Some Thoughts For New Grads

A university recruiter on Instagram suggested new grads omit their graduation year so they may be considered for a higher level position within a company. I mostly disagree. I do agree that new grads should remove their graduation year. In fact, everyone should omit their graduation year. This date shouldn't be anywhere near your resume! Listing a year creates bias. "He's probably too old, she doesn't have enough experience" etc. Do yourself a favor and omit it. A good recruiter will know if you're a new grad or an experienced electrical engineer.

Omitting your graduation year will not somehow put you in a situation to obtain a higher level position in a company. Let's be honest: If you don't have the chops, you ain't going to the tops. I'm sure there are exceptions to the rule but generally speaking, most people need to earn their stripes. There's no magical formula, or university, or exemplary GPA that's going to propel you from new grad to VP. Do your time & get in line!

Lastly, for new grads, limit that resume to 1-page. You don't have enough experience to drone on & on for multiple pages, even with 4 internships. I have over 20 years of talent acquisition experience and one version of my resume is a 1-pager. It's so much easier for recruiters to digest. Again, if a recruiter has 30 reqs with approx. 100 people / req, I'm not good at math but that's a LOT of candidates. If you can keep it short & sweet, recruiters love it. :)

Happy job hunting!