Companies sometimes require that entry-level candidates have experience, but how do you get experience when even entry-level jobs make it difficult to apply?
Getting that first job or internship can be the most challenging part of your career. Fortunately, as a college student, you’re in a great position to get that first break you need. Once you get your degree, you’ll have the experience employers are seeking, but until then, how can you build an effective resume or write a cover letter as a college student?
After reviewing countless resume samples, we’ve determined what types employers want to see from college students. Furthermore, we used that knowledge to create 24 college student resume examples to help inspire your resume in 2024.
Why this resume works
- When you’re looking for your first full-time role while in college, you need to clarify exactly when you’ll graduate. You can do that in both your resume objective and your education section.
- This lets employers know when you can work full-time. Whatever you do, be honest. Stretching the truth won’t get you any points with employers. It’s better to be upfront and willing to learn a skill rather than try to succeed by the skin of your teeth.
- The golden rule on your college student resume is to lead with your strengths. If you’ve got a relevant internship, add it. If you’ve done any related class projects, list them. No matter what you include, make sure to highlight transferable skills.
Why this resume works
- Your undergraduate student resume must underline your adaptability in every new role you take. Like this example, you want to show your willingness and openness to taking new positions to leverage your skills and gain experience.
- To impress the recruiter, demonstrate the dedication you have had in your previous posts despite minimal experience.
Why this resume works
- Your accounting internship can be the perfect opportunity to show what you can offer to the real-world job market. However, you have to pick the right pointers that align with the needs and demands of your potential employers.
- In that case, your university student resume can capitalize on your analytical skills, which helped identify cost-saving opportunities and cut overall expenses by six percent.
Why this resume works
- Creating a resume when you have no experience is no easy task, especially when you’ve never made a resume before.
- Luckily, there are a host of resume templates you can use to format your experience well, so long as you adjust based on your qualifications.
- For example, you can add or remove sections based on the amount of work history you have (or don’t have).
- Hiring managers understand that your college student resume likely won’t be packed with relevant expertise. The key is highlighting details that make you a strong fit for the job or internship to which you’re applying.
- For example, being on the club basketball team may feel irrelevant to business analysis. But by focusing on how you’ve organized practices and led a local volunteer effort, your college student no experience resume can point to qualities that might appeal to a thoughtful employer.
Why this resume works
- If you have one to two internships under your belt, it’s likely you can comfortably fill one page. This means you can get a bit more creative with your resume format on your current college student resume.
- A reverse-chronological format is still the most accepted, but if you want to highlight your skills, try using a functional format instead.
- When discussing your previous work experience, do your best to quantify the impact of your work whenever possible.
- Adding relevant metrics shows that you know what matters to your employer and you’ve positively impacted your previous workplace.
Why this resume works
- Landing an internship while you’re a college student can be instrumental in helping you get a full-time job once you graduate. Before that internship, though, you likely won’t have relevant work experience for your college student internship resume examples.
- That’s okay—you can weave in other things, like projects and part-time jobs. Of course, if you do have internship or job experience, put that at the top.
- No matter your experience, make sure you include the right skills on your resume.
- It’s as easy as checking the job description. Then just list your relevant abilities according to what matches the keywords listed by the employer.
Why this resume works
- Including an activities or hobbies/interests section to your resume can help you get noticed by showing some personality.
- Do you have a unique interest related to science? Are you involved in a sport? Do you volunteer? All of these hobbies are great additions to your resume.
- Your college student assistant medical laboratory technician resume doesn’t have to be loaded with work experience for it to make the cut.
- If you’ve just graduated, you can bulk up your education section.
- Feel free to add any college awards you won and your GPA (if it’s higher than 3.5).
Why this resume works
- Wondering if you should include a resume objective on your college student human resources executive assistant resume?
- As a rule of thumb, we recommend including one if you’re light on experience or are going through a substantial career change. Otherwise, leave it out in favor of work experience.
- Beyond work history, you should mention specific skills on your resume that indicate your ability to do the job and work well with others.
- Good skills to include on an HR executive assistant resume are “talent acquisition,” “conflict resolution,” “legal compliance,” and “compensation/benefits.”
- An even more effective way to breathe life into your skills is to weave them into your work history or project bullet points.
Why this resume works
- Want your college student case assistant resume to stand out from the competition? Give yourself the best chance by formatting your resume professionally.
- Show off your personality using contrasting colors, classic fonts, and well-organized layouts. Our ready-to-build resume templates or handy Google Docs interactive resumes can help you keep your resume both tasteful and personable.
- Most case assistant roles require certification, so if you’ve got it, flaunt it! You don’t want a hiring manager to pass you up by assuming you don’t have the training.
- If you don’t have certification, then now’s the best time to get it. Better late than never!
Why this resume works
- If you have limited professional experience and no prior experience as an RA, your college student resident assistant resume can benefit from a resume objective since you’re new to the field.
- Though an objective isn’t required, it can help employers see your skills and experience straight away.
- Just make sure to tailor it for every job you apply for by including the name of the employer, the position you’re seeking, and some matching keyword skills (that are true about you) gleaned from the job description.
- You also shouldn’t feel limited by your work experience. If you’ve done any relevant projects or have volunteered, include them! Employers love to see transferrable skills like collaboration, a good work ethic, and organization.
Why this resume works
- Sometimes writing a college student warehouse worker resume can feel like just another assignment. However, it’s worth it to spend time on it since it’s a gateway to your future job.
- If you’re struggling to get going, consider using a resume outline to help you structure your experience—just don’t forget to fill out all the sections thoroughly!
- When applying for warehouse jobs, it might be discouraging to enocunter the number of opportunities that require prior experience.
- While it’s not impossible to land an excellent job without internships or experience, having some kind of work history, even in the form of projects, will allow you to be more picky and skim from the top of warehouse positions.
Why this resume works
- Stuck on how to make your college student teacher assistant resume interesting? While fussing over your content is vital, don’t forget the importance of adding a personal touch.
- Adjusting formatting details, like the layout and header colors, can make your resume pop and reveal a bit about yourself. (Red and pink are bold, daring colors, while blue and green are calming.)
- Adding a hobbies and interests section to your resume can also help catch the eye of employers, provided you list hobbies that are relevant to the desired job, such as creative pursuits, volunteering, or research.
- As a future teacher assistant, it’s important to showcase your communication abilities, both written and verbal.
- Even if you’ve never had experience as a teacher assistant, you can instill confidence by demonstrating the impact of your communication skills. Did you effectively resolve an issue using negotiation? Write something that added helpful clarity? Show how you used communication to affect others positively!
Why this resume works
- Gone are the days when you had to make your college student biology lab technician resume boring. You can flip through countless examples of successful resumes, and you’ll notice that most of them include pops of color and interesting styles.
- Don’t get too carried away here; after all, it’s still a resume and not a flier for a Wednesday Night Disco. But, one to two colors can be appropriate for all but the most conservative working environments.
- Numbers can be frustrating to calculate and add to your resume, but trust us when we tell you that they make a world of difference. Hiring managers are consistently more willing to interview people with metrics on their resumes, as they convey job competence and confidence.
Why this resume works
- As a college student, you might not be sure how to fill an entire page for your college student English tutor resume, but that’s where some clever resume formatting tools can be very helpful.
- Breaking up each work experience into bullet points can make your resume both easier to read (with fewer blocks of dense text) and easier to write.
- Instead of writing one big chunk of cohesive text, you can focus on pulling out as many highlights about your work history at each job as possible.
- No work experience? No problem! You probably have other work you can focus on, like volunteering, projects, or internships.
- A project can be anything. Seriously, your final group project from that writing seminar counts, or you could highlight a blog you’ve been working on in your free time.
- Hint: Projects also make great stories to discuss on your college student cover letter.
Why this resume works
- A compelling career objective is a welcome addition to a college application resume. Typically, it’s a statement outlining the intended direction of your career, but in this case, have it align with the academic program you’re applying for.
- Suppose you’re applying for a Bachelor of Arts in education. Express your passion for teaching and eagerness to advance your knowledge of education theories and practices. Even better, emphasize your long-term ambition to shape future generations through innovative education methods.
Why this resume works
- For a college admission resume tailored for an engineering program, let the admission committee envision you mastering valuable skills in the real world.
- Take a leaf from how Brian narrates his stints as a restaurant server, project presenter, and volunteer. Well-described, such experiences paint a picture of a well-rounded character who can take on varied challenges of an engineering program, enhancing their appeal in the eyes of the college admissions committee.
Why this resume works
- Since you’re in your first year, no one’s going to keep unreal expectations from you. In fact, this is a good time to show your involvement in sports and contribute to society.
- Use past projects to advantage here even if they’re only a year long. Clearly state how you used skills such as Canva and Microsoft Teams to make specific impacts during this time. Another great addition to your college freshman resume is any work experience under your belt.
Why this resume works
- So, you’re gunning for a scholarship at Harvard and have some experience up your sleeve. Perhaps you rocked as a tutor or your neighborhood’s favorite pet sitter and can recount a school project you aced. Awesome job highlighting that all over your work history and career objective. However, don’t let the excitement culminate in a resume riddled with mistakes — it just won’t do.
- You see reputable (and free) spell checkers like Grammarly? They’re your backstage crew making sure that your Harvard college resume is polished—no typos, grammatical mistakes, or punctuation errors in sight. And getting a friend or family member to take a peek? It’s always a brilliant move.
Why this resume works
- Now, about that part-time job while juggling college life, cast a spell on the recruiters with a resume that shines a light on your transferrable skills.
- It’s a piece of cake. Maybe you’ve been a superstar nanny or the quickest cashier around. Identify competencies from these gigs, whether communication, time management, or leadership, and then blend them into your work experience. Simply put, connect the dots in your college level resume, and you’re golden.
Why this resume works
- Building a resume as a college student can seem difficult, especially when you have minimal formal work experience. Luckily, you can impress an employer without having a plethora of experience on your college student (academic highlights) resume.
- Say you have some work experience, but it’s not relevant to the job. That’s okay—instead of trying in vain to match the job description, focus on transferable skills like customer service, organization, event planning, public speaking, and computer literacy.
- If you lack much work history, adding projects, coursework, or volunteer experience is the next best way to showcase your potential. You can also list your involvement in clubs, organizations, or peer mentorship.
- Write them like you’d write work experience by using active verbs and incorporating metrics (numbers).
Why this resume works
- Since you’re just starting out at a university, nobody expects you to have paid experience on your first year college student resume. Still, you can really skyrocket your chances of coming across as a well-rounded individual by including your work with personal or academic projects.
- Your time contributing to a project is tangible evidence of your skills and experiences. Depending on what you include, it could showcase your communication and organizational skills or more technical abilities, like your proficiency with Microsoft Office.
Why this resume works
- Your personal hobbies might not always be relevant to a professional position you’re applying to—and that’s all right! However, if you do spend your own time with activities that align with your academic or professional goals, you definitely want to include them in your freshman college student resume.
- Do you love gardening or nature photography? Awesome, it shows you’re inherently passionate about biology. Do you spend your time baking as well? It’s a sign that you know how to follow instructions and observe changes over time—skills that will come in handy as a lab assistant.
Why this resume works
- Recruiters are not particularly taken by beginners, considering they’re still picking up the basics. But here’s where you can turn the tables in this internship hunt—capitalize on a killer career objective statement that paints your strengths and potential in your college student education resume.
- A career objective statement is typically a brief 1-3 sentence pitch that highlights your inspiration for the role (internship, in this case), but with a twist—it’s better custom-fitted to match the hiring company’s needs. Plus, it’s a sweet spot for reiterating your enthusiasm to contribute to the potential employer’s goals.
Why this resume works
- Pulling together a winning resume when you’re wet behind the ears can be a bit tricky. Unsure about what hits the right note and what falls flat? A smart move is to spotlight your previous successful projects, zeroing in on the transferrable skills and the great results that came with them.
- In your college student social work student resume, right after your work experience, slide in your Projects section. It’s a good spot to detail experiences like that community outreach workshop or mental health seminar you attended. And when you talk about your wins, throw in some numbers to beef up your credibility.
Related resume guides
Writing Your College Student Resume
Before we dive into the difference between a resume objective vs. a resume summary, let’s get some definitions out of the way:
- Resume objective: A statement of your qualifications, interests, and skills that make you a good fit for the role to which you’re applying.
- Resume summary: A summary of your past experience detailing your high-level accomplishments and projects.
When you’re applying for a job or internship as a college student, you likely won’t have extensive work experience. So, we’d recommend including a resume objective instead of a resume summary.
The goal of your resume objective is to set the stage for your resume. It should highlight your skills applicable to the job at hand, and it should be specific for each job to which you’re applying.
Most resume objectives are boring and generic. By taking the time to craft a customized and effective resume objective, you give yourself an edge over other applicants and increase your chances of getting an interview.
Before we dive into the rules for creating a strong resume objective, let’s look at some examples.
Sample college student resume objectives
- “Recent college graduate with a degree in marketing looking for a full-time role where I can utilize my experience in social media and paid advertising to help an up-and-coming brand like Club Z! Inc. spread awareness and acquire more users.”
- “Diligent college student at the University of Pittsburgh who is equally committed to academic excellence (3.8 GPA) and service (student leader at the local food shelter) looking for an opportunity at Unidos as a part-time employee to utilize these talents to improve customer satisfaction.”
- “Recent graduate with a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) seeking an opportunity within an established management organization to utilize my organizational and quantitative abilities. Epic seems to have a culture of empowering employees to have ownership over their problems, and that culture fits my work style perfectly.”
You can see that all of these resume objectives specifically mention the company that the student is applying to. Tailoring is the golden rule of resume objectives.
Here are some other rules to make your objective the best it can be:
- Again, take the time to customize your resume objective for each company to which you’re applying.
- Don’t be afraid to inject your personality. Making an impression will help you stand out among the hundreds of other applicants.
- Keep it to two to three sentences.
- Mention any relevant skills or certifications you have for the role to which you’re applying.
College Student Resume Formats
One of the hardest parts of using a resume maker as a college student is the blank page. The “getting started” part is overwhelming—you’re unsure what your resume should look like, let alone what should be in it!
When it comes to formatting your resume, the best advice is to keep it simple. You need to convincingly make the case that you deserve an interview for the role to which you’re applying.
In short, your resume should likely contain the following sections:
- Header: This is your name and job title. Have your job title match the job title to which you’re applying.
- Resume objective: We talked about this above, a quick summary of your skills and what you’re seeking.
- Education: As a college student, this should include your anticipated graduation date, the field of study, and relevant classes.
- Skills: List six to ten technical skills relevant to your career.
- Work experience: If you have any relevant internships or part-time jobs, mention them here.
- Projects: Did you do any side projects that demonstrate your competency? Include them!
Not all of these sections need to be included in your resume. Your resume should focus on your strengths.
If you don’t have much relevant work experience, you can omit that section in favor of discussing your projects or classwork.
However, no matter what format you choose, there are a few writing guidelines you should adhere to throughout your resume.
Formatting guidelines for your resume
- Keep your resume to one page! Your resume should only extend to a second page when you have 10+ years of experience.
- Avoid any spelling or grammar errors by double-checking your text and having a friend review your resume. Don’t let typos be the reason why you don’t get an interview.
- Break up your work experience into small, consumable bullet points. Nothing is harder to read than a big wall of text.
- Use reverse-chronological order to keep your most recent experience/projects at the top.
- Don’t include fancy images or graphics. It’s highly likely a computer will read your resume before a human ever does, and images are hard for computers to scan.
- Don’t list more than ten skills on your resume. (We’ll expand on this below.)
Skills to pay the bills
When building your skills section, it can be tempting to list any and every skill you know. You’ll have to resist this temptation.
Before a human reviews your resume, an automated system called an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) will score your resume based on whether or not it includes the “right” keywords. These filters are largely screening for specific skills.
Doesn’t this mean that you should include as many skills as possible to beat the ATS? Unfortunately, you need to make your resume appealing to both the ATS and a human, and nothing is a bigger red flag to a hiring manager than a candidate with a laundry list of skills!
You’re much better off focusing on six to ten skills you’re an expert in than including more that you kind of know. Generally, if you wouldn’t be comfortable being interviewed on a given skill, don’t include it on your resume.
Work Experience and Projects
In any resume, no matter the career stage, your work experience and projects should take up at least 70 percent of the overall space. These will decide whether you get an interview or not.
Once you have a few years of experience, then the size of your projects section will decrease as the size of your work experience section expands.
If you have an internship relevant to the job you’re applying for, this should be listed in your “work experience” section. As a college student, your work experience can also contain any part-time jobs you had while in school, even if they don’t seem relevant to the position to which you’re applying.
It’s not easy to balance work and school, so having a part-time job demonstrates responsibility and drive.
When talking about your work experience, there are a few key tips you should follow:
- Mention the skills you demonstrated on the job.
- Quantify the impact of your work whenever possible.
- Talk specifically about your role; avoid being too general.
- Use action verbs like “owned” or “led” to highlight your leadership abilities.
Numbers truly speak louder than words, especially on your resume. By providing numerical context around your work, you show your ability to contribute meaningfully to your workplace.
Compare these two descriptions of an internship. Which do you think would be more compelling to a hiring manager?
WRONG – general work experience descriptions
Marketing Science Associates
April 2020 – Current, New York NY
Digital Marketing Intern
- Created testing plan for Facebook ad copy
- Built key reports for the executive team around KPIs
- Oversaw the creation of the blog for SEO purposes
- Worked closely with clients to understand their product positioning to incorporate into ad copy
RIGHT – specific, quantified descriptions
Marketing Science Associates
April 2020 – Current, New York NY
Digital Marketing Intern
- Created A/B testing plan for Facebook ad copy, improving ROI by 15%
- Built key reports for the executive team around KPIs such as marketing spend, new leads, revenue generated, and ROI
- Oversaw the creation of the blog for SEO purposes which grew from 1,000 to 5,000 monthly organic visitors
- Worked closely with clients to understand their product positioning to incorporate into ad copy, leading to client satisfaction of 99%
Projects can be anything
If you don’t have much (or any) relevant work experience for your resume, don’t fret. You can still create a highly effective resume by showcasing your projects.
As a college student, you’ve likely done a lot of class projects that are relevant to the job or internship you’re looking to get. This is the perfect place to talk about those projects. You can even mention projects you completed outside of class. Talk about your goals, the methods/skills you used, and the project’s outcome.
The key is to include anything that will convince the hiring manager you have the drive, skills, and ability to translate your academic knowledge to the real world and contribute to the roles for which you’re applying.
Here are some potential projects you can work on for different majors:
Project ideas for college students
- Are you a business student? Detail a case study that you analyzed and presented in a class.
- If you’re a marketing student, you can write a short blog post about how you’d improve the paid marketing strategy for a company you admire.
- As a graphic designer, this is a great opportunity to talk about some of the projects in your portfolio.
- If you’re looking for a data analyst role, talk about how you analyzed stock data to determine areas of opportunity.
- As a human resources major, you’ve likely created processes for companies as part of a class, so talk about that.
- Software engineering students complete meaningful coding assignments all the time. Discuss one of those or talk about your side project.
- If you’re looking to break into product management, discuss a hackathon you were part of or create a case study for a feature your favorite product is missing.
Basically, the projects you include on your resume can be just about anything. They simply have to demonstrate you know what is required of the kind of role you’re applying to, and that you can meet those requirements.
Your Education Section
As a college student, it should go without saying that you need to include an education section on your resume.
Here’s what you need to include in your education section no matter what:
- The school you’re currently attending (or recently graduated from). You do not need to include your high school.
- Your graduation date (or expected graduation date). You can give just the month and year.
- The kind of degree you’re working toward (bachelor of arts, bachelor of science, master’s, etc.).
- Your field of study.
Once you include all that, there’s more flexibility. If you have a strong GPA (greater than 3.5), you should include it, too.
If you don’t have much experience yet, then you can add relevant courses or awards to your education section, provided they’re relevant to the job for which you’re applying.
For example, if you’re applying for a role as a data scientist, then it makes sense to include any math, economics, or programming classes you completed.
Here’s an example of an effective education section for a college student looking for a marketing role:
If you received any awards or honors during your time in college, list them here. These can include getting on the Dean’s List, any department-specific awards relevant to your major, or formal recognition for your work or volunteer efforts.
Resume Builder for College Students
There you have it—we’ve discussed the building blocks to help you land a job or internship as a college student!
In summary, here are the keys to making an effective resume as a college student:
- Inject your personality into your resume objective and customize it for each company to which you apply.
- Your resume format should include a header, resume objective, skills section, education, and work/ project experience.
- Include any relevant internships or part-time jobs you’ve had during college and quantify the impact of your work.
- If you don’t have much working experience, include relevant projects you’ve completed either in the classroom or on your own time.
- Your education section is your chance to highlight classes you’ve completed that will convince the hiring manager you have the right tools for the job.
Finding a job or internship as a college student can be incredibly stressful. Building anAI resume is a huge first step, so pat yourself on the back. After you’re done with the writing, you can check your resume against our AI-powered tips to see how your resume matches up.
Just remember, it does get easier after you get some experience first. We can’t wait to see where you’ll go!
