Crafting a Standout Resume: Grads With A Bachelor’s Degree

Most col­leges don’t do a great job with job mar­ket prep. In fact, you might get through col­lege with­out ever learn­ing to write a resume. While col­leges teach a lot of impor­tant stuff, they often for­get about prac­ti­cal things like this. Writ­ing a resume is super impor­tant for get­ting a job, but many stu­dents grad­u­ate with­out know­ing how to do it. This can leave them feel­ing unpre­pared when they start look­ing for work. Col­leges need to do more to help stu­dents get ready for the real world after grad­u­a­tion. But in the mean­time, I’d like to use my place at Bachelor’s Degree Cen­ter to tell you the best tips for craft­ing an impres­sive bach­e­lor’s degree resume.

As a for­mer col­lege writ­ing cen­ter direc­tor, I helped many stu­dents with their resumes. I under­stand how impor­tant resumes are for get­ting a job. Whether you’re a high school senior, a par­ent help­ing your child apply for col­lege, or a col­lege stu­dent about to grad­u­ate, know­ing how to write a good resume is cru­cial. In this guide, I’ll share tips specif­i­cal­ly for cre­at­ing a win­ning resume for bach­e­lor’s graduates.

First pub­lished in March 2024. All data was accu­rate at time of publication.

Resume Writing Guide for Bachelor’s Degree Holders

When I was a writ­ing cen­ter direc­tor, the tough­est part for new grad­u­ates when writ­ing their resumes was not hav­ing job expe­ri­ence. This made them unsure about how to show their qual­i­fi­ca­tions well. But, what I liked most was help­ing them see how their aca­d­e­m­ic achieve­ments, activ­i­ties out­side of class, and skills they could use in dif­fer­ent jobs were valu­able. By high­light­ing these things in their resumes, they could prove they were ready for work even if they had­n’t had many jobs yet.

One thing I often sug­gest­ed was talk­ing about class­es they took that relat­ed to the jobs they want­ed. I also told them to men­tion any intern­ships, vol­un­teer work, or part-time jobs they had that gave them use­ful skills. Even being part of clubs or lead­ing activ­i­ties on cam­pus could show they were good at work­ing with oth­ers and tak­ing on responsibilities.

I also told them to include num­bers when they could to show what they achieved. This could be things like their grades, rank­ings in class, or results from projects or vol­un­teer work. Adding num­bers made their achieve­ments more impres­sive and eas­i­er for employ­ers to remember.

Over­all, even though not hav­ing much job expe­ri­ence might seem hard, with the right help and think­ing dif­fer­ent­ly about their skills, new grad­u­ates could make resumes that showed they were a good fit for the jobs they wanted.

Relat­ed Resource:

Col­lege Intern­ships: The Impor­tance of Real-World Experience

Bachelor’s Degree Net­work­ing: The Impor­tance of Build­ing Career Connections

Resume Tips: Basic Resume Writing for Recent Graduates

When it comes to writ­ing a resume, there are some things that are true no mat­ter what kind of resume you’re writ­ing. Your resume should be easy to read and under­stand quick­ly. Make sure to include only rel­e­vant infor­ma­tion that relates to the job you want. Check every­thing for mis­takes before you send it out. 

If you fol­low these rules, you’ll have a good resume that gets noticed by employers. 

• Keep it Short: Try to make your resume fit on one page. This makes it clear and rel­e­vant. Focus on the most impor­tant stuff to get the recruiter’s attention.
• Sim­ple Lay­out: Choose a neat, pro­fes­sion­al design with clear head­ings and bul­let points. Employ­ers like well-orga­nized resumes that look professional.
• Show Rel­e­vant Expe­ri­ence: Talk about expe­ri­ences that relate direct­ly to the job. This could be intern­ships, part-time jobs, vol­un­teer­ing, or impor­tant projects from your class­es. High­light what you achieved to show off your skills and what you can bring to the job.
• High­light Trans­fer­able Skills: Talk about skills you’ve gained through school, activ­i­ties, and any jobs you’ve had. These skills, like com­mu­ni­ca­tion, team­work, lead­er­ship, prob­lem-solv­ing, and time man­age­ment, are real­ly impor­tant to employers.
• Check for Mis­takes: Go through your resume care­ful­ly to catch any spelling or gram­mar errors. It’s also help­ful to get feed­back from men­tors or career advi­sors to make your resume even better.

Resume Tips: Highlighting Academic Achievements and Extracurriculars

Craft­ing an impres­sive bach­e­lor’s degree resume is dif­fer­ent from reg­u­lar resumes, too. For recent grad­u­ates, it’s about show­ing what you’ve learned in school and any oth­er activ­i­ties you’ve been involved in. You might not have much work expe­ri­ence yet, so you have to high­light oth­er things like intern­ships or projects you worked on. It’s impor­tant to focus on the skills you’ve gained, like prob­lem-solv­ing and com­mu­ni­ca­tion, and show how they relate to the job you’re apply­ing for. 

Here are some of the things you should keep in mind when it comes to writ­ing a resume as a new graduate. 

• Edu­ca­tion Sec­tion: Put your aca­d­e­m­ic achieve­ments first. Include your degree, major, uni­ver­si­ty, grad­u­a­tion date, and any awards you got. This part shows what you’ve studied.
• Rel­e­vant Course­work: Cus­tomize your resume by talk­ing about class­es that relate to the job you want. This is espe­cial­ly impor­tant if you don’t have much work expe­ri­ence yet. It shows you’re ready for the job.
• Extracur­ric­u­lar Activ­i­ties: Talk about any clubs you were in, lead­er­ship roles you had, vol­un­teer work you did, or hob­bies you’re pas­sion­ate about. These things show what you’re like out­side of class.
• Projects and Research: High­light any big projects, research papers, or pre­sen­ta­tions you worked on. This shows you’re curi­ous, good at think­ing crit­i­cal­ly, and can solve problems.

Resume Tips: Tailoring Resumes for Specific Job Applications

One thing about resume writ­ing that a lot of peo­ple for­get is that you can’t just send the same resume to every job. Every job is look­ing for some­thing a lit­tle dif­fer­ent. Tai­lor­ing your resume to each job you apply for is cru­cial. This means adjust­ing your resume to high­light the skills and expe­ri­ences that are most rel­e­vant to the spe­cif­ic job and com­pa­ny you’re apply­ing to. 

By cus­tomiz­ing your resume for each appli­ca­tion, you show employ­ers that you’ve tak­en the time to under­stand their needs and that you’re gen­uine­ly inter­est­ed in the posi­tion. It also increas­es your chances of mak­ing a pos­i­tive impres­sion and land­ing an inter­view. So, take the time to per­son­al­ize your resume for each job opportunity—it could make all the dif­fer­ence in your job search success.

• Research and Cus­tomize: Before you write your resume, learn about the job and the com­pa­ny. This helps you make your resume fit the job bet­ter. Under­stand­ing what the employ­er wants lets you per­son­al­ize your resume to stand out.
• Use Key­words: When you write your resume, use words from the job descrip­tion. This helps your resume get noticed by com­put­er sys­tems many com­pa­nies use. Using the right words makes it eas­i­er for recruiters to find your resume and see you’re a good match.
• Tell Them What You Want: Write a short state­ment about your goals. Make sure it match­es what the com­pa­ny wants. This shows you’re real­ly inter­est­ed in the job and starts your appli­ca­tion off on a good note.

Bachelor’s Degree Resume Examples

If you’re not sure what to do with your resume, it helps to look at some exam­ples. Here’s a resume for a recent com­put­er sci­ence graduate: 

Jane Smith

456 Oak Avenue, Tech City, USA | (555) 987‑6543 | email@email.com

Objec­tive:

Recent col­lege grad­u­ate with a Bach­e­lor’s degree in Com­put­er Sci­ence seek­ing an entry-lev­el posi­tion in soft­ware devel­op­ment. Eager to apply aca­d­e­m­ic knowl­edge and gain prac­ti­cal expe­ri­ence in a dynam­ic tech environment.

Edu­ca­tion:

Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence in Com­put­er Science

Tech Uni­ver­si­ty, Tech City, USA

Grad­u­at­ed: May 2024

Rel­e­vant Coursework:

• Intro­duc­tion to Programming
• Data Struc­tures and Algorithms
• Web Devel­op­ment
• Data­base Man­age­ment Systems

Expe­ri­ence:

Soft­ware Devel­op­ment Intern | Tech Solu­tions, Tech City, USA | Sum­mer 2023

• Con­tributed to the devel­op­ment of web appli­ca­tions using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
• Assist­ed in debug­ging and test­ing soft­ware solutions
• Col­lab­o­rat­ed with team mem­bers on var­i­ous cod­ing projects

Tech­ni­cal Sup­port Assis­tant | Tech Sup­port Ser­vices, Tech City, USA | Part-time dur­ing college

• Pro­vid­ed tech­ni­cal assis­tance to cus­tomers via phone and email
• Resolved soft­ware and hard­ware issues effi­cient­ly and effectively
• Doc­u­ment­ed trou­bleshoot­ing pro­ce­dures for future reference

Skills:

• Pro­fi­cient in pro­gram­ming lan­guages: Java, Python, HTML, CSS, JavaScript
• Famil­iar­i­ty with data­base man­age­ment sys­tems (SQL)
• Strong prob­lem-solv­ing and ana­lyt­i­cal skills
• Excel­lent com­mu­ni­ca­tion and team­work abilities
• Detail-ori­ent­ed and high­ly organized

Extracur­ric­u­lar Activities:

• Mem­ber, Asso­ci­a­tion for Com­put­ing Machin­ery (ACM)
• Vol­un­teer, Girls Who Code men­tor­ship program

Ref­er­ences:

Avail­able upon request

I’ve helped many stu­dents improve their resumes. I know how impor­tant resumes are for your career. By fol­low­ing the tips in this guide, you can stand out to employ­ers. Show off your achieve­ments, tai­lor your resume to each job, and make sure it reflects who you are. Your resume is your chance to shine, so put in the effort to make it great.

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