Tips on Formatting a College Student Resume Objective

Many students have to overcome challenges when writing a resume for the first time in their life. If you don’t have enough experience, your resume certainly needs an impressive opening statement. Most often, students begin with a resume objective. However, summary statements become more common than opening statements. A summary statement can help you focus on what you can offer instead of what you want. It also serves as a brief introduction, drawing the attention of your potential employer. Check out these tips from college writers to write a good resume objective.

How Students Used to Write a Resume Objective

Your resume objective should be one sentence long and written from your perspective. However, your employer is likely to be aware of the information that you include in the objective, anyway. Given that the objective is so short, students often make this sentence too general and vague.

One sentence is aimed to introduce you and your career goals, as well as your key skills and the impact you’re going to make. Therefore, a resume objective provides too much information in one sentence, being ineffective. In addition, your goal may not be as important as your possible contribution, while the objective doesn’t allow you to set a higher priority for a particular type of information. Your resume must stand out, so we suggest that you use concrete examples and specific language to expand the introduction. A much more effective approach is to write a summary statement instead of a resume objective.

How to Write a College Student Resume Summary Statement

A summary statement gives you an opportunity to create a great first impression. Even though writing an objective may be easier because it’s only one sentence long, a resume summary is certainly more informative and meaningful. In addition, it can be up to six lines long. Therefore, you have more space to overview your experience, to list your main skills, and to provide some information on your personal qualities. You might wonder what to include in this section of your resume, as you don’t have much experience. This is an opportunity to approach your task creatively, focusing on the part-time experiences that helped you master certain skills, as well as your education.

For example, you might describe the skills that you’ve mastered in class. Keep in mind that your in-class experience could help you learn teamwork, working in a stressful environment, and meeting deadlines. Mention the software that you know and any group projects from the curriculum, as these tasks are aimed to prepare students for the workforce.

Given that you’re a student, you may not know what skills are actually relevant when applying to a particular position. To understand what skills you should include in the resume, look for similar job descriptions on the internet. These descriptions always contain the information on what tasks you need to be responsible for. Try to match these requirements with your skills. If you need any help with your resume, don’t be afraid to ask College-Writers.com for help!