Resume Advice: List Your Classes and Projects

It is campus hiring season and I have been reading a lot of college resumes lately.  One thing I have noticed on many resumes is that they do not list what I consider to be some of the most relevant information.  As important as it is that someone made the Dean’s list or worked at Best Buy, it is even more important to know their experience that is directly relevant to the job.  Some have internships and these are directly relevant.  Others have not been so lucky.  That’s fine, but if you find yourself in this bucket, please, please list your classes and describe the major projects you have worked on.  Knowing what projects were worked on gives me, the interviewer, a much better sense of what you are capable of.  It also gives me more material to latch onto and ask questions about.  As a candidate, you want me asking questions about your projects because you should understand them well and be able to talk about them fluently.  Additionally, without classes and projects, a resume with jobs working at Home Depot or the local KFC looks just like every other resume.  It is your internships, projects, and possibly classes that set you apart.

Comments

• Anonymous
  March 29, 2010
  Absolutely agreed!  UW CS&E put us through some really relevant projects that are key for Devs and Testers.  OS Development, Languages, Databases... that information on the resume speaks volumes about someone's aptitude for a particular job.  It also speaks volumes about their interest in computers.  For example I took databases, OS, languages which shows that I am more interested in hands on coding and applications.  Some people liked set theory, turing machines and applied math - they would be great researches.  A third group of people took circuit design and robotics and they would probably be great in hardware or low level drivers.