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Back to school: updating your resumé for the fall in 5 easy steps

Published Date

Laptop,coffee cup, notepad and cell phone on a table.

Melissa Moubayed

by Melissa Moubayed

3rd-Year Student in Management (with a complementary option in Business Analytics)

For some of you, it may have been a little while since you have updated your resumé. Now that the fall term has begun, what better way to prepare for your job search than to add all the current, relevant information on your resumé. With many Career Centre employer events coming up, make sure your resumé is ready for potential opportunities by following these few simple steps.

  1. Include your most recent experiences

This past summer, some of you may have held an internship, a summer job, completed a CO-OP term, learned a new skill, completed a certification, gained a new interest, volunteered, etc. This is all valuable information to add to your resumé. When adding your newest experiences to your resumé, filter through the older information that perhaps is no longer relevant.

  1. Use keywords from the posting

With the rise in use of applicant tracking systems (ATS) by employers, many qualified candidates are not receiving the job interviews that they deserve. Although your experience and skills make you a great fit for a position, recruiters may never get to see it due to ATS not being able to capture certain keywords on your resumé. Therefore, make sure to edit your resumé based on the posting and include the keywords mentioned in the qualifications section.

  1. Include action verbs

When drafting a description for roles you have held, certain guidelines apply. Every skill statement (bullet point) should start with powerful, past-tense action verbs. You want to suggest that you led a project ? Start with verbs such as “coordinated”, “planned”, or “oversaw”. You want to highlight something you accomplished in your role? Use verbs like “achieved”, “generated”, or “maximized”. There are many informative articles online that can help you find the best action verbs to impress recruiters.

  1. Add measurable achievements

When adding new information, make sure to include measurable results. What does this mean? To highlight your customer service skills, instead of mentioning that you “answered all customer inquiries in a timely manner”, mention that you “responded to a high volume of customer inquiries within a 24 hour period, providing each customer with appropriate advice and solutions”. Quantifying your responsibilities will allow prospective recruiters to better understand what you can bring to the table.

  1. Edit the content (peer review committee, resumé critique at the Career Centre, etc.)

With every update/change comes proofreading. After reading over your resumé, have a few of your friends read it over to make sure that you did not miss any spelling mistakes, formatting errors, etc. If you think your resumé is all up to date, book a Resumé Critique appointment with the Professional Development Coordinator at the Career Centre through Career Launch.

Reminder: A resumé is a working document. You can always brainstorm ways to improve it by updating any relevant information.

Good luck with your fall resumé update!