As a college student when do I start leaving summer jobs off resume?

Question

I am currently a junior and college and am working on my resume. I currently have 4 different projects (related to my major) on my resume (class final projects, directed research, etc.). However, I have only had a single internship. Currently I have listed a summer job from before I started college on my resume, as well as several years of selling on eBay (several years as a top rated powerseller) (my college career advisor suggested adding this freshman year). Once I updated my resume to reflect projects for this semester, I found that my resume is over one page long, which I have been told isn't good for a college student. Should I take off the summer job and eBay selling experience?

EDIT: I also have a short section for accomplishments on my resume that includes a book I authored that has been published (not an academic work) as well as being Bloomberg Certified in Equity. In my opinion these are both things not directly relevant to a potential job, but are things I'd like to keep on my resume. Should I leave both on?

Answer 1

You should only put things on your resume that add value.

And you should make it so that the things that really matter are prominent.

Currently I have listed a summer job from before I started college on my resume, as well as several years of selling on eBay (several years as a top rated powerseller) (my college career advisor suggested adding this freshman year).

You can leave these on there but have minimal bullet points (or even none) associated with them. This does two things:

• Shows work experience
• Doesn't clutter a resume

High school or summer jobs show that you are motivated and capable of holding a job. For a student, this is actually beneficial. But what you do at those jobs is likely less relevant - so don't put all your daily tasks, etc.

If you are in the United States (which your other question suggests) I would strongly encourage you to condense your resume into a single page. The reason is that when we review intern resumes, we see a lot of resumes. Nearly all are one page and frankly speaking, most intern or new graduate applicants haven't done enough to warrant multiple pages.

The absolute last thing you want on a resume is to have meaningful information get missed because the resume is tl;dr.

I found that my resume is over one page long, which I have been told isn't good for a college student.

I would agree with this. Unless you are an absolutely exceptional student, you almost assuredly do not have multiple pages worth of relevant experience.

Answer 2

My resume when I finished college was two (full) pages long. There's typically nothing wrong with that, so long as the content is relevant.

There's many different approaches to writing resumes, but one thing to always keep in mind is that the information on the resume you hand in should be relevant for the job at hand.

In other words, it's fine if your resume is two pages long instead of one, as long as the experience you're listing actually pertains to the position in question. If you're applying to a job as a software developer, for example, it's not relevant that you were an eBay power-seller. However, if applying for a sales position, that's exactly the sort of thing which might get you noticed.

Always keep that in mind when applying, and you should be golden. As you gain more experience in your field you will find that some things start sounding trivial, and you'll naturally start leaving them out.

Answer 3

It largely depends on what jobs you're applying for, and how you want to sell yourself.

You may want to have a couple versions of your resume for different types of positions.

Something like:

For X positions, I include Projects A and B's details, but only include C and D's titles while maintaining my job/ebay history.

For Y positions, I include Projects C and D's details, but only include A and B's titles while maintaining my job/ebay history.

For Z positions, I include all Project details and leave off the job/ebay history.

---

My personal bias would be towards less project details. I like to see that a candidate has held a job and has interests. The eBay stuff in particular shows that you're self-motivated and reliable.

Answer 4

Our team (US, high-tech) sees resumes from a lot of college students seeking their first jobs after graduation. Nearly universally, those resumes do not include non-technical jobs like selling on eBay or working at McDonald's for the summer. Having that information wouldn't help those candidates, either -- screeners and interviewers want to see stuff that translates to the position being sought.

You might think that showing those jobs demonstrates motivation, willingness to work, etc. But internships show that better, are more recent (I hope), and are also job-related. So focus on internships (actually working for other people), class projects (demonstrating proficiency), and any side projects (like open-source contributions) that demonstrate proficiency.

Almost all of our student resumes are one page, by the way. And that still allows enough room to list key advanced courses.