Image courtesy of Unsplash per Sebastian Herrmann
For many teens, high school is their first introduction to writing a resume, and college and scholarship applications are one of the first high-stakes endeavors for which that resume actually matters. While writing a resume might seem as easy as following a template and regurgitating extracurricular activities and high school stats, there are far more nuances that separate exceptional resumes from the much more common lackluster ones that fail to impress.
A successful resume should do much more than convey your teen’s academic profile; instead, an optimal resume will paint a compelling picture of who your teen is, what they value, how they have and plan to impact the world, and why they would be an unparalleled addition to the school, scholarship, or internship in question. Let’s dive into 10 mistakes teens make when writing their resumes and how to right them to craft a stellar one instead.
1. They fail to include KPI’s
In case you aren’t familiar, a “KPI” or “Key Performance Indicator” is a term often used in business to reference as a “quantifiable measure of performance over time for a specific objective”. That’s a fancy way of saying using numbers and clear, concrete, tangible quantitative results to illustrate performance or outcomes, and that’s exactly how teens should be positioning the bullets in their resumes.
Indicating a teen’s participation in an activity on a resume simply isn’t enough these days; teens need to show what initiatives they led, specifically what actions they took or spearheaded, and the results or measurable outcomes to follow. Thus, teens are able to connect their individual impact with a clear outcome and convey just how valuable and impactful of a participant they were. This can apply to every activity from sports to student government, clubs, and independent projects and volunteering.
For example, let’s say a teen acted as treasurer of the prom planning committee and achieved the highest percentage attendance in the past three years, while remaining 20% under budget; that would reveal the teen’s impressive skills in areas ranging from marketing to event planning to finance and budgeting, with indisputable quantifiable results. It’s a far stronger resume than someone who simply acted as treasurer on the prom planning committee, but omitted the results or impact.
You can right this wrong by combing through each activity on your resume and identifying exactly what actions you took to achieve certain goals, what those goals were, and your concrete achievements and results.
2. They don’t paint a cohesive picture
Another huge mistake that’s been popping up in recent years is due to the emphasis on teens being “well-rounded” and involved in a wide variety of activities. The issue arises if or when the teen is unable to paint a cohesive picture of who they are, what they’re interested in, what their long-term goals are, and how each of their involvements relates to this. It’s completely fine to be a multi-dimensional person – in fact, it’s great. However, you want to temper that by ensuring you come off as a multi-faceted person with clear and cohesive goals and objectives, rather than a dabbler who likes to try a little bit of everything without committing too heavily to any one pursuit.
One easy way to address this is to simply ensure there’s at least one primary activity, hobby, or endeavor you stick with for an extended period of time (ideally years, not months) to prove your commitment and dedication to this one area. It’s even better if your other pursuits are tangentially related or cultivate skills that cross over into both ventures.
3. They forget about their audience
Teens who write a resume for the first time may commit a cardinal sin that affects adults as well – and people in many industries: They forget that the resume is a tool meant for a specific audience, with specific hopes and expectations. Every audience is different; some are seeking a STEM-focused student, others are looking for real-world leadership, and others are digging for environmental impact or selfless service missions.
Point being, before a teen finalizes a resume or submits it to a university, internship, scholarship, or job, they should refresh their memory on who this resume is for, what that reader is seeking, and assess whether they’ve properly targeted it to check those boxes.
4. They put far too little attention into this
There’s one huge difference between a high school essay assignment and a resume: An essay is just one piece of work pertaining to one class, subject, or assignment; a resume, on the other hand, is intended to be a reflection of a student as a whole. In other words, every tiny aspect of your resume should position you in the best light, and any shortcomings or errors are quite literally poor reflections on you as a person or candidate.
If there was ever an “assignment” to proofread, triple-check, and for which to raise your standards, it’s your resume. Not only should the spelling be correct, vocabulary be accurate and impressive, and content be top-notch, but the format, structure, style, and consistency should read like a professional document you’d hand to an employer with a 6-figure job on the line. If you grant your resume the adequate amount of attention, time, effort, and respect, you’re much more likely to create the best version possible.
5. They neglect the obstacles they’ve overcome
Many high-achieving teens believe standing out is about perfection, and while perfection is nice, most people who read your resume are well aware 100% perfection isn’t often realistic. This is where some teens shortchange themselves: In an attempt to seem perfect, they avoid including the challenges or obstacles they’ve faced and paint a rosy, linear picture of their journey and accomplishments.
In contrast, it would be far more impressive to an admissions officer and an employer if teens did include any significant challenges or hardships they faced and how they overcame them; this conveys character strength, stamina, and a resiliency many schools and bosses would be eager to snap up.
6. They tell more than they show
One of the gravest, most obvious – but also most easily addressable – mistake is the use of adjectives over action verbs. Countless students believe including a laundry list of the adjectives recruiters and admissions officers are looking for is the fast-track to get on their good side. Unfortunately, talk – and adjectives – are cheap, and the person reading through your laundry list may simply not believe them. Why? They want proof.
Don’t say you’re a “leader”; prove it by exemplifying leadership in one of your action-packed (and KPI-packed!) bullets illustrating your accomplishment in a certain task. If you think of your resume more like a movie script, with each bullet a scene of your heroic achievements, and less like a third person novel full of fluffy, flowery descriptive verbiage, you’re likely to cut to the impressive points and arrive at a much more hard-hitting resume.
7. They leave out a spike
Oftentimes if you ask an Ivy League student how or why they got into said school, they’ll refer back to one unique and impressive thing that very few students do. For example, one might say they built a fundraising app to help impoverished kids in their city, while another may have painted portraits for orphans in developing countries, and another wrote a script they sold to Netflix. Okay, maybe all the Ivy League kids aren’t selling scripts to Netflix, but many of them do have one thing in common: a spike.
What’s a spike? It’s that rare, unique, unexpected, impressive thing a student goes above and beyond to do of their own volition, on their own time, despite the fact that no parent, teacher, or organized program directed them to. Your spike could show how you’ve turned your ten years of violin lessons into a service operation where you and a few orchestra friends play sonatas as music therapy for disabled kids.
There’s no rule around what a spike is or isn’t, but if you can carve out your own individual differentiator, leveraging the skills, interests, or access you already have, you can stand head and shoulders above your peers who believe sports, clubs, and a high GPA are the only three keys needed to enter the Ivy League kingdom. Regardless of what type of school, scholarship, or internship you’re applying to, the competitive advantage of a spike will only be to your benefit.
8. They undervalue the track record
Speaking of ten years of violin, is there anything you’ve done for ten years? How about five? Four? Three? A massively underutilized advantage many teens overlook on their resumes is to highlight their long-term commitments as a testament to their unwavering track record and stick-to-itiveness. Few students realize just how valuable this long-term dedication is in the eyes of both admissions officers and employers, and if you’re one of them, you should definitely revisit your resume and include or highlight any activities, hobbies, or pursuits you’ve maintained for many years.
9. They come off selfish by omitting this one thing
Many high schools require a minimum number of community service hours in order to graduate. Whether that number is 40 or 240, a common mistake students make is to assume that mandated service belongs prominently displayed on a resume. While you’re welcome to mention the fact that you spent 40 hours folding clothes for Goodwill donations to knock out your community service requirement, this may check a box, but it won’t impress or stand out.
That said, lacking any independent community service that wasn’t mandated by your school could definitely come off as selfish or disinterested in serving the world. The one mistake many teens make on their resumes – and that you can use to your advantage – is they put far too little emphasis on helping others, serving the world, or doing something selflessly generous and good for other people. Thus, their resume reads as a high achieving, but self-interested person dedicated to only their own interests.
Since this is such a common problem, it’s also a great opportunity to set yourself apart from those peers by prioritizing a more altruistic endeavor on your own time. Hopefully you’re pursuing this charitable initiative because you truly care, not simply to boost your resume; however, if you do throw yourself into it and make an outsized impact, you could reap some serious rewards. In fact, there are 6-figure scholarships and grants awarded to students purely based on the independent service-focused initiatives and philanthropic impacts they’ve had on the world.
If you haven’t added service to your to-do list, it might be time to start exploring how else you can give back, and you might be surprised how giving back often comes back to you in the best of ways.
10. They don’t play to the ATS
When you’re writing your resume, you’re envisioning a human reading it, right? That would be nice – and sometimes that’s the case. However, oftentimes – in today’s tech-forward age, where artificial intelligence and automation are often at the forefront of tasks including hiring and resume reviews, they may be the first gatekeepers. If you want to get through to the real human who can appreciate your quirky skills or heartfelt service impact, you’ll have to first play by the rules of technology and ensure you get to stage 2 in the first place. That means playing by the rules of the “ATS” or “Applicant Tracking System”.
Simply put, an ATS may have a filter to scan for a variety of action verbs and buzzwords to tease out the resumes that clearly check those boxes. The last thing you want is your bland vocabulary and passive bullets to be cause for a passed over resume. The solution here is simple: Investigate exactly what the college, scholarship, or recruiter is looking for (you can often find this on their website, on the application, or on the job post), and ensure you fill each of those gaps with the relevant action verbs and buzzwords.
Yes, you spearheaded that marketing campaign. Of course, you critically analyzed the options and problem-solved your way to a more innovative solution. Get what we’re getting at? If the ATS is playing a word game, you can play too, and it’ll be well worth it when your resume gets shuffled over to the human admissions officer eager to add you to the “Accepted” pile.
It’s what you say and how you say it
When it comes to writing resumes, what you say – or the skills, KPIs, and charitable impacts you’ve had – is just as important as how you say it – also known as the structure, style, format, and vocabulary employed. These 10 mistakes teens make when writing their resumes often stem from a lack of awareness or consideration for exactly who is reading – and judging – it and what they’re looking for. Once you recalibrate your objective to narrowly serve that audience, you’ll know exactly how to package and position yourself as the ideal candidate within the confines of that one value-packed page.
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