Resume Tips for the New Graduate

College students and new graduates often feel they have nothing to include on a resume when conducting job search and for using with job applications. College students’ work experience is often seemingly unrelated to their job targets, and aside from that, the only information left to include is education. However, while this may seem like the case, it simply isn’t so!

Transferable Skills

One method of approaching a college student or new graduate resume is to focus on transferable skills. These skills are applicable to different situations. The ability to communicate well, for example, is a skill that is useful in any industry or position. Other transferable skills may include the ability to work well with numbers, sales skills, or an ability to solve problems by looking at the big picture. These are only a few examples.

How do you list transferable skills? There are a number of ways to include transferable skills in your resume, job application, and cover letter. The following are some tips for various sections of the resume.

The Summary or Profile

Objective statements are out. Profiles are in. Open with a brief introductory paragraph describing your most “sellable” points. Briefly list transferable skills here, or present them in a keyword summary list. This is exactly as it sounds: a list of keywords. Use those that show your transferable skills.

Education

Depending on your college major, you likely had to write papers, complete projects, or both. What were the outcomes of these? Did you conduct comprehensive research on a subject? Design an engineering plan? Were these published or put into use in the “real world”? Use as much of your educational experience to your advantage. You can also include a summary of coursework, which often demonstrates transferable skills that are used in the educational setting and in the world of business.

Employment History

Many college students have a work history unrelated to their targeted field. If this is true for you, take heart. You can include many transferable skills on your college or new graduate resume. At the most basic, you likely gained professional skills such as dependability, working with others, collaborating on projects, communicating with clients or customers, and much more. Your work history may not be as unrelated as it first seems.

Additional Information

Any volunteer work or memberships may lead to transferable skills. Just as your employment history helps you learn transferable skills, so too does volunteer work. It also demonstrates a commitment to helping others. If you’ve fulfilled any roles in a professional organization, this too can show transferable (and sometimes directly related) skills.

When you take the time to thoroughly review your experience, education, and other related activities, you will discover a number of transferable skills. Use these to your advantage! Your resume, college application, job application, or cover letter will be much stronger for it.

If you’ve just graduated from college or high school and want to accumulate job experience, hit your computer and find an internship online. An internship is a pre-professional, usually unpaid, job that provides students, recent graduates, and people hoping to change careers with experience in a particular career field. For students, internships can also offer college credit. If you’re thinking of transitioning into a new career field, find an internship as a way to try out a new job without making a permanent commitment.

If you’re in college, you visit your college’s Career Services office, or ask if they have a program helping students find an internship. If your college arranges to find an internship for students, they may have a web page where you can check out internships online. These internships are geared specifically toward students from your college, so you may find a perfect fit on just one visit to the site.

There are also websites designed to act as search engines just to help you find an internship. One of those, MonsterTrak.com, is not only an exhaustive job listing database, it also offers an internship database – all you need to do is enter “internship” in the search field. If you’re a current student or a college graduate, call your school’s career counseling office to find out if your college is partnered with MonsterTrak – if they are, they can provide you with a password. Also try sites that let you find an internship – Internweb.com, one of many such sites, has a search feature that lets you to specify location, industry, job function, and even the time of year you’d like to do your internship.

If you’re a recent college graduate looking for work experience or even an older adult hoping to change careers, seriously consider an internship to get the work experience you need – or just to find out if you really want to work in that field at all. A surprising number of industries, from computer tech and banking to the restaurant business and law, offer internships for work experience and even college credit. They offer a chance for those new to a particular field to gain experience while working under mentors who know the business inside and out. Find an internship the same way you would hunt for a job – just specify that you’re looking for an internship online, rather than a permanent position.

Remember that commercial you heard on the radio the other day? The one with the catchy jingle that you can’t get out of your head? That’s good marketing! Take notes from that on how to create a resume that will make an impression on employers. Much like commercials or ads…resumes need to grab the attention of the reader! When writers are planning commercials for print, television, or radio, they focus on finding a ‘hook’ that will get inside your head . You should do he same thing When writing your resume.

In fact you have to write a resume that captures the attention of the hiring manager within the first couple of seconds otherwise your resume will be tossed. Resume writing allows you a creative freedom that many people don’t bother using when they create resumes for their job search. You can’t be completely off-the-wall with your resume, you can still e craft a resume that is as catchy as that new commercial and maintain your professional image.

Gather together your information and make sure that you have a copy of the job listing. The copy of the job listing will help you with this. You can read over it for keywords, or to see where the employer places the emphasis in the listing, so that you know what aspects of your skills and training they are interested in hearing about. The resume doesn’t have to give your life story, it simply has to intrigue the hiring manager enough that you get called in for an interview. Now this doesn’t mean to leave them hanging. On the contrary, you need to be sure that you provide all of the requested information, as well as a full list of your employment history and educational background.

There is a delicate balance between providing a professional looking resume and building a creative resume. Keep that professionalism in mind while you write, you can take the creativity to whatever extent possible, while still maintaining integrity in your resume writing. Many people feel like they are simply recording a documented history of their experience, you are really creating history in your resume. Your resume is the one place where you can list your job experiences the way that YOU want, to give you the best chance at landing the job.

Nothing I have written above means or insinuates that you should lie. In Fact…NEVER lie on a resume; it will come back to haunt you. Being creative in language and phrasing etc. is a far cry from telling lies. For example, instead of saying “Assistant Manager”, you could say something along the lines of “Assistant Manager of Human Resources and Employee Relations.”   This gives a much clearer idea of what you actually did at your job than the first example.

Finding your first job out of college is an exciting and sometimes intimidating process. On the one hand, your future depends on it! You may be faced with new expenses such as rent, food, and student loan payments, and feeling the pressure to find the “perfect” job. On the other hand, today’s workplace is much different from that of your parents’ generation. The average person changes careers multiple times during his or her work history. Does this mean you should take your first job out of college lightly? Not at all—it simply means that you can stop worrying, and focus your energies on finding the best possible job for you at this time.

Know What You’re Looking For

If you haven’t yet identified your job target, now is the time to do so! Take advantage of your school’s career services and job placement opportunities. These services exist for one reason: to help you in your career. Most career services offices offer a variety of assessment tools to help you determine your best career option. For some college students, this may mean a career outside of your major. For other students, this may mean identifying a specific career within the larger field of study.

Do Your Research

Finding your ideal job takes effort. It’s not enough to simply post your resume, job application, and cover letter on the Internet and wait for employers to come calling. If you want to find the best job, you need to engage all your resources. Research the types of companies you want to work for and find out as much about them as possible. Use your network of friends and associates and a variety of job-search tools, including the Internet, classifieds, state and government postings, job fairs, cold calling, and placement agencies and recruiters (although be wary of any agencies or recruiters that charge a fee).

A new survey of the ‘Digital Generation’ has been launched today by workplace experts Career Innovation in partnership with AIESEC, the world’s largest student-run organization. The research will track people’s use of new technology, analyze their motivation and enable students to find out about careers that match their profile. It is based on young people’s increasing expectation that work should be fun as well as well-paid.“This survey will help us to see the technologies our members are using, and will show us how we need to evolve as an organization to keep up with the digital generation,” says Emanuel Gavert, Global Networks Manager from AIESEC International. “The results will also give us insight in attracting more technical students into AIESEC.”

Developed by research and technology firm Career Innovation, the Digital Generation Survey will assess people’s use of technology for learning, working and leisure. This will allow universities, employers and technology companies to monitor trends in technology and make predictions about the future world of work.

“It is hard to judge how social networking, interactive games and the increasing portability of technology will affect the way we work” commented Jonathan Winter, Founder of Career Innovation, “But we can be sure of one thing – wherever young people set the pace on technology issues, employers will have to follow. So it is vital that employers and technology providers watch these trends closely.”

The survey analyzes motivation by using models from the computer gaming industry. As a result, every respondent receives a personalized “fun profile” revealing where they get their energy, in work and leisure. It then provides example matches to specific jobs that might interest them, based on this profile.

By taking part participants will also be supporting two charities that help young people. Leading hotel group Marriott International has kindly agreed to donate $2 for every completed survey (up to the first 5,000 responses). Two IBLF charities will benefit equally: Youth Career Initiative and Digital Partnership.

The survey will be run amongst 25,000 AIESEC members across 100 countries during January and February 2008. The results are expected to be announced in Sao Paulo at the AIESEC International Congress, August 2008.

The Global Sponsors of the 2008 Digital Generation Survey are: Marriott International, UBS and Unilever.

Have you taken an online course? If the answer is no, chances are you will within one year. In fact, by early this year one in 10 college students is expected to enroll in an online degree program according to Eduventures, a research and consulting firm for the education industry. The Internet is revolutionizing the education world, making a high-quality education more accessible than ever. To help students connect with online education, eLearners.com, an EducationDynamics website, offers comprehensive resources and a community for prospective online learners, as well as listings for more than 2,500 online degrees and more than 6,000 online courses. By going to school online, people can get their degree without having to drive to class or follow a strict schedule. An online education allows them to study anywhere, anytime and at their own pace. Once they receive their degree, it usually results in financial rewards. According to economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, for each additional year of school completed, an individual’s earnings increase, on average, about 11 percent.

“Online learning has become a mainstream way to go back to college because it is a convenient way to achieve the education one needs to advance in their career,” said Terrence Thomas, Chief Marketing Officer for eLearners.com. “The question we at eLearners.com get most often is how to select the right online college and program from the thousands of offerings available.”

With online education being more a question of “when” versus “if” for prospective students, here are the top five considerations before selecting an online college:

1. Is the Online College Accredited?
The most important aspect any student should look into is accreditation. If a student receives an online degree from a non-accredited institution they may find that their degree is not recognized by some employers or that a course they took may not transfer to other institutions. Accreditation is a validation process, but unlike the practices of most other countries, the United States government does not ensure all online colleges are accredited. eLearners.com offers degrees from only accredited online universities and colleges.

2. What is the Credit Transfer Policy?
Every online college and university has a different credit transfer policy. It is important for students who already have earned some college credits to make sure they understand the credit transfer policy before beginning an online program. Check with the institution to clarify any questions about transfer requirements, so no surprises arise.

3. What are the Financial Aid Options?
When researching an online college it is important to look into the institution’s financial aid options. According to a 2003-04 report by the National Center for Education Statistics, 63 percent of all undergraduates receive some type of financial aid. Financial aid options include scholarships, work-study programs, grants, loans and loan-forgiveness programs. The eLearners.com Student Loans and Financial Aid Center includes the Debt-Free College Guide with more than 500 financing options and $15 billion in financial aid, as well as a loan buying guide.

4. Is Your Learning Style Suited for an Online Education?
Although an online education is the ideal way to learn for millions of people, it doesn’t fit everyone’s learning style. Before starting an online degree program it is important to make sure online learning is conducive to your lifestyle. eLearners.com has created the eLearners Advisor to help students determine if online learning is right for them. The Advisor is an assessment that through a series of targeted questions ranging from technology access and skills, to personal motivation and learning styles can help prospective elearners determine if online learning is right for them. The site is located at http://www.elearners.com/advisor/

5. Do you have Support from your Family and Employer?
In order for students to do their best academically, they need to have the backing of those closest to them. Make sure to talk about the impact of going to school and how things might be different around the house. In addition, it’s important for students to make sure they have buy-in from their employer and that their manager will support them if they spend their lunch hour catching up on a paper or answering a discussion question for their class.

“An online education suits millions of people perfectly, but like everything else thorough research must go into choosing an online college,” continued Thomas. “Getting an online degree is a decision that shouldn’t be taken lightly and one that will have a tremendous impact on a student’s life, likely improving their career, confidence and salary.”

For more information about online colleges, log onto http://www.elearners.com

About eLearners.com®
The eLearners.com website is one of several high visibility, high-quality prospecting tools offered by EducationDynamics, LLC. Since 1999, eLearners.com has been successfully connecting learners to online education, including online degree and certificate programs, specialized career training, and a variety of online courses. For prospective students, eLearners® provides a powerful search engine for users to find thousands of online degrees, as well as educational evaluation tools and financial aid resources. For colleges and universities, the eLearners.com website offers a low-cost, performance-based method to provide national exposure and increase enrollments in their programs. For more information on eLearners.com, visit http://www.elearners.com

About EducationDynamics
EducationDynamics, LLC, a portfolio company of Halyard Capital, is a leading interactive marketing and information services company focused on helping higher education institutions find, enroll and retain students. Through some of the most visible education websites, including EarnMyDegree.com, eLearners.com, GradSchools.com, and StudyAbroad.com, as well as its Internet marketing services team, EducationDynamics is one of the leading providers of qualified leads for colleges and universities. The company offers a full suite of web-delivered products and services to manage a school’s relationship with students across their entire life cycle from inquiry through enrollment to retention. For more information on EducationDynamics, please visit http://www.educationdynamics.com

Melissa Giovagnoli, President of Networlding, is giving the gift of a strong career start to recent graduates. Networlding’s “101 Ways to Networld” tips booklet. This valuable information will help young adults properly network for meaningful jobs, and can be delivered online at www.networlding.com.

Networlding’s goal is to help recent graduates learn how to network wisely and to reach the best place for them in the world of work. Melissa Giovagnoli believes there is a tremendous gap between the academic degrees that students earn, and the realities and support that graduates get when it’s time to actually go out and find a job. Many times they don’t know where to begin. Recent graduates, or students getting ready to graduate, can go to our site and sign up to receive our free book. The Networlding tips booklet is a $10 value, and will be highly beneficial to any student entering the workforce.

“I’m excited about helping young adults get their first jobs – getting a ‘smart start,’” says Giovagnoli. “With over 2 million students graduating with bachelors, associates, and graduate degrees each year who are entering the workforce, this offer can make a difference by providing a practical education in networking. If every student takes advantage of this offer—which we hope they do, the total value of our offering would exceed $20 million.”

Giovagnoli is the author and/or co-author of 11 books on networking and related subjects. “My intention is to build a community of learning and practice that will start with young adults new to the working world, but also will include lots of mentoring from top business leaders,” Giovagnoli says. For further information on Networlding programs, products and services, visit www.networlding.com.

About Networlding:
Networlding offers a seven-step networking system that accelerates goal achievement. Additionally, the unique, growing Networlding community enables its members to create successful professional relationships for business and career development, marketing and leadership growth. Networlding builds value-based networks that help grow businesses and careers that create a lifetime of success.

Many Americans take time to reflect on their lives while spending time with friends and family during the holiday season and it is traditionally popular to make resolutions for the coming New Year. A common resolution involves either career advancement or finding a new job. For those who haven’t looked for a new job in while, the many resources available today can seem a bit overwhelming- but it doesn’t have to be. The online employment community at Jobing.com has developed this guide to help those who will seek a new job in 2008. Probe. The first step is to take stock of your current employment situation and identify specific goals for yourself; do you want to look for a new job or go for a promotion at your current employer? What is it about your current situation that you want to change and why? Before engaging your time and energy, it is a good idea to identify a specific career goal for yourself.

Prioritize. After you’ve identified a specific career goal (or goals), it is important to decide what factors are the most important to you in your job search by thinking about common questions such as: are you simply looking to make more money or is salary negotiable? Are you ready to make the next move up the ladder in your career or is a lateral move more realistic? Are you willing to relocate- if not how far away are you willing to commute? Are you going to stay within your current industry or is it time for you to try something new? Identifying those things most important to you upfront will help guide your job search and keep you focused on those positions that seem to fit your priorities best.

Project. For many job seekers, projecting into the future is helpful in identifying steps needed in order to get where you want to be- envision the ideal position you’d like to be in. What do you want to be doing in 5 years? What is that dream job you’d like to have and what qualifications will you need to land it? Whether it is experience, education, or a promotion, there are a variety of factors that can influence your ability to land the ideal job in the future; identifying these factors will help make that dream job a reality.

Plan. You have your goals and priorities identified and now it’s time to outline your action plan. Is your resume updated? Do you have current references? What job search resources can you use to search for a new position? How much time can you devote to your search every week?

Persistence. Whatever resources you use or advice you receive, remember there is no “magic bullet,” no one single answer to finding the job you love. Your job search is a process that requires your passion, diligence and the flexibility to continue to improve your approach. Follow up interviews with thank you notes and network as much as possible to help you identify good opportunities.

For more information and job seeking advice, visit at www.jobing.com.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Local experts are available for interviews (including New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day), to share these tips and general job searching advice for people who are making resolutions to find a new job in 2008. Contact Joe Cockrell to schedule at (602) 516-5537.

The ISM Spa Management Program is offered via self-paced, distance education, allowing students the ability to keep a full-time job and still study towards a rewarding spa industry career. Payment plans and scholarship opportunities are available for all students.

Brooklyn, NY (PRWEB) December 27, 2007 — The ISM Spa Management Program is offered via self-paced, distance education, allowing students the ability to keep a full-time job and still study towards a rewarding spa industry career. Payment plans and scholarship opportunities are available for all students.

Across the spa industry, in North America and around the globe, one of the greatest hurdles is figuring out how to manage clients, revenues and business growth in a competitive industry that is continually shifting, changing and evolving. There simply are not enough qualified spa managers to meet the need, and this very subject was a major topic of discussion at the Global Spa Summit in May, 2007. Offering training via distance education to students worldwide, The Institute of Spa Management is committed to educating the spa industry, one professional at a time.

In 2007, the Institute of Spa Management received more than 9,500 requests for the Spa Management Program curriculum outline; reported full enrollment for August through December, and awarded more than $40,000 in full and partial scholarships.

Abby Cavanaugh, Director of Admissions and Student Services, “It takes a trained business professional to juggle spa operations, marketing, demanding clients and a diverse team of spa professionals. We don’t teach massage therapy; nor will we teach students to be an aesthetician or a skin care therapist. We challenge each management student to be a world class leader, via current management teaching models, theories and processes that are used by MBA graduates and CEO’s all over the globe, but which ISM has customized to meet the unique management needs of the spa industry worldwide. We only teach Spa Management and our expertise becomes our students.”

At the Institute of Spa Management, the organization’s primary goal is to further the spa industry through quality management education and professional training for adults. Information about programs, courses and scholarships is available by visiting http://www.spacollege.org

About Institute of Spa Management

Institute of Spa Management (ISM) offers high quality distance education programs and courses at reasonable prices in a dynamic format that enables learning and knowledge retention. ISM believes that the future of the spa industry belongs to those who treat clients with the highest level of integrity and provide cutting edge services in well run facilities.

Joining the ranks of over 50 colleges and universities, students of four new schools were selected by Honor Roll Online for inclusion of this unique virtual recruitment site. The new schools include Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, California Institute of Technology, Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts and Lehigh University of Pennsylvania.Each is considered a best-in-class college or university in a respective field of study and offers some of the nation’s best graduates to corporate recruiters seeking the cream of the crop.

Honor Roll has consolidated the student population of these top small colleges, universities and scholarship foundations in the United States to offer its corporate affiliates the ability to create and execute successful, cost-effective recruiting campaigns. By developing relationships with schools and students that rival most large campuses, HRO can provide corporate recruiters not only a direct communication pipeline to the most qualified and motivated candidates, but the tools to attract, identify, qualify, interview and hire them. Visit our website for more information.

Learn more about Honor Roll at HonorRollOnline.com.

What can Honor Roll do for you?

As America’s premiere provider of professional career services for superior small schools, Honor Roll Online provides you with direct access to industry-leading companies who believe your education is a valuable asset and you are a viable, attractive candidate for positions within their organization. Honor Roll Online corporate partners appreciate the depth of experience and learning you’ve already achieved and the level of commitment you’ve already demonstrated.

Although they may be unable to physically visit your campus, HRO companies visit your school virtually on a regular basis to identify and recruit the best possible candidates for their positions. Once you’ve enrolled with Honor Roll Online, don’t be surprised if companies you never thought you’d hear from contact you directly via the HRO Message Center. This simple, sophisticated and secure system allows HRO corporate partners to review your resume, request your references, pose career inquiries and schedule phone screens or web-cam interviews for internships, co-ops and permanent positions.

At the same time, you receive exclusive access to company information compiled specifically for our candidates - including special programs, unique job postings, virtual career events and other resources. In short, our corporate partners recognize Honor Roll Online candidates as some of the best and brightest in the country - and welcome your interest in them.