This article was revised and republished as of 1/13/2023.
The United States is well-known for being a hub for employment opportunities, which is one of the reasons that international students and visitors come. These students will also need to stand out and compete against their peers for jobs in their field. In preparation for this, ISO would like to help our members by improving a document that will help them greatly in this effort: their resume.
Research Before Writing
Getting an edge in job applications means being proactive in your desired field beforehand. Here are some tips on making sure you’ve done your resume homework.
Make your resume industry-specific: Looking through the position you are applying for is helpful in matching your abilities with the skills that are being looked for. Pay attention to common tasks or certain technologies that someone in your shoes would do or use every day. By training yourself to incorporate them more in your professional life, you can meet a company’s expectations before ever seeing them face to face.
If you are looking to apply to different fields, also consider how someone’s resume in that specific industry looks, and model yours after theirs. Resume styles will vary from field to field (a web designer’s resume will not look the same as an accountant’s), so keep that in mind when designing yours.
Study people in your position already: An even more specific way to stand out from the crowd is to find someone, preferably through LinkedIn, that is already working a job with your title. You’ll likely see their duties and responsibilities on their profile, which gives you an opportunity to either add those that you are already familiar with, or work on those you do not have.
Language Is Just as Important
Make experience easy to understand: Not everyone will have the same job history and expertise that you have. When a recruiter goes through your information, they may not understand specific terms that only people at your job would know.
When you are writing down the tasks you performed at jobs – even if they were in your home country – go with the most recent and relevant parts, and describe them in common terms that anyone will be able to understand, but…
Be active in your wording: Even though you won’t be using job-specific language, you’ll still want to make the impact of your job history sound significant, so use stronger verbs to represent your history. Instead of “making” changes to an important project, you can say you “implemented” them.
This also means changing passive language into active wording, as “Restructured the plan” sounds much stronger than “The plan was restructured”. The former places you at the center, like you’ve played a primary role in the task.
Format, Format, Format
Don’t overcrowd:
For those with a lot of experience, you will have to be economical about what you place on the page. Those reading resumes will have to go through stacks before approving a small percentage of applicants, and they’ll only have around six to seven seconds to read each one, on average.
Within that time, they should be able to get a clear enough picture of you as a professional, which is impossible if you write a wall of text. Summarize your history within one page, be brief but concise, and make sure that your language shortening doesn’t take away from the strength of your content.
Resumes with certain elements, like headers, footers, or any imagery that plays a role in describing your experience, should be saved as PDFs. Generally, PDFs have fixed formatting that will not change even if they change technologies (someone on a Mac reading your resume will not have issues if you created yours on a Windows computer), and have no chance of being altered with any accidental typing.
Recognize foreign differences in resumes: Your home country may have an entirely different way of representing your work history, more commonly known outside the US as a CV. More information is typically shown on foreign resumes, as cover letters are rarely used.
In the US, resumes are much shorter, generally no longer than one page, and exist solely for information about job history, so you can get rid of your photos and test scores before submitting one. A cover letter will provide any further information you wanted to share through your old CV.
Remember, your resume is a professional extension of yourself. You will rely on this document to advance your career and earn stronger networking opportunities, and so it should be of the highest standard in representing who you are.
For more advice on improving your career prospects, you can use this guide, visit an on-campus career center, or any professional developmental spaces in your school, and we wish you the best of luck in your application journey!
While you’re looking for jobs, keep in mind that ISO provides plans for college graduates transitioning into their OPT status, those under CPT, and those with H1B visas, so you can have cost-effective comprehensive coverage any time in your U.S. journey!
