checklist to spot what you may have missed:

Contact information

• Mention your first and last names at the top of the resume.
• Follow your name with your credentials to highlight them.
• Avoid mentioning your full address, only list the city and the state.
• Mention an up-to-date phone number and email address.
• Add links to your related social media, LinkedIn, Website, portfolio, or blog.

Summary

• Remove the objective statement.
• Ensure that your summary is 2-4 sentences long.
• Highlight at least two important achievements, academic or professional.
• Emphasize a few key skills related to the job you are applying for.
• Avoid using personal pronouns. Ex: I, me, my, you

Education

• List educational qualifications in reverse chronological order.
• Mention the degree name in full and include abbreviations within brackets.
• For each entry, mention the college name, location, and relevant years.
• Highlight your GPA if it is higher than 3.5.
• Mention academic achievements, relevant coursework, and related minors to elaborate.

Skills

• List the relevant technical or hard skills first.
• Mention required soft skills.
• Use bullet points to highlight skills and add only 10-15 to your resume.
• Mention the skill level (proficient, working knowledge, etc.)
• Avoid mentioning outdated skills.

Experience

• Mention your work experience in reverse chronological order.
• List volunteer work, internships, part-time work, side hustles, and entrepreneurial work.
• For each entry, mention the job title, company name, location, and relevant years.
• Use bullet points to describe major professional achievements at each position.
• Start each bullet point with an action verb and use a formula to write bullet points.

Certifications

• Create a separate Certifications section for your resume.
• Mention the certifications that are relevant to the job you applied for.
• Place relevant certifications toward the top of the list and follow with others.
• List the full name of the certification followed by the abbreviation within brackets.
• Mention the awarding body and relevant years.

Additional sections

• Increase the value of your resume by creating additional resume sections.
• Add resume sections such as projects, publications, languages, licenses, and hobbies and interests.
• Use keywords to describe additional information added to the resume.
• Add information that are related to the job at hand.
• Avoid mentioning information that indicate political affiliation, religious preferences, etc.

Formatting

• Keep your resume short, preferably between one and two pages.
• Ensure that the information is not clumped in one corner of the document.
• Emphasize resume section headings using bold text in larger sizes.
• Use bullet points, bold text, italicized text, and underlined text to highlight important information.
• Proofread your resume to get rid of spelling, grammar, and formatting errors.