If you’re getting ready to graduate college, you’re probably already thinking about starting your first big job search. There’s a lot to consider as an entry-level employee embarking on an exciting new career. Including how to highlight education over experience on your resume. 

If you’re looking to create an effective college graduate resume, you’re in the right place. Detailed below are our tips and tricks to ensuring your post graduation job hunt is a success. But first, let's go back to basics…

What is a college graduate resume?

A college graduate resume is an entry-level resume that showcases the skills, experience and education of recent college graduates. Since most graduates lack professional experience, they prioritize education, internships, training and transferable skills.

While seeking out jobs that prefer experienced candidates can be daunting, know that all candidates started their careers without experience. And that sometimes, employers would prefer to hire a trainable and eager job candidate over a more experienced one. Knowing how to market what you have to offer will make all the difference. 

How to write a college graduate resume

To write a successful college graduate resume, we recommend you follow these four steps:

1. Provide professional contact information.
2. Use a resume summary.
3. Use keywords to highlight education, experience and skills.
4. Emphasize hobbies, interests, publications and associations. 

Provide professional contact information

Your contact information should be one of the first things that an employer sees when they look at your resume. Make sure you include your name, address, phone number and a professional email address.

Use a resume summary

The resume summary is a statement about skills, experience and education that usually appears in the upper portion of a resume. It highlights the important elements of what's detailed in the main body of your resume. 

This is a valuable section for college graduates without much job experience. It allows you to highlight the other impressive elements of your resume in a short statement. This will help to demonstrate your value to an employer.

Use keywords to highlight education, experience and skills

The three most important sections of any resume are education, experience and skills. In a graduate resume, you want to include each section with it’s own content in this order: 

• Education: include completed degrees, training and certifications.
• Experience: include any work history, volunteer experience or internships.
• Skills: Highlight skills that support why you are a good fit for the job you are applying for.

To improve the chances of getting noticed by both recruiters and bots, consider which keywords you should use. Try to use those that match your desired job and industry. You can do this by studying the job description and identifying relevant keywords.  

Emphasize hobbies, interests, publications and associations

In the final section of your resume, you should highlight any extra curricular activities. These  may help to boost the chances of employment and should appear in their own section at the bottom of your resume. 

Tips for writing an effective college graduate resume

Here are some of our top tips for writing a successful college graduate resume: 

• Mention your GPA
• Include business networking profiles
• Avoid mentioning high school
• Emphasize soft skills and education
• Avoid using fluffy language
• Emphasize important highlights
• Use action verbs

Once you’ve written your resume, head on over to TopResume for a FREE resume review. If there are any improvements to be made, they will work with you until your resume is perfect.