Would like some advice here and I’m hoping I can explain this correctly.
My daughter is into languages and will probably major in a language or two in college. She has a number of language-based ECs. In one of those ECs, she holds an elected position.
In another, non-language based EC, she also holds an elected position.
Right now, she has a “language” section on her resume since she has so many items that focus around it. She not only has her language-based ECs in that section, but she also has various foreign language awards in the section.
I’m wondering if the language section is a bad idea because (1) It splits up her two elected leadership positions and (2) It mixes academic awards with ECs. (There is a whole other section where she lists other, non-language academic awards.)
I’m assuming that she will list her activities in the same order on her application as they are on her resume. When I look at the resume, it does scream “foreign language” which is cool, but “leadership” gets lost because the two positions are split up and “academic awards” are also split up (foreign language awards in the language section, other awards under “awards.”) I’m just not sure if it’s now easy to miss certain awards or leadership positions because of this. And…not sure if it matters.
Any thoughts would be appreciated - I hope I have explained this correctly. Thanks!!
You could be very general under the activities section, and then direct the application reader to the additional info section where she could go into detail about her leadership position and recognition. That’s what I did. Hope that was helpful
I like it. I think that showing what matters to her is more important than trying to highlight leadership per se. They will see it all, as it’s all there. I think it’s more authentic than trying to paint yourself as a “leader” in general.
My son did something like this years ago on his resume and it worked out fine. He had several leadership positions across different fields, but he listed his ECs in order of importance to him.
Just to be clear, though, just because she groups all language together in her resume, or activities list, doesn’t mean she needs to do the same on the application. She should attend to what the application asks for in each section. The two things don’t need to match in format. I think if the application asks for “Awards” she should put all of her awards in that section.
Thanks! @Hanna there is no way to fit everything on one page. We have tried! What’s funny is that I have a daughter who graduated from college this year and I told her to limit her resume to one page! But there is no way this daughter can fit everything on one page that I can figure out, unless it’s just a laundry list with no detail at all. I’ve interviewed a number of kids for my alma mater and none have ever given me a one-page resume…then again, I don’t think the resume gets attached to the apps anymore anyway, right? It’s just for the teachers who are doing your recommendations?
If you can’t fit it all on one page, you’re including things that colleges/employers won’t care about. Further, everything that you include on the resume that isn’t a reason for them to accept you reduces the likelihood that they will absorb the information that is.
The only 18-year-old’s resume that I’ve ever seen that was overly squeezed onto one page was the resume of a student who’d been a working actor since she was 6 and played Little Cosette on Broadway.
Many colleges and graduate schools do accept a resume.
I’ve been working for 30 years, have 3 degrees and can condense to one page. Anything more shows a lack of consideration for the reader…keep that in mind. Some of that is not very important.
I’ve read more college resumes than I care to remember. You can fit it all on one page. If you can’t, you’re including too much. No one is going to read past one page so anything on the 2nd page isn’t going to fit anyway.
I agree. Hit the highlights…and keep this resume to one page. Also remember too, there are some colleges that will not look at a resume…because they don’t ask for one. Only send what the college will actually accept and use.
One of my kids had a couple of different resumes for his EC, which was also his college major. One was major works he had played, and the other was activities. These were specifically asked for by specific colleges to,which he applied. One school clearly stated they would review NOTHING unless it was on their application (pre-common application).
My kid listed his EC involvement in chronological order…with no explaining details.
I think it will all fit on one page if she takes out the descriptions for what the organizations do (and any information about money raised as well), but then you’re sort of left wondering a bit, especially for organizations that don’t have clear names. Would you suggest that? I’d love to see a one-page college resume as I haven’t seen one and would like to see how people are handling these things!
One caveat to this discussion: If one is applying to academic positions or PhD/research-focused masters programs, you’ll typically use a CV rather a resume, which are allowed to be more than one page and are typically much laonger than that (CVs for recent PhD grads in my field who are competitive for faculty and competitive research positions are typically in the 4-8 page range, for example), Of course, concerns and advice about not padding/being concise still applies.
“I think it will all fit on one page if she takes out the descriptions for what the organizations do”
How many organizations are we talking about here? If there are multiple places that she’s done one type of activity, you can group them together:
“Lifeguard: American Red Cross, Summer 2014; Whoville YMCA, Summer 2013; Camp Wossomotta, Summer 2012.”
You might also be surprised how short and how much more effective you can make those descriptions. Think “Clothing drive,” “Hockey camp for children with autism,” etc. That’s all you need.
You can use a bullet point to explain what YOU do within the organization rather than explaining the organization itself. When I’m reading resumes, I do not care one bit about what the org does- I care about what the applicant did within the organization.
For example, when I was in high school, I co-founded two student orgs. One was called the Animal Rights Club (pretty self-explanatory) but the other was called Awareness and Activism (huh??). So for the Awareness and Activism club, I described setting up community engagement activities between our school and schools in lower-income neighborhoods, setting up a campaign to raise awareness for X issues, etc.
@thumper , I know, but other posters were also discussing resumes in general and saying that no one, even professionals, should ever go over 1 page. I was simply pointing out that there are exceptions.
ReadyToRoll, I would strongly suggest you choose the most notable of these activities and list them. If there is space left, add in some of the less notable activities.
It’s not “more is better”…its quality. So pick the quality activities first.
On most resumes, things are listed in chronological order.
Interesting that so many are telling OP only one page. My kids had two resumes – a one-pager when the entity said it only wanted one page, and a two-pager for other instances that included more information. Some schools ask for a longer resume: http://bealonghorn.utexas.edu/freshmen/admission/resume
An example of the difference for one of my kids. Ds1 on the one-pager wrote Eagle Scout, January 2009. On the two-pager, he included what the project was, how much money was raised, how many man-hours it took.
In terms of how to order it, I always recommend that you order it in whatever way best represents you. For some kids, that’ll be headings for Education, Leadership, Internships; for others, it’ll be Education, Volunteerism and Sports. I think having a Foreign Language heading is great. If you are worried about the awards getting lost under the category, you could make a subhead or title it Foreign Language Awards and Leadership. Ds2 went to a free summer program in D.C. for which only 25 kids are selected. The name of the program was super long. Plus he was one of only three who won an award there and one of only two who won a scholarship. We wanted to lump that all together instead of the summer program one place, then the award in a separate place, then the scholarship in still another place. Just repeating the name of the awarding organization would have added at least two-three lines right there.
“On the two-pager, he included what the project was, how much money was raised, how many man-hours it took.”
But why does this need a second page? I’d describe it something like this:
Eagle Scout project, Summer 2014: New picnic tables for Whoville State Park
30 hours selling chocolate bars to raise $2000 for supplies
30 hours carpentry and painting
Certificate of completion awarded September 26, 2014
My husband says that the 1-page resume constraint is out of date for high-tech positions and for submission to academics who are used to seeing CVs. DH hires for a small startup that needs physics majors and engineers. He says he expects 1 page from people without much relevant experience, 2 pages for people with people with a good amount of experience, and more pages for senior positions.
DS used a 2-page resume to successfully get a research position (unpaid, full-time summer, part-time school year) in an astrophysics lab as a HS sophomore, and wasn’t told his resume was too long. I think it depends on who is reading it. If it’s someone who has to read a lot of resumes for the position, then 1 page is probably best.
DS did do a 1-page resume for his English class, and it was cramped and still left out many relevant items. The reviewers they had come in from industry suggested adding things that would have pushed it past 1 page.
His resume sections are currently: Education (includes STEM test scores), Science & Math, Computer Science, Engineering, and Teaching/Mentoring. He doesn’t even include non-STEM volunteerism or his involvement in Debate. Within each section, things are generally in order of prestige. He has several versions and could use the 1-pager if needed.
Upon rereading the OP, I realize that you may mainly be asking about the order to use on college applications like the Common App. We haven’t done that or even looked at the Common App yet, so others can weigh in. I’m under the impression that ECs are limited to somewhere around 7 with short descriptions, so you have to group the ECs and have the longer descriptions in the “other information” space.
Our resumes that go to the teachers writing recommendations will need to be entered in Naviance.
