Please critique my resume and make your suggestions. If it sucks - say so! I'm not sure about "objective" and overall this resume is pretty basic and doesn't "stand out.'" The question is - How do you make it "stand out" when you don't have real experience in financial industry yet? Thanks a lot to everyone!
| +56 | Is a 3.6 good enough | 38 | 2h | |
| +25 | What are my options? | 13 | 3d | |
| +20 | Dream Job vs Dream Location | 15 | 2d | |
| +18 | Didnt Convert Twice - Screwed? | 1 | 17h | |
| +18 | Recently Moved, Not Enjoying it and Wondering How Long to Stay | 2 | 1d | |
| +16 | Non-finance post-PE exits | 8 | 6d | |
| +16 | hf recruiting - headhunter or cold outreach? | 4 | 2d | |
| +15 | Value of a math minor? | 5 | 13h | |
| +15 | GPA Non-Target | 6 | 2d | |
| +15 | Struggling to Network for Full-Time IB Recruiting | 6 | 1d |
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Not bad, pretty clean. Even for an intern, some interest to trading if even a small personal account just to show real interest would be something I would want to see
Include interests.
Work history needs months, not just years - or people may think you're trying to make a 3 month job over Nov - Jan sound like a 2 year job.
"Company type" - waste of 2 lines. Delete this line, as bullet points below are implicitly an outline of what you did in the role described in the line above.
"Successfully negotiated..." - include in the job description bullet points.
You need some extra-curricular activities. If that takes too much room, take the bullet points and make them consecutive points in one line eg "[Employer] - Role - [dates] Responsibilities/achievements: [Point A]; [Point B]; [Point C]"
I prefer capitalisation of first word after a colon.
If a dependent clause follows a colon, you do not capitalize the first word.
If an independent clause follows a colon, it's your choice.
In this case, you should absolutely not capitalize the first word.
Yet I prefer capitalisation after colons nonetheless.
Should we revert to English pronunciation before the Great Vowel Shift?
It's wrong, nonetheless. It doesn't matter what you prefer.
Are you seriously trying comparing this to the Great Vowel Shift?
Only if it riles you up.
I hadn't appreciated my preference was wrong. My appeal to language as a dynamic construct is a weak defence to soothe my wounded ego, as I'm otherwise an anally retentive grammar fiend.
From the top Phone number format: either use dashes between the sets of numbers or spaces. Don’t do XXX-XXX XXXX like you currently have Make sure to unhyperlink the email address and linkedin web address. Word turns them into a link automatically, and I always cringe when I see underlined emails in documents that are suppose to be hard copy substitutes.
Objective: Don’t have anything against an object on a resume, but this one is pretty generic and weak. It’s all about you, not what you would bring to the company. It’s great that you’re opening to challenging tasks, complex problems, and statistical data. Instead of saying you’re open to it, write in your work/volunteer experience that you have done it before.
Relevant coursework: I think its good for students and recent graduates to list a section, but too long and its just a copy of your transcript, and that’s the territory you’re approaching here. Take some of the more non-impressive and relevant ones out, like business law and professional business writing. In addition, since these are official course titles, I would capitalize them. PS. Coursework = 1 word
Experience: agree with above, ditch company type. Biggest shortfall with the entire resume: NO QUANTIFIABLE DATA. You’re an office manager. How many people worked in the office? What was revenue? How many letters, proposals, and invoices did you prepare? Go down the line and see how you could improve these. Lots of stuff already out there on Google regarding adding quantifiable results to resumes.
Another thing with your experience is that it makes you seem like a secretary. And that’s fine, you’re still in college. But you gotta sell yourself better. To me reading this resume, I see it as you went from greeting customers and answering calls in 2008 to sending out mail in 2011. Not a huge jump in responsibilities. Don’t go overboard on complex wording or making things up, but about 8 of those bullets could be combined into one “clerical work” bullet.
Skills: Good to list all those skills, but it is venturing into paragraph territory when you list examples of what you've done with each software. Instead of list what you can do in Excel, you could just write “advanced proficiency” or something like that. It would make it much easier to read. Put that MIS course up with your other related course work. Take out communication skills.
Quick word on formatting: It’s ok. Not great, not horrible. I personally am not a fan of TNR as it just seems to blend in and look like any other document, which is the opposite of what you want your resume to do. Also be sure you are consistent with formatting. There is no space between objective and the objective section, yet there is for education and skills. Other than that, pretty solid. Beefing up your bullets will cut down on the excess white space.
One more word: Not sure if you truly didn’t do anything between since 2011, but try to think of something you can add to your resume. A club at school or volunteer activity like cleaning up streams or tutoring kids. Even if it was something you think of as basic, the most impressive thing on most students’ resumes are not their paid work, but their leadership in clubs or other organizations. I’m not questioning that you didn’t work hard at the two jobs listed, but they just don’t pop, especially as you have it listed.
Be sure to check out the Mergers and Inquisitions page on resumes and use their advice for format and content.
You have a good base but I see a lot of room for growth. Best of luck.
Thanks to Blueapple and Ssit for great suggestions! Sure I must add some activities/voluntary work on my resume (although I came across the article on WSO where it was said "I don't care how much money you raised for charity - you probably did it for another line on your resume") But things such leadership are definitely worth to mention. Yes, I can say I only did clerical work but I need to fill the whole page with something. For Excel it's not good to say you are "advanced" because if you are asked to do something you don't know it will spoil everything - not only you are stupid but also a liar. (And you probably might have lied about other things.)
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