Your resume has 30 seconds. That’s the average time a recruiter spends scanning your application before deciding whether you’re worth a deeper look. In a job market where 70-80% of resumes are rejected by automated systems before a human ever sees them, knowing how to build a resume that passes both digital gatekeepers and human scrutiny isn’t optional, it’s essential.
Your resume isn’t just a list of your achievements. It’s a strategic marketing document that reflects your knowledge, skills, and abilities. In our recent blog, How to Find Internships That Align With Your Career Goals: A Strategic Step-by-Step Guide, we discussed how students can find internships that align with their career goals. Today, we’ll break down the steps to make your resumé stand out in a pile of applications.
Understanding How Resume Screening Actually Works
Let’s start with some uncomfortable truths. At most companies, your resume will get 30 seconds of a recruiter’s attention, if it even makes it to a human. Before that happens, your application needs to survive the Applicant Tracking System (ATS), a software that scans and ranks resumes based on keywords, formatting, and relevance.
Studies show that 70-80% of applications don’t make it past this initial screening stage. The rest disappear into a digital black hole, often because of easily avoidable mistakes.
Here’s what you need to do:
Open the job description for every position you’re applying to and identify the key terms. Look for repeated skills, required qualifications, and industry-specific language. Then integrate these keywords in your experience. But don’t just stuff keywords randomly. The goal is strategic integration, not robotic repetition.
If the job posting mentions “project management” five times, that phrase should appear in your resume. If they want someone with “data analysis” skills, don’t write “analyzed information”, use their exact terminology.
Format Like a Professional
No recruiter has time to decode a cluttered, confusing document. The way you format your resume reflects your personality traits, whether you’re organized, detail-oriented, and capable of presenting information clearly.
The Essential Formatting Rules
- Stick to one page. Yes, even if you’ve done impressive things. Recruiters won’t flip to page two, and ATS systems often cannot process multi-page documents properly. Learn to communicate your value concisely.
- Use a standard format. The Harvard Resume Format is a solid choice because it’s familiar to recruiters and ATS-friendly. Your resume should include clear sections: Contact Information, Education, Experience, Skills, and Projects or Certifications (optional).
- Pay attention to detail. Choose a basic, readable font like Times New Roman or Calibri in 11 or 12 font size for body text, and 14-16 font size for headers.
- Align everything consistently. If your bullet points are indented 0.5 inches, every bullet should match and keep the bullet points consistent in number.
- Proofread for punctuation. Double-check capitalization, spelling, and numbers.
- Skip the headshot. You want to get hired based on your skills, not your appearance.
Adding colours to your resumé:
For most fields – business, finance, engineering, tech, stick with black text on a white background. The only exceptions are creative industries where visual design is part of the job. However, if you’re applying for graphic design or marketing roles, a touch of color can demonstrate your design sensibility.
Strategic Content: What to Include and Where
Deciding what actually goes on your resume and in what order depends on where you are in your journey.
If You’re a Student with No Work Experience
Lead with your education section right after your contact information. Include your university, major, expected graduation date, GPA (if it’s above 3.0), and relevant coursework if it directly relates to the jobs you’re applying for.
Then move into what you DO have: volunteer work, student organizations, university projects, and any freelance or informal work experience. These absolutely count. All you need to do is frame these experiences professionally.
If You’re a Student with Relevant Internships or Work Experience
Your experience section should come right after your education. List your roles in reverse chronological order (most recent first), and under each position include:
- Your exact job title
- The company name and location
- Dates of employment (month and year)
- 3-5 bullet points describing your key achievements
Here’s the thing:
Your resume is not your LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn is where you describe your day-to-day tasks in detail. Your resume is where you highlight specific, measurable accomplishments that prove you created value.
The Action Verb Strategy
Start every bullet point with a strong action verb. But choose verbs that match your seniority level.
For entry-level positions: Assisted, Supported, Contributed, Coordinated, Participated
For internships with responsibility: Developed, Created, Managed, Led, Executed
Using “spearheaded” when you were a junior team member comes across as exaggerated. Using “assisted with” when you actually led the project undersells your contribution. Match your language to reality.
Mention Your Wins: The Impact You Created
This is where good resumes become great ones. Most students list their responsibilities. Top candidates showcase their results.
1. Add Statistics That Prove Your Impact
Numbers create patterns that make your experience tangible and credible. They transform vague information into concrete proof of value. Compare these bullet points:
Weak: “Managed social media accounts for a local startup.”
Strong: “Grew Instagram following from 500 to 5,000+ in 6 months, increasing engagement rate by 340%”
The second version tells a story. It shows the impact created. Even if your numbers aren’t massive, include them. “Organized 3 fundraising events” is better than “organized fundraising events.”
When you’re building your bullet points, follow this formula:
Action verb + Task + Metric/Result
Not every bullet point will have a number, and that’s fine. But aim for at least 60-70% of your bullets to include quantifiable results.
2. Add Links to Your Best Work
You can prove your capabilities by linking directly to your work. Whether you built a financial model for a class project or designed marketing materials for a campus event, compile that work in a file and attach the link to your resumé.
Create a simple portfolio using GitHub or Google Sites if you’re in business, tech, or traditional fields. If you’re in creative industries, platforms like Behance, Canva, or Wix offer more design flexibility.
These links show your confidence in your work and give recruiters something concrete to discuss.
3. The LinkedIn Factor
Your LinkedIn profile serves a different purpose than your resume, but the two should work together. Think of your resume as the highlight reel and LinkedIn as the full story. Your resume gets you the interview, your LinkedIn profile is what recruiters check to verify you’re worth meeting.
Keep your LinkedIn updated at all times with more detailed descriptions of your experiences, recommendations from supervisors or professors, and additional projects or certifications that didn’t make it to your one-page resumé.
4. Add Relevant Certifications and Projects
Only include certifications and projects that are relevant to the positions you’re targeting. A Google Analytics certification matters for marketing roles. A basic Excel course probably doesn’t need listing if you’re applying to be a software engineer.
Remember: Quality beats quantity.
Three highly relevant projects are better than ten irrelevant experiences.
Resumé Pitfalls to Avoid
- Typos and grammatical errors. Run spellcheck, then read your resume out loud, then have someone else review it. A single typo signals carelessness.
- Listing “references available upon request.” This is outdated. Recruiters assume you have references and will ask for them if needed.
- Including irrelevant personal information. Your age and marital status don’t belong on your resumé.
For more on what to avoid, check out IBM’s guide on common resume mistakes.
Your resume is your ticket to opportunities that can shape your career. It deserves more than a rushed, template-filled version. Put in the work now to build a resume that opens doors, and watch the interview invitations start rolling in!
