The summer is over and, if you’re a college student, you are back on campus. The end of summer break also means the end of summer jobs and internships. The real question is: how do you make those opportunities work for you now that they are over? In a market where students are having increasing difficulties finding a career, it is more important than ever to maximize your resume, showing your experience and what you bring to the table.
If you took on an internship over the summer, most likely it was in a field that you are wanting to pursue. This gives you a leg up over all other students in your field that didn’t have a summer internship. You now have experience on your side and, in today’s ultra-competitive job market, this gives you an enormous advantage.
Experience is KEY! You will, unfortunately, learn this as you begin to enter the job market…employers all too often say, “not enough experience.” But how are you supposed to get experience if they won’t give it to you!? Frustrating, we know. So, in order to leverage that coveted experience that you’ve finally tasted, be sure to highlight your high-level duties as the intern and show that you are able to apply what you have learned in school/your internship to a business.
Having an education in your chosen field is a requirement in most cases, but to also have real-life business experience in that field puts you ahead of your competition by leaps and bounds. Additionally, be sure to list any references you may have from the company you interned with. Having professional references before you actually graduate will go a long way.
Didn’t apply for an internship? Not a problem. Your part-time or full-time summer job can also be used to leverage your resume to put you ahead of your peers (aka soon-to-be competition). Even if you think your summer job has nothing to do with your desired career, there is always some parallel that you can find that you can list as experience. Let’s just use a typical retail job, for example. While retail itself may not be what you want to do for the rest of your life, it did give you one extremely important bit of experience: working with the public. People skills are so important! Depending on what you’d like to do “when you grow up,” being comfortable around the public, public speaking, and sales experience are absolute MUSTS for many positions. So, while your summer gig may not seem like it could translate to your big girl or big boy job, it absolutely can. Take the time to audit whatever summer job you had and then make sure to leverage the experience you got out of it on your resume.
Just because your summer job or internship is over, it doesn’t mean that it no longer has any value to you. As a college student, your professional resume is essentially empty. It is more important than ever to make sure that you are getting the most out of every opportunity you have and discover ways to apply it to your future career.