EL Resume Critique

[wonder bread]

Hey guys, I'm a recent grad gearing up for fall recruiting. Any advice for keeping my resume out of the trash pile?

Thoughts:

-I went to a residential magnet school that is somewhat known in my home state and I'm not really sure how to present that. I've gotten some perks in college from it, but I'm not really sure if it's still relevant.

-I don't know excel very well and I'm currently learning it. Is there a good way to state this when everyone else is saying "proficient at excel"? Also is there a greater need for VBA or SQL?

-I'll be attending a career fair soon, any advice on how to stand out from the swarm to recruiters?

-I know I'm not that strong of a candidate and this job search could take years. Any advice on improving my chances? (I already plan to take more tests, hold a related job, sell my soul, stay away from Canada).

[JohnLocke]

Add GPA unless it's terrible.

[spankster]

Originally Posted by JohnLocke

Add GPA unless it's terrible.

Define terrible.

[Ryan.Befort]

I don't have experience to say for sure, but a "cooler" format needs to be used. Be consistent with punctuation

[wonder bread]

Originally Posted by spankster

Define terrible.

probably a GPA under 3.0

Originally Posted by Ryan.Befort

I don't have experience to say for sure, but a "cooler" format needs to be used.

Thanks for the advice, but what do you mean by a cooler format?

[Ryan.Befort]

I just meant add some lines, or pizzazz. Maybe it's not finalized yet. I just think something needs to be kind of eye catchy. I'm not talking about a pretty flower background or something. Just some lines under your name, separating sections maybe, etc.

[Peetie Skunk]

Originally Posted by JohnLocke

Add GPA unless it's terrible.

Try and find some way to make it look good even if your cumulative is horrible (better past two years or major GPA).

As for VBA vs. SQL, if you are working on learning VBA then stick with that until you have a good understanding of writing the code, debugging, etc. and you have an opportunity to actually use SQL.

Personally, I would remove the magnet school. Unless you went somewhere like Choate, Phillips Exeter, St. Paul's, etc. and graduated valedictorian then it is likely no one will care where you went to high school or what you did there.

I see you have a few projects you worked on and a few extracurriculars, but do you have any work experience at all? Even simple, summer, minimum wage jobs can show an employer that you have some experience working and/or balancing work and studies, which is good.

[actexp]

take out the extraneous stuffabout your project. settled disagreements, prof held paper for future example (good or bad?). keep 1 or 2 significant things, get rid of rest. btw, you not necessary a bad candidate, unless gpa=1.8 for university of phoenix. passing exams, which you have several of, tends to trump a lot of other things

[vjvj]

I'd explicitly put "Passed" on the two exams. I'd get rid of the the SOAs and CASs. I think a tabular format looks better.

I'm not really keen on the class project part. Bullets 2, 3, and 4 are pretty much just what you were expected to do, aren't they? Bullet 1 is hurt by "for enthusiasm". If the "for enthusiasm" wasn't there, I'd likely attribute your being chosen as being recognized for being more leader-like, which is better. Overall, the thing just feels like you're trying to fill space.

The intern is the closest to a job as you have on there. I'd probably try to highlight it more. One way to highlight it is to not have all those bullets on the class project. The other way to highlight is to say what you accomplished. How was what you did important (in general, to the other researchers, etc)?

I'd indent the "Risk Management ..." and "Research Intern" lines so they don't line up with the section headings.

I'd split the computer stuff into at least two lines. I'd get rid of "previous", as previous experience generally means the same thing as experience. I might consider whether to change the Excel/VBA part. A problem with it is that it is too easy to read it as "learning Excel" and completely missing the "advanced" part. Depending on what you mean by "advanced", you might want to claim some Excel/VBA knowledge or experience first, then saying you're learning advanced Excel/VBA. Just a thought.

[wonder bread]

Thanks for all the great advice guys!