How should I make a resume? My interviewer blindsided me and asked me to send a resume the day before. I haven’t made an official one because all of my other interviews stated not to bring anything additional like a resume. So where do I start?
Here’s a sample one page resume (It’s actually my son’s resume from several years back that he took to his college interviews. I’ve disguised some of the names for privacy reasons.)
FWIW: You really don’t need more than a one-pager to highlight what interviewers need to know.
I disagree with @gibby a little. My resume does not include my sat scores because frankly, it’s none of their business. You should only include things you have a passion for: INTERESTING THINGS. Your interviewer is not an AO so treat them as such. My Princeton interview lasted almost three hours because we lost track of time talking about things that sparked my intellectual interest I highlighted in my resume.
^^ And, obviously I disagree with @nerdmd. If you have top SAT/ACT scores and a high GPA, you should not be afraid to highlight them on your resume, as listing them automatically lets an interviewer know that Admissions considers you a very serious candidate for the college. That’s not to say you shouldn’t also highlight interesting things on your resume, as well.
FWIW: After you graduate college, and are interviewing for your first job, the expected norm is to list your college GPA and SAT/ACT scores on your resume for the exact same reason. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcgS0kaIgng
@gibby My ACT and SAT (34 and 1480) are good, but not really for Harvard. I mean, pretty much every candidate is going to have at least that if not higher. My GPA is pretty much in the same boat with a 3.91 UW. A 4.64 W/4.5 capped based on https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/ just so there’s a standard for reference. I’m not exactly an academic star, so do you think I should still include those items?
@Jleto18: Taking a rigorous course load and achieving a 3.91 unweighted GPA is very competitive, so I would list your GPA on your resume. I would also list your 34 ACT, as it’s within Harvard’s range. (A 1480 SAT converts to a 33 ACT, so I would NOT list your SAT score on your resume, as Admissions will use your higher ACT score in their evaluations.)
That said, if you don’t feel you are an academic star, you need to give the interviewer reasons that Harvard should admit you. In other words, as William Fitzsimmons, Dean of Harvard Admissions, has stated . . .
@gibby Yeah, I did wind up listing my SAT, although, I already “accidentally” sent official score reports of my all my SAT and ACT tests so Harvard already knows. I guess I bubbled in Harvard as one of the schools to send free scores to when I was taking them my Junior year, so all my official tests are there. I didn’t realize until I logged into the application portal a month back. I doubt it’d make a difference since the damage is already done. Hey, at least I’m transparent…or that’s what I tell myself.
Anyway, thank you for helping me with the resume. I appreciate the advice and example.
I would think the reason the interviewer wants a resume is to guide conversation, not to evaluate your academics, which admissions is already doing. I guess you have already sent the resume, but for others in the future, no need to try to impress, just write enough about courses, jobs and extracurriculars to give a sense of who you are and where your interests lie.
My kids are successful adults and have never put their GPA or scores on a resume.
And remember that interviews go both ways: you are also considering whether to attend and need to ask questions.
ps to OP no harm done, just saying, people can relax on these things…
I think you received a variety of good advice above, and hope you had a great interview! For future readers, here are my two cents: I would include scores & gpa if you think they are impressive, but otherwise there is no need to—in fact I think it is unusual to include them on a resume (unless you are applying to be an SAT/ACT tutor, in which case it would be important to include). In my child’s case, with a 36 ACT, I encouraged him to include the score. But if one had say a 30, for Harvard I would suggest they not include it, even though of course there are accepted students with those scores. It’s not likely to be the strongest aspect of that student’s application, so why highlight it? Additionally, even though I did suggest my child include their score, it was not without hesitation. This is because I do not really believe it is a “typical” thing to include on a resume, and so it could be taken as sort of a dorky, annoying thing to include— sort of like that person who is just DYING to tell you about their perfect test score, and somehow manages to slip it in to every conversation to brag. So I told my child to include it because it was impressive, but realizing it could be risking some readers finding it off-putting. And OP, your 34 is also impressive, in 99th percentile, I believe, so it does signal that you are a very qualified student, so I think you could also have gone either way with this.
And like compmom, I would find it strange for an adult college grad to include GPA or scores on a resume. Yes to including, “summa cum laude”, “magna cum laude”, or other honors and awards that speak to excellent performance in classes, but an actual GPA would seem odd to me. My first entry level job out of an ivy did require transcripts to be sent (strategy consulting), so they did care about grades, but most of my friends applying for jobs outside of consulting and i-banking were not asked to share transcripts. After your first job, no one will care about grades as much, although a “summa cum laude” or “with honors” always looks good. And at that point including high school test scores from ACT/SAT would strike me as appearing almost juvenile and like the job applicant was stuck in the past. It might be more appropriate to include “National Merit Scholarship Winner” than saying 1590 SAT. Perhaps Gibby means that they see people applying for post-college jobs include test scores for things like MCATs, GMATs, etc, which are tests that people would take post-high school. But for me, I would possibly still find that off-putting in an adult resume, even if they were impressive scores.
Clearly, it is possible that resume-readers have different feelings about this, and it is tough to please everyone! So probably no exact right or wrong answer for how to do this, only opinions. Good luck everyone!
Please watch the video I linked to in post #3, HARVARD suggests putting your GPA and test scores on your resume when recruiters come to campus to interview seniors for jobs. I agree that after your first job, no one cares about your GPA and test scores. However, employers do seem to care about GPA and test scores when a graduating senior is applying for their very first job.
My D19 included her GPA and scores I think because she saw this as applying for a spot as a college student, not a job and grades are a sign of your strengths to perform as a student.
Well, in terms of resumes for college students, the video does say that “it is common for freshman and sophomores to include high school information on the resume, but…”
She also says that “it is typical of many on-campus recruiters “ to require GPA and test scores, but that for most other jobs it is optional. So obviously if someone is asking you for that information, absolutely supply it. But I will stand with the opinion that if it is not asked for, it can possibly look off-putting for a 22 year old applicant to be highlighting a test score that they took when they were 16 or 17. I used to recruit for my (top) strategy consulting firm, and we did not ask for SATs and I personally would have found it potentially odd at that point—I would have been hoping that the applicants would have had things from college to impress me rather than dwell on their SAT/ACT score.
So, I’ll stick with my, “Probably no exact right or wrong way to do it, only opinions.” The Harvard OCS seems to consider it optional to include unless it is required by select employers.
But of course for the OP’s question about a high school resume, that is all moot. I think they should include it only if they think it will help them. It will not look like an omission if they choose not to.