A couple weeks ago, Salma and I attended a “Career Fair Prep Workshop” with the help of the Guinean Student Association. Mamoudou, the speaker of the event, and the students who run the association were extremely friendly and helpful. I brought in my well-written resume thinking I wouldn’t need much fixing, but I was wrong.
Mamoudou explained that your resume should be visually aesthetic to make it easier for the interviewer and to have 3 main subjects: education, experience, and skills.
To start off, your resume should be 0.25″ margin all around as well as have your name in a bigger font than the rest of the resume. In the following line, include your current address, phone number, and your school email rather than your personal email.
As college freshmen, we must include both our current college and high school in the education section. For both schools, you must write the location ie. CUNY Bernard M. Baruch College (next line) New York, NY (next line) Class of 2021 (next line) Concentration: Accounting. In the experience section, include all work experience you have from the most recent and important to older positions with their respective dates. Within each job, aggregate statements that give a brief description of what you did–include an action verb, quantification, and a compliment i.e. “trained a group of 4 students on how to speak to costumers.” Feel free to include any extracurricular activities, volunteer work, leadership positions you have done. In skills, included your level of proficiency in technology, languages, and lastly, write what you’re interested in! Your interviewer wants to know that you’re a normal person who’s driven by their goals as well as know that you’re a basketball fanatic!
During your interview, submit your resume and try to connect with the recruiter: talk about the company or his/her reasons as to why he/she stayed! Simply just ask questions, this is very important because it’ll give you a gist of how it is like to work for the company. Also, get to personally know them and connect, it’ll be much easier for the recruiter to remember you even if it is just talking about a basketball team! Make sure you thank them for their time and get a business card. After your interview, you have 48 hours to write up a follow-up email saying that once again you are thanking them and your reasons why you are a great candidate for the open position. Sell yourself! It is important that you write about your skills, leadership, volunteer work.
Mamoudou also handed out a sheet called “Dress for Success” (which I attached) simply telling us what we ought to wear at an interview. After seeing this sheet, I have to go shopping. I am grateful for all the pieces of advice he gave. I encourage you guys to go to a resume workshop and learn more about acing that interview to get your desired job position.
