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Perfect Resume Guide for Recent College Graduates

7 min read · Updated on July 30, 2024

Here's what to include in your entry-level college graduate resume

As you near your college graduation date, entry into the workforce gets closer and closer. That said, there are many factors to consider as you begin your post-grad job search. One of the most important considerations is how to develop your job marketing materials, like your resume, to grab the attention of employers. What resume standards do you need to consider, and what can you do to create a recent college graduate resume that stands out from the crowd?

Lucky for you, TopResume partnered with TheJobNetwork to produce a webinar all about resume writing for recent college graduates.. Watch the following video to learn how to write the perfect recent college graduate resume for an entry-level position.

Recent college graduate resume guide

Below are 14 reasons why the above example is an excellent resume for a recent college graduate.

1. He used a professional-looking email address

One thing recent college graduate resumes often include is an unprofessional email address. The email address [email protected] may have been funny when you were in college, but it's not the best choice to represent your professional brand in the working world. Do yourself a favor and set up a professional-looking email address that's reserved for your job-seeking activities.

2. It includes a customized link to his LinkedIn profile

Not only is LinkedIn a great place to build your professional brand and make connections, but recruiters also expect to find you on there.  In fact, a survey found that more than 90 percent of employers use LinkedIn to search for and evaluate job candidates. Make it easy for them to find you by including the link to your profile at the top of your resume. Take it a step further and customize your LinkedIn profile URL so it matches your brand and fits nicely on your resume.

3. The professional summary isn't full of fluff

It can be tempting to throw a bunch of buzzwords such as “ambitious” and “self-starter” into the summary section of your recent college graduate resume template, but employers know these are pure fluff and won't be impressed when they read them. 

Don't tell employers how you're a great team player. Instead, explain how you served on a committee to raise money for your lacrosse team or received accolades for a group project during your internship. Click on the following link for more tips to craft your professional summary .

4. Nicholas optimized his recent college graduate resume with relevant keywords

Your job application needs to get past multiple gatekeepers before it makes it into the hands of a hiring manager. Take a look at the job listings you're interested in and identify the key terms and phrases that routinely pop up. 

If you have those skills or were exposed to that industry or process, incorporate them into your resume. You can add them to a Core Competencies section, similar to Nicholas' resume, or incorporate them throughout the Work Experience section.

5. There aren't any mentions of high school

Hiring managers are interested in what you've done lately, not what you accomplished four or more years before you went to college as high school students. Focus on highlighting your activities, accomplishments, and the work experience that took place during your college career, calling special attention to anything that directly supports your job goals.

6. He lists his GPA

Only list your GPA on your entry-level resume if it's a 3.0/4.0 or higher. If the GPA in your major is higher than your overall GPA, feel free to use that instead. However, keep in mind that employers will know why you didn't include your GPA and may ask you about it during the interview process .

7. Nicholas didn't include his coursework

If you've held at least one internship that's relevant to your degree and career goals, there's no reason to also include a list of the courses you took. Employers will value your internship experience over the stuff you learned in the classroom any day of the week. 

However, if you did not intern, include a list of the 400-level courses you took that are most closely tied to your job goals to show hiring managers what subjects you're familiar with.

8. It plays up Nicholas' selling points

The format of your entry-level college-graduate resume will depend on the information you have to work with. If you have a ton of great internship experience, highlight that just below your professional resume summary and education sections. 

If you didn't hold any jobs that were related to your future career, play up other information instead, such as the high-level courses you took, major projects you participated in, academic or athletic honors you received, or extra-curricular activities and volunteer work that demonstrate your leadership roles and skills. 

In Nicholas' case, we divided his job experience into two categories so his relevant internships took the spotlight.    

9. Each employer has a company description

Help employers get a better understanding of the industries and work environments you were exposed to by including a line that describes each company with which you held an internship. 

If you're tight on space, feel free to eliminate this information for your summer jobs that aren't related to your current career goals. You can also omit this information from your internships if they were all held at companies with big, well-known brand names.

10. Nicholas bulleted the most important information

Use bullet points to draw attention to the information you believe recruiters will care most about. This may include an accomplishment or other major contribution you helped your team achieve.

11. Action verbs and numbers are used to describe his work experience

Notice how the bullets under Nicholas' roles begin with an action verb? This information focuses on how Nicholas contributed to an end result. When you're new to the workforce, you may not have many major accomplishments and contributions to include in your resume; however, use action verbs (e.g. created, led, managed, improved, developed, built) to describe your activities.

Nicholas also included quantifiable data to highlight his achievements. When showcasing accomplishments, it's best to include as many numbers as possible to represent the level of results achieved.  

12. His extracurricular activities and honors are provided

Your first resume out of college should play up your best selling points. This may include any projects or extracurricular activities you held while attending college, as well as any scholarships or other honors you received during that time. Click on the following link for more tips on how to build a resume using college involvement as experience .  

13. Nicholas' relevant skills are listed

Take a closer look at the job descriptions that interest you and note what technical skills they expect you to possess. This may include proficiency with a particular software program or language skill that's considered valuable in your chosen field. If you have a working knowledge of these platforms, list them on your resume. 

If you keep seeing a skill or tool mentioned that you don't know much about, look for free or low-cost online courses on the topic to bolster your skill set. Resources such as edX , SkillShare , and LinkedIn Learning are great places to start.

14. References are not included

As an entry-level professional, you only get one page of resume real estate — don't waste it by adding references or the phrase “References available upon request.” Employers usually won't ask for this information until you make it to a face-to-face interview, and they know you'll provide it if they request it.

Additional recent college graduate resume examples

Looking for more samples and advice? Click on the following links to check out a recording of our recent resume-writing webinar and take a look at another recent college graduate resume sample that TopResume's resident Career Expert Amanda Augustine provided for Business Insider.

Need help with your recent college graduate resume? Learn more about our professional resume-writing services to get a resume like the one above. You can also submit it for a free resume review to get started!

This blog was originally written by Amanda Augustine and has been updated by Ronda Suder. 

Recommended reading:

How to Check if My Resume is ATS-Friendly for Free

The Hottest Entry-Level Jobs for Recent Grads

17+ Job Resources for College Graduates

Related Articles:

Do Hiring Managers Actually Read Cover Letters?

How to Create a Resume With No Education

From Bland to Beautiful: How We Made This Professional's Resume Shine

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11 College Graduate Resume Examples [& Templates]

College Graduate

Best for senior and mid-level candidates

There’s plenty of room in our elegant resume template to add your professional experience while impressing recruiters with a sleek design.

Resume Builder

Like this template? Customize this resume and make it your own with the help of our Al-powered suggestions, accent colors, and modern fonts.

College Graduate Resume

• College Graduate Resumes by Experience
• College Graduate Resumes by Career
• Resume FAQs

Whether you attended a traditional 4-year university straight out of high school or worked through an online program, there’s no doubt your college experience was unique. 

Hence, it’s safe to assume that your college graduate resume will also be unique, which is good because you want an employer to see what makes you a valuable candidate. That said, it can be difficult to  outline your resume  or work with an AI cover letter generator if your work experience is sparse or irrelevant. 

That’s why we’ve taken the time to build eleven college graduate resume samples you can use as a springboard. With our examples and proven tips , we know you’ll be able to expertly draft a professional resume that encompasses your collegiate activities, work history, and skills.

or download as PDF

Why this resume works

• Place emphasis on projects relevant to your chosen field. List 2-4 bullet points about your contributions, responsibilities, and accomplishments. Don’t forget to start with a strong action verb. 
• It’s also appropriate to include other extracurriculars on your college graduate resume. Seemingly irrelevant activities are important to include because they demonstrate you’re a well-rounded candidate. 
• Take advantage of the  career objective  by briefly summing up your varied collegiate projects, and be sure to state how your experience better equips you for the job. 
• Examine the description of your desired job, and include some of those mentioned skills that are relevant to you. 

Recent College Graduate Resume

• Include relevant coursework,
• Include a specific and honest list of  skills , 
• Include your GPA (if you’re proud of it!), 
• and include a resume objective. 
• Use numbers when possible to show measurable impact.
• Start with action verbs. 
• Be specific, and avoid generalized statements that could be on any resume. 

New College Graduate Resume

• In just three sentences, just below your new college graduate resume’s header, spill the tea on what drives you toward this internship, then spice it up with a dash of your awesome personality. And about flexing some of your skills and gigs? Sure, there’s no harm in that.

If You Went to College But Didn’t Graduate Resume

• Perhaps, think about that time you transformed an online page into a hit with your SEO mastery as a business owner or those custom logos and promo videos you whipped up during a graphic designer stint. Point them out in your if you went to college but didn’t graduate resume, and no ifs or buts about it. And those volunteer gigs? Throw them in to showcase the teamwork and community engagement side of you.

New Graduate Nurse Resume

• An excellent approach here would be to describe your involvement in volunteer programs, like Leo’s stints at Beyond the Bedside and Health Habits, Healthy Lives. Go the extra mile to illuminate the tangible difference your intervention facilitated.

Computer Science Graduate Resume

• For each, it’s essential to highlight your application or mastery of skills or tools fundamental to computer science or software engineering (Think Python, Java, PostgreSQL, and C++).

Accounting College Graduate Resume

• It’s a masterstroke for your accounting college graduate resume to highlight your analytical, cost-cutting, process automation, and risk mitigation through experimental projects that can be actualized in the real business world.

Nursing College Graduate Resume

• All you have to do in your nursing college graduate resume is to underline your accomplishments in patient care, saving waiting times, and improving overall outcomes.

Marketing College Graduate Resume

• Internships are extremely valuable to your marketing college graduate resume. Not everyone secures an internship before entering the workforce, so including an internship will demonstrate initiative, real-world experience, and industry knowledge. 
• Whether you’ve improved traffic to your personal blog or volunteered to build campaigns for a local organization, those undertakings matter a great deal because employers will, again, see your initiative as well as how you operate in your skillset when you’re not on the clock. 
• Trying to fit all the pieces of your college years onto one page is a challenge, so choose a template that will allow you to rearrange and organize sections in a logical way. 

Engineering College Graduate Resume

• Something you “just did for fun” may actually be a project worth mentioning. If you developed an app for personal use and preference, this is an excellent project to include that will detail your skills , project outcome, and creativity. 
• awards, achievements, recognition, or organizations/societies you were involved in;
• solid GPAs;
• and relevant coursework. 
• Make sure you change your resume objective for each job you apply to. Otherwise, it’s better to not include one.

Human Resources College Graduate Resume

• Choose a professional but creative template, and take advantage of our free  resume checker  that will help you with a number of things, including using active verbs, avoiding passive voice, and checking for punctuation consistency. 
• No matter what you include in your resume, write job description bullet points that will demonstrate genuine care for the people you work with as well as your ability to assist and improve the experiences of those individuals.
• Hint: If you can quantify your experiences with figures, statistics, percentages, or money, do so—metrics speak louder than vague statements.

Related resume guides

• Grad School
• College Student
• Entry Level

College Graduate Resume FAQs

While you may have work experience to add to your resume, not everyone does—and that’s perfectly okay! Your college career is ripe with experiences to include in your resume. Most importantly, you need to fill in the “work experience” section of your resume, and if you don’t have traditional work experience yet, use this space to talk about academic projects or student organizations you were involved in or even led. Academic projects and student orgs that are relevant to your degree are excellent talking points since they’ll directly provide valuable experience for your career choice. Other things worth including are relevant coursework and a career objective that specifically shares how your experience to date will help you contribute to the job.

Some will tell you to use a functional resume format, which places emphasis on your skills and minimizes your work history. While you  can  use a functional format, we’re gonna throw a curve ball and recommend you use the reverse-chronological resume format instead. Why? If you treat academic and personal projects, volunteer work, and school extracurriculars as valid experience (which you should), you won’t be stumped as to what to put in your “work experience” section on your resume. Employers and recruiters are most familiar with the reverse-chronological format anyway, and you won’t raise red flags with a resume based primarily on skills.

If you’re proud of it! Listing your GPA on your college grad resume is not a requirement for most employers, but it certainly can’t hurt your case if you’ve got a GPA worth sharing with the world. Consider including your GPA if it’s greater than 3.5 as it can demonstrate your strong work ethic, commitment, and perseverance, all while working through multiple projects and tasks. Once you’ve gained several years of work experience, it’s a good idea to remove your GPA as your work experience will stand out above grades from the past.

Stephen is the co-founder and CEO of BeamJobs. He started his career in data fulfilling the dream of little kids everywhere: working for an insurance company. He then moved on to work in edtech for a company called Chegg before venturing out to start BeamJobs. Things have come a long way after countless “learnings” (fancy word for mistakes), and BeamJobs has now helped 2.5M+ people create their perfect resume. Stephen and BeamJobs have been featured on awesome sites like Business Insider, Chicago Tribune, Dallas News, Baltimore Sun, the Daily Press, Zendesk, HubSpot , and loads more.

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