By: Samantha Murphy
Finals are over and with another long break approaching, you’ve tricked yourself into believing the same mindset you’ve held time and time again- that this break will be different, that you’re really going to prioritize your professional goals. Fast forward two months later and you’re in full-on panic mode with an un-updated resume, zero summer job/ internship prospects, and a whole lot of regret!
No need to fear! Here’s an opportunity for you to reflect on how to get a head start on outlining your objectives and actually following through with them:
REVISE Your Resume
The long break is the perfect time to dust off your resume and see where improvements can be made before applying to summer jobs/ internships! Think about not only new positions that can be added but how you can leverage previous positions with stronger bullet points. Employers find it extremely important that your accomplishments are quantifiable.
Questions to Get You Started:
- Did you edit a certain amount of articles throughout the semester in a leadership position on campus?
- Did you work with/ manage a specific number of team members for a class?
- Did you increase page visits/ social media engagement in a volunteer position?
- Did you secure a certain number of media placements with a pitch in an internship?
Take a hard look at where you can include numbers in your outcomes and be mindful going forward on how you can measure your success in future roles.
REVAMP Your Resume
Once you’ve polished your resume with more detailed descriptions, consider transferring all of your experiences over to a creative resume. Especially in the field of communications, hiring managers are looking for candidates that stand out among the pool of identical applicants, all with similar educational backgrounds and experience.
For this reason, it’s never a bad idea to have both a traditional resume and a creative resume on hand at all times. If you know that the position you’re applying for is seeking someone with more creative skills such as digital content creation, graphic design, or branding, you can showcase those skills before even walking through the door for an interview!
There are many websites where you can find templates for creative resume-building, but I’ve found Canva Design to be the most user-friendly, customizable, and most importantly, FREE.
Hack for Finding UD Alumni
You’ve heard over and over the importance of networking in order to land a job/ internship, but where do you find these professionals and how can you convince them to spare you the time of day to answer your questions?
First, if you go to the University of Delaware page on LinkedIn, you will find an alumni section on the left side of the webpage. You can easily filter through the 133,000+ alumni on this page by narrowing your search down based on city, title, or company. The best way to utilize the search bar to enter keywords such as “public relations,” “communications,” “social media,” “marketing,” or any other fields that reflect your interests.
Once you’ve picked out a few alumni you want to connect with, find a good template that explains why you’re reaching out, whether it be information on their position, their company, their career path, etc. Good luck and happy searching!
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