Resumes that Impress a Campus Recruiter

Step into a Recruiter's Shoes to Help Put Your Best Foot Forward at Interview Time

By Calvin Bruce

Imagine that you are a corporate recruiter interviewing on campus for several entry-level positions with your company, a leading Fortune 500 corporation. The campus career services office has scheduled brief afternoon interviews with a dozen seniors interested in your company. By request, you have obtained their resumes to look over during lunch.

What exactly do you expect to see prior to speaking one-on-one with the aspiring job seekers?

General Appearance

For starters, the general appearance of the resumes always gets your attention. You notice that several resumes belonging to females are printed on pastel-colored paper with a typeface that’s more appropriate for a wedding invitation. Not a good sign. Don’t these young women realize how important it is to convey a sense of professional decorum when setting forth their qualifications in print?

Three other resumes stand out in an unfavorable way. One is printed in brown ink on yellow paper. Another one shows verbiage in a font so large that it makes the entire resume look gaudy. A third resume is printed on light green stock with an African kente motif border all the way around. Although colorful, it’s more suited for bulletin board announcements at Afro House than for presentation to corporate America.

Glancing at some of the other resumes leaves you equally disenchanted with the prospect of interviewing the students offering them. One of them has glaring spelling and syntax errors. Another one has a strange layout. Although the student majored in Fine Arts, the “cutesy” layout does not earn her any points as a desirable candidate for a major employer. Several other resumes evidence an appealing layout – with no apparent errors – but show some smudges and very faint ink, as though the printers that produced them were low on toner. Minor things like that certainly stand out to the discerning eye.

To your pleasant surprise, the three remaining resumes are quite impressive. They are printed on quality white paper, with an appealing layout and attractive font. Reading them quickly, you don’t detect any errors. It’s obvious these students took the time to produce a quality literary product that represents them well as prospective candidates. You set aside these documents for further attention.

Academic Preparation

Obviously, your firm is going to hire people, not pieces of paper. So, with a forgiving spirit, you look more closely at the content of the resumes to detect what the students really have to offer in terms of academic preparation.

Half of the resumes don’t indicate any GPA at all. The other half note GPAs of 3.0 or better. Four of the resumes in the latter category, in fact, indicate GPAs of 3.6, 3.7, 3.8 and 3.9, with student memberships in leading academic honorary societies. Certainly these are notable achievements that indicate significant “brain power,” something that all companies look for when hiring junior-level employees.

Ironically, two of the resumes highlighting the top grade point averages were not included among those in the most impressive category in terms of general appearance. One was the brown-on- yellow document; the other was the kente-motif resume. Gee, that complicates things a bit. You certainly can’t nix these students as viable candidates based upon initial visual impressions of their resumes.

The remaining two academically superior students presented resumes that fit the standard style. As neat, easy to- read documents, they landed in the “most favorable” pile from the outset.

Another important consideration is the level of difficulty associated with the student’s course of study. Earning a 3.2 GPA in a rigorous, academically challenging major is more impressive than getting higher grades in a course of study filled with “easy” electives.

Demonstrated Leadership

Corporate recruiters seek graduates who have demonstrated leadership in college. They know that they are likely to become employees who show initiative, work well in a team environment, and generally excel in their areas of contribution to the organization. Putting aside how the resumes look, you glance over each one to see what evidence there is of notable leadership qualities. With highlighter in hand, you mark the things that catch your eye in terms of exceptional leadership. Among them are these claims on various resumes:

• Captain of the wrestling team and co-captain of the varsity football team

• President of high school student council and college student governance committee

• Assistant editor of college newspaper and editor-in-chief of the college yearbook

• Student coordinator of the statewide campaign of a national Presidential candidate

• Organizer of campus-and-community relief effort following Hurricane Katrina

• Eagle Scout leader of an inner-city Boy Scout troop

• Recruitment chair for a Big Sister program involving girls from migrant communities

Work Experience

Corporate recruiters turn a critical eye toward work experience discussed on a resume. Admittedly, recruiters don’t expect to see the same level of work experience as they would when perusing the resumes of seasoned professionals. Nevertheless, they do look for indications of personal industriousness in the employment arena.

In particular, recruiters take note of internship and co-op work experiences. Even one summer or semester of work at a prominent corporation or nonprofit organization related to the student’s major is viewed favorably. Several such occupational experiences speak well of a student’s preparation to enter the work arena.

Suppose the student only worked at minimal-wage jobs, such as flipping burgers. Such jobs are certainly not glorious by any means. But they do allow students to develop a good work ethic and demonstrate innate leadership skills. Furthermore, as a recent ad campaign of a fast food restaurant chain points out, some very famous people in various walks of life begin their work history by asking customers, “Would you like to super-size those fries?”

The key question is, did the student advance on the job? For instance, advancing from cashier to team leader to night manager signifies a good work ethic, ability to handle responsibility, personal ambition and managerial ability. These are important traits for any entry-level position with major corporations.

With these thoughts in mind, you review the resumes for signs of notable work experience. Again, you highlight some impressive resume content:

• Internship with two leading accounting firms

• Three semesters of co-op work with a prominent engineering firm

• Evening supervisor at a popular restaurant chain

• Internship in Washington with a distinguished U.S. Senator

• Summer work with a Habitat for Humanity project in the Gulf region

• Part-time sales associate with upscale retailer

• Laboratory assistant with an AIDS research organization

Special Talents

In making highly selective job offers, employers like to feel that they are bringing into the corporate family individuals who stand head-and-shoulders above their peers. In addition to strong academic preparation and leadership traits – along with an impressive work history – candidates who exhibit special talents typically receive extra favorable consideration during the hiring process.

What special talents are indicated on the dozen resumes you have at your disposal? These specialized abilities stand out:

• Concert pianist with numerous competition awards

• Fluency in several languages

• Designed software programs that were purchased by a software manufacturer

• Won national trophies for debate team competition

• Entrepreneurial success in starting a campus moving service

• Youth minister with fastest-growing church in the state

• Filmmaker with video productions on “environmental racism”

Overall Evaluations

As your lunch hour comes to an end, you decide to give a preliminary evaluation to all the resumes. Those placed in category #3 are least impressive. Category #2 includes resumes that pique your interest and deserve further review. And those placed in category #1 are the most appealing overall.

It remains to be seen how favorably the young men and women will present themselves during an actual interview. But even before meeting the candidates face-to-face, you draw certain initial impressions of them based upon their resumes’ appearance and content.

Looking over those in the top tier, you painstakingly select the one that is the most exceptional. All things considered, this student seems to have the most to offer as a prospective hire. What stands out the most on her resume are these accomplishments:

• 3.7 GPA

• Concert pianist at age 13

• Internship at several top-tier accounting firms

• Fluency in French and Japanese

• Student organizer of post-Hurricane Katrina relief effort

• Impressive resume format and error free Copy

If this student interviews as well as she presents herself on paper, it’s quite likely that she will be invited to corporate headquarters for daylong interviewing. Her candidacy will be the benchmark against which others’ will be compared.

Having finished your lunch, you gather the resumes and proceed to the placement office to interview these young, ambitious students who are eager to speak with you about career opportunities. It should be an interesting afternoon!

Calvin Bruce is an Atlanta freelancer and frequent contributor to THE BLACK COLLEGIAN.