It’s hard to believe that Thanksgiving has come and gone. And when it comes to campus recruiting we are in the midst of it. We have been to multiple campuses across the US and have seen some great resumes. So what differentiates a good resume amongst so many others? As you can imagine being a recruiter for a large organization like Accenture we see hundreds of resumes a day. And instead of me telling you how to format a resume, I would rather discuss what you should be doing during your time in college to really set you a part.
College is a time to explore your options; you have a lot of possibilities and can really set your goals as high as you want. If you want to start your week off at 8am on Monday morning, you can. I think while I was in school, my weeks started closer to 10am, but that’s the thing, there is so much flexibility.
What does a leading consulting, technology and outsourcing firm like Accenture look for? My entry-level consulting recruiter colleagues and I realize that as a student, you have a lot of options, so what we want to see is that you take advantage of these possibilities. We like to see that you can balance everything. Once you start a full time career you could be wearing multiple hats right away. A high GPA is always good on a resume, but if you only went to class and focused all of your time on getting high grades, sometimes that leaves you less time for other things like being involved with organizations on campus or even being a leader within those groups or organizations, which can really set you a part. Working at the local coffee shop, while being involved in multiple organizations and maintaining a good GPA, demonstrates that you can balance. So go ahead and get involved, take on roles that challenge you and try new things.