Things that should be left OFF your resume

[Dionysus]

What about seminars and retreats? I went to several for student life and APO. I was taught how to market our organization and activities to other students in almost all of them. I'm trying to get a job in advertising.

[Rudey]

Originally posted by Dionysus
What about seminars and retreats? I went to several for student life and APO. I was taught how to market our organization and activities to other students in almost all of them. I'm trying to get a job in advertising.

Check out vault.com. They have really good insider guides for that field...

-Rudey

[DSTinguished1]

Great thread! Especially for me because I will be graduating from college in Spring 2005! Ive heard from friends that it is very hard to find jobs right after graduation. A friend of mine graduated from OSU (Ohio-State University) with a BA in Political Science and now she works at JCPennys.

QUESTION FOR EMPLOYERS ONLY!

How important is GPA?
Is mentioning that you study abroad revelant for a resume? If so where would this be placed on the resume?

thanks

[Rudey]

Originally posted by DSTinguished1
Great thread! Especially for me because I will be graduating from college in Spring 2005! Ive heard from friends that it is very hard to find jobs right after graduation. A friend of mine graduated from OSU (Ohio-State University) with a BA in Political Science and now she works at JCPennys.

QUESTION FOR EMPLOYERS ONLY!

How important is GPA?
Is mentioning that you study abroad revelant for a resume? If so where would this be placed on the resume?

thanks

I have helped in recruiting efforts for our firm. To us GPA was important. You went to school right, so why wouldn't it? But keep these things in mind:
1) As you grow older your gpa is less in focus because you will have other experience. For now it's a little more important.
2) If you know a job has a gpa cutoff for interviews and all that and you don't meet that cutoff, leave it off. If you can't even get an interview for a job or turn them off asap, it is a bad idea.

As for your study abroad, I would place that in your education area. I don't know what kind of resume you're creating but mine had education at the very top and you can include your study abroad school or program in there.

-Rudey

[ZTAngel]

I've always been told that if you're entry-level or if you only have 1-2 years work experience, put your GPA on your resume. It is important at many companies. It's an unspoken rule that if you have below a 2.8 GPA that you do not list it on your resume. If you don't include your GPA on your resume, a company might assume that your grades aren't spectacular and may not hire you based on that. It would suck if you really had a 3.8.

[DWAlphaGam]

Originally posted by ZTAngel
I've always been told that if you're entry-level or if you only have 1-2 years work experience, put your GPA on your resume. It is important at many companies. It's an unspoken rule that if you have below a 2.8 GPA that you do not list it on your resume. If you don't include your GPA on your resume, a company might assume that your grades aren't spectacular and may not hire you based on that. It would suck if you really had a 3.8.

I agree. I think you should put your GPA on your resume, as long as it is above a 3.0 or so. If the hiring manager doesn't care about GPAs, then they will just ignore it, and if they do care, at least it will be on there. It's better to be on the safe side and include it. My company doesn't have a minimum GPA, but if the GPA is included, it is one more thing to help me weigh the candidates. However, do not send in your transcript unless the company specifically asks for it, which some do. (We got some girl's transcript the last time we were hiring, and I had no idea why she sent it, unless she really wanted us to know that she got an A in History of Modern Dance.)

Study abroad should go in your education section, as Rudey said. Also, as you gain more experience and you're out of school longer, your education section should move to the bottom of your resume and your work experience should go at the top.

One point that really irritates me: Please customize your cover letter for each company. Same goes for fax cover sheets. We had this one guy apply a few times, and each time he faxed in his resume, he had scribbled out the name of a different company on the fax cover sheet and wrote in the name of my company. His resume went right in the "No" pile without us even reading it.

We're hiring again, so I'm sure I'll have some more gems to share in a few weeks.

[seraphimsprite]

Originally posted by Rudey
I'm sorry but for many positions, especially the competitive ones, your SAT/GMAT/LSAT/MCAT/GRE/WHATEVER are a necessity along with your GPA.

You don't suddenly come out of school and nothing you did then matters anymore. Both your school and what you achieved while there are stuck with you forever.

-Rudey

Well I guess it goes to show you, it really depends on the job and the office. I can say that in my office, any resume with SAT scores on it is getting tossed (that's the consensus of the screening committee, not just me). Post college exams are a little different, but we really don't care what you scored on a test you took at least five years ago. It just makes you look either pretentious or stupid.

And the GPA thing - why would you want to draw attention to the fact that you graduated with a 3.0? My opinion is, if you had a particularly high gpa, you're going to have the awards to to with it (honors, cum laude, whatever) so list those. But every time I see a resume saying 3.2 from State U, I think "who cares?" All we care about is that you have the degree. But we're also focusing more on the work experience than the education - I imagine a law firm is going to be different and is going to care more about the education.

We actually had one resume just come in that lists the high school GPA. Now that's definitely excessive.

Definitely list study abroad experience (under Education) - it looks great.

Oh and on the seminars and retreats - one thing I've seen on entry level resumes that I like is a "Relevant Training/Coursework" section which would be a great place to list that info.

[kappaloo]

I think SATs are like high school marks - not really needed on a post-college resumé. However, GPA can be very important - many places will specifically ask for it if you're fresh out of universiy (as in, everywhere I applied did). I have mine in my resume, but it's not highlighted by any means.

I still have to disagree with this one page thing. I was in a co-operative ed program, and to make my resume one page, I'd basically only have my last two positions on it. I think perhaps the length of your resume should be perhaps porportion to the amount of work experience. My resume is 2 pages and has always been deemed a good length when I get it reviewed.

[PennyCarter]

I work in the Career Services for an MBA Program. I don't know much about other fields, but for business students...

For the first job or so GPA is good to have...we've also been told by recruiters that they think if its not on there that it is below a 3.0. As for SAT scores...I'm personally not a big fan, but we don't deal with that since we are working with graduate students (at this point it should definately not be on there). But every now and then we'll see a student put their GMAT on there. If you insist on having a score...it would be better to put 99th percentile on the GMAT rather than the actual score.

As far as Greek activities...
Work experience (related to the job) is always the priority and since space is usually an issue Greek stuff should be limited. But some things can be relevant....you want to be an event planner...you coordinated recruitment or socials. Word it in a manner than highlights what you did over the social aspect. Always use numbers to quantify activities (and work experience)--managed a 10,000 budget or something along those lines. If if isn't quantifiable, then it probably won't help get you the job and should be seriously considered before putting it on the resume (there are always exceptions).

[winneythepooh7]

I haven't read this whole thread, but I used to attend interviews with my old Director. Some things he looked for were length of time at particular jobs. If someone skipped around a lot he wondered why and got a negative feeling about them right away. Also please make sure your resume matches the position you are applying for. For example, people will hand in resumes at my agency that they want to do a mental-health related job but nothing they list on their resume has anything to do with mental healthcare. In a case like this, I think it is better to hand in a resume where it is stated somewhere in a professional way that you are looking to change fields or gain more experience in a particular field. And also keep in mind that if you are changing fields, most often, you will have to be willing to accept an entry-level position and work your way up by gaining experience. Just because you were the manager at McDonald's for 10 years doesn't make you automatically qualified to be a psychotherapist or capable of supervising staff in a clinical setting if you get my drift......

[Rudey]

Originally posted by PennyCarter
I work in the Career Services for an MBA Program. I don't know much about other fields, but for business students...

For the first job or so GPA is good to have...we've also been told by recruiters that they think if its not on there that it is below a 3.0. As for SAT scores...I'm personally not a big fan, but we don't deal with that since we are working with graduate students (at this point it should definately not be on there). But every now and then we'll see a student put their GMAT on there. If you insist on having a score...it would be better to put 99th percentile on the GMAT rather than the actual score.

As far as Greek activities...
Work experience (related to the job) is always the priority and since space is usually an issue Greek stuff should be limited. But some things can be relevant....you want to be an event planner...you coordinated recruitment or socials. Word it in a manner than highlights what you did over the social aspect. Always use numbers to quantify activities (and work experience)--managed a 10,000 budget or something along those lines. If if isn't quantifiable, then it probably won't help get you the job and should be seriously considered before putting it on the resume (there are always exceptions).

Funny so you don't include GPA or SAT, and if you do it's minimal, but you write out what you did for your GLO??

-Rudey

[chideltjen]

From a designer point of view:

I'm discovering that when I search for jobs in Classifieds, online job sites, and other online postings, the employers prefer a plain text or Word Doc as their resume form. My resume is a PDF that I designed in InDesign. It has my logo and DUH! lets people know I am a designer.

However, if you are submitting a plain text doc because it's the only way you can, how can you get creative with it? It just seems to defeat the purpose when you go to school for a design major and you are stuck sending out word docs.

Also, I have internships and unpaid experience as Pre-Professional experience on my resume. I did an internship and did a comp website for my sorority before I graduated. So that's what I put. My current design job is "Professional Work Experience" and then anything unrelated to design is just Work Experience. I didn't include retail jobs, but I did have a customer service/data entry job where I accomplished a lot and made mass improvements for the team.

Which brings up another question. Yeah I have a design job and I hate it. So I am looking for other design jobs as well as something else to keep the money coming in. If the job isn't a design job, I should have a different resume, right? Even though all my experience is pretty much in design?

Argh. Help!

[WCUgirl]

I've been playing around with my resume recently. I've organized it by having a "Work Experience" section where I list the obvious, then I have a "Volunteer Experience" section where I list all the volunteer activities I've been involved in, and I have a "Leadership Experience" section where I have included AZD, but only b/c I have some post-college experience as an advisory board member. My cut-off point is college graduation - I don't mention any of the sorority activities I was involved in as a collegiate.

[AlphaSigOU]

Another thing to consider:

If you are applying for a job that requires a background investigation or a security clearance, LIST EVERYTHING going back for at least the past 7 years or your 18th birthday (for a SECRET clearance) or 15 years or your 18th birthday (for a TOP SECRET clearance). Be forthright and honest... they WILL find out, and if you hide it or lie about it, you can kiss the job goodbye.

[PennyCarter]

Originally posted by Rudey
Funny so you don't include GPA or SAT, and if you do it's minimal, but you write out what you did for your GLO??

-Rudey

No no, I think the GPA should stay on the resume for entry level or first jobs (until the person has some real world experience--more than internships). SAT scores though, I'm personally not a fan of it, but I work in an MBA Career Services office, so these students took the SAT a minimum of 5 years ago most took it 10+ years ago (the average age of our students is 27), so it is not relevant. And there are aspects of greek life that can show valuable skills, but these could probably be replaced with internships and class projects depending on the persons amount of work experience. I don't think I would include them after the first job, unless it is somehow related (event planning, greek life, etc.) Sorry for the confusion!