The Top Resume Mistakes (And How to Avoid Them)
Posted on Thursday, December 14th, 2017
As a co-op student at Algonquin College, you’ll be asked to create a co-op-specific resume before beginning your job hunt. Because the Co-op Department spends a lot of time talking with employers about the things they look for on co-op resumes, we’ve been able to identify the best way to layout your resume for success (you can find the guidelines for this in your Coop1000 modules on Blackboard).
Because we review all your resumes before okaying you to look at jobs, we see a lot of the same mistakes made over and over. And in the interest of helping you build the best resume you can, we’re sharing those top mistakes—and how you can fix them. Read on!
Mistake 1: You don’t stress your education.
There are thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of articles online explaining the best ways to lay out your resume. And while a good portion of those articles are good and reliable, they’re all missing one thing that’s relevant in your case: they aren’t designed as co-op resumes. Often, we get resumes with your education listed at the very end, and this is a big mistake in co-op.
A co-op resume is different than other resumes you may have written in that your education needs to be stressed. Co-op employers will be hiring you based on the skills and experience you’re picking up in your program of study. This is why it’s so important that you put your education right at the top, followed immediately by a section for program-related skills.
Doing so ensures that as soon as an employer picks up your resume, they see that you’re studying a field relevant to their position, and you’re learning relevant skills while doing so. Since employers only spend six seconds (!!!) looking at each resume, you want to make sure they’re seeing that information right away.
Another thing you can do to make your education section stand out is to make the name of your program at Algonquin a hyperlink to your program website. For example, if you’re in the Computer Programmer program, you can link here. That gives employers a quick and easy way to learn more about what you’re studying and what your program entails.
Mistake 2: You don’t brand your non-relevant work experience.
Chances are that, as a student, you’ve worked a number of retail or service industry jobs that have nothing to do with your future career. As a co-op student, you know you need to include your previous work experience on your resume, so you just throw it on with a work description that says stuff like, “mopped floors,” and “closed cash”.
That’s fine, but you’re missing a huge opportunity here: instead of just listing your previous, non-relevant work experience, you should take this time to brand that experience and show employers exactly why it’s relevant.
All jobs, no matter what they were, taught you something called transferable skills. These are hugely valuable, in-demand skills that are useful in any job. Skills like leadership, time management, and communication are all transferable, because you take them with you wherever you go. And these skills are highly desirable in all industries.
When you’re writing your job descriptions for non-relevant work experience, be sure to draw out what transferable skills you learned there. That will help show employers why your unique background and experience makes you the perfect fit for their organization.
Mistake 3: You don’t make your resume informative.
After a while, resumes all start to sound the same. You write where you worked and the stuff you did at that job. But this is a mistake—by only listing what your tasks were, you’re missing a big piece of the puzzle, and a big chance to make your resume stand out.
Building up your work descriptions is the key to a strong resume. If you can take the tasks you had to do at your old job and show employers why that’s relevant to your potential job, you’ll have a much more powerful work history to show employers.
How do you do that? You follow a formula:
task + skill + outcome
Basically, you want to list your task, the skill you used to complete that task (whether transferable or technical), and the outcome of your task. So something like, “closing cash” becomes, “Handled cash accurately in busy environment to ensure store cash balanced at end of shift.”
See how much more descriptive that is? You’re showing the employer that you handled money, that you had attention to detail, and that you were trustworthy—and that all of that meant that your cash balanced at the end of the night. That’s a lot of valuable information for a potential employer.
Addressing these three mistakes on your resume will help you catch co-op employers’ eyes. It’s a great way to stand out and make those few minutes that employers spend looking at your resume much more valuable.
If you want some extra help with resumes, attend one of our resume workshops! We offer these routinely through the semester. Log on to HireAC, click on ‘Co-op’ on the left-hand side, and select ‘Events & Workshops’ to see what’s upcoming and to register.
Want to learn more about how co-op can benefit you? Explore our website, send us an email at coop@algonquincollege.com, or follow us on Twitter for more!