Employer Spotlight: What do Employers Look for in a Resume?
By Jenny Mills, Elanco, Senior Sales Representative, Dairy Business Unit
Resumes are a snapshot of you, your goals and your experiences. We utilize resumes to determine who gets an interview and to prepare questions to better get to know you when we are in the interview setting.
A 1-2 page resume is optimal. It should highlight your objective – what do you want to do this summer or in your early career? A one sentence statement that shares your objective is the first thing we see when reading your resume. Something like “utilize my applied research and communication skills to gain a sales position in the animal health industry” lets the interviewer know what you feel are your 1-2 greatest strengths and what you want to do. If you are being interviewed by a variety of employers, do not hesitate to have a resume with an objective customized to the particular company, i.e. Animal Health sales vs Nutrition R&D type internship.
Your relevant list of courses are good, highlight those that are relevant to developing your skills. It doesn’t need to include every course you took!
The meat of the resume lies in your experiences. In the descriptions of your experiences, highlight with action words what you did. Make sure to include situations where you took leadership roles (“Lead XYZ project”) or worked in team settings (“worked with team to accomplish XYZ objective”). Also include accomplishments (“achieved sales goal of XYZ” or “met project goal of XYZ”). Don’t forget to highlight any teaching assistantships, and if relevant, jobs and internships from high school.
Employers also like to learn about your extracurricular activities and highlighted accomplishments. If you hold a leadership role or office, make sure to include those as well.
An easy to read resume with a clear objective and experiences that are described clearly with action words (assisted, developed, lead, organized, executed, etc) help sort your resume to the top!