How New Grads Can Showcase Their Career Value

By Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter

Most new graduates undersell their value. University career services, friends and family cite staid resume rules that stifle their message. Moreover, old-school traditionalist formats and content strategies still pervade the Internet, school halls and libraries.

As such, students on the precipice of their careers, armed with freshly minted degrees often shortchange their job search by building a lackluster, conformist and outdated resume strategy. Following are three ways to break through the resume barriers strangling your new-grad job search to create a gleaming and compelling story.

1. Treat Your Resume as a Marketing Document. Selling your value starts early in your career. In fact, if you’ve been involved in internships, active in campus fraternities, sororities, athletics or other clubs and affiliations, then, in addition to your good grades and completion of your four-year degree, you have a multiplicity of activities to sort through to articulate your value. For many, part-time (or even full-time) jobs during the school year or summer breaks also offer meaty achievements stories that should brighten your resume, grabbing the attention of your target readers.

This person was the captain of his basketball team. Instead of just simply listing his role as captain, ABC University Basketball Team, he teased out his achievements stories, as in the following example:

• Turnaround Leadership: Transformed 3-game losing streak into 4-game winning stretch by methodically identifying and implementing change through meetings with coaches and team, aligning everyone with go-forward action plan.

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