First Year, First Steps: How To Start Building Your Resume
Written by: Shreya Thomas, 4th Year Media, Information and Technology Major with a Digital Communications Certificate
Photo by: Western Communications
Picture this: You’ve just arrived at Western, you’re enjoying your first week, and then reality sets in. You look around and realize some of your peers already have extensive resumes, even though they just graduated high school. Meanwhile, you’re thinking, I don’t even have a resume.
Well, you’re definitely not the only one! We’ve all been there. But the great thing about Western is that your resume can start right here. You don’t need to have everything figured out or land an internship in your first semester to start building experience. Here are four things you can do right now to start building your resume while making the most of your first year at Western.
1. Get Involved on Campus
Western offers so many opportunities to explore your interests. From clubs and faculty associations to student publications, volunteer opportunities, and campus organizations, there are plenty of ways to get involved, regardless of your experience level.
One thing I did in my first year was participate in the Learn to Lead Program. You get to develop your leadership skills, complete the program entirely online and earn a certificate along the way. It’s a great way to build useful skills that you can eventually add to your résumé!
Another way to get involved is to join a club on campus! There’s probably a club for just about every interest you could think of. Find one that interests you, become a member, and see where it takes you. You might even discover a position you’d love to take on. You might even discover a position you’d love to take on. For example, if you’re interested in marketing, you could work towards becoming a Marketing Director or Vice President of Marketing for a club.The goal is to start small and get involved! You don’t need to jump into a leadership position right away. Simply showing up, meeting people and offering to help can be a great starting point and may even lead to unexpected opportunities.
And if you can’t find a club that matches your interests, why not start your own and look into getting it ratified?
Keep an eye on the USC’s Instagram and website for updates on clubs, events, and opportunities to get involved. You never know what you might find!
2. Turn Your Existing Experience Into Resume Material
A resume doesn’t need to start with an internship or a fancy job title. You might already have experience that just needs to be presented in a way that highlights your skills.
Maybe you worked a part-time job in high school, volunteered at a community event, helped organize a fundraiser, tutored a classmate, or managed social media for a school club. These experiences all count! They can demonstrate skills like communication, teamwork, organization and leadership, even if they don’t seem directly related to the career you’re interested in.
The trick is learning how to describe what you did and the skills you developed along the way. And at Western, you don’t have to figure that out alone! You can get in-person resume help by dropping into UCC 210, or you can send over your resume for feedback.
You don’t have to wait until you’re applying for your dream internship to get started. Even putting together a first draft of your resume is a great first step!
3. Start Networking
Networking can sound intimidating, especially as a first-year student. But networking can be as simple as starting a conversation with an upper-year student.
Start building your connections early. Talk to students in your program about their experiences, attend a faculty event or employer information session, or ask a professor about something you found interesting in class. If someone has a role or career path that interests you, ask them how they got started. If you’re nervous, try preparing one or two questions beforehand to help get the conversation going. You could ask how they got into their field or what advice they would give to a first-year student. Having a few questions ready can make networking feel a lot less intimidating!
You don’t have to ask everyone you meet for a job or internship. Focus on being curious, listening and learning from people with experiences you can learn from. Don’t underestimate the people around you! Your classmates, club members, professors and campus mentors can all become valuable connections over time.
Western also hosts networking events across different fields and industries. I remember attending a Social Science networking event in my first year. Although I didn’t land an internship, the experience taught me how to approach people, start conversations and learn about their experiences. As an added bonus, it gave me something to include on my LinkedIn profile! After the event, I connected with some of the speakers on LinkedIn, and they even liked the post I shared about the experience. It might seem like a small thing, but it helped them recognize me and see how I was getting involved at Western.
Networking isn’t always about getting something immediately out of a conversation. Sometimes, it’s simply about learning something new or getting a little more comfortable putting yourself out there.
4. Set Up Your LinkedIn Profile and Keep It Updated
LinkedIn is a great tool, but it’s easy to become a victim of “LinkedIn-maxing.” I get it: it can become quite toxic when every other post starts with “Last week, I had the opportunity…”.
But I think people sometimes forget that LinkedIn is also a professional networking platform. Your profile is essentially your digital resume, and it can help you discover opportunities and get noticed by people in your field. Building your profile early can be beneficial in the long run.
Need a professional profile photo? Western offers free professional headshots through its on-campus photo booth, making it easy to give your LinkedIn profile a polished look without spending anything.
You don’t need to have everything figured out before creating one. Start with a clear profile photo, a simple headline describing what you’re studying or interested in and a short introduction. Add your education, relevant experience, volunteer work and skills as you develop them.
At the same time, put together a basic resume. It doesn’t need to be packed with achievements or stretch across multiple pages. A clean, easy-to-read document outlining your education, experience, activities and relevant skills is a great starting point.
Make it a habit to update both whenever you complete a project, take on a new role, learn a new skill, or gain experience. This way, you can keep track of your accomplishments as they happen instead of scrambling to remember everything you’ve done when an exciting internship or job opportunity comes along. But you don’t need to post on LinkedIn every week or turn every little accomplishment into a life-changing announcement. Use it in a way that works for you. Even an up-to-date LinkedIn profile and resume are great starting points.
You Do Not Need to Have It All Figured Out!
Building your resume in first year isn’t about having the most impressive list of accomplishments. It’s about creating opportunities to learn, discover what you enjoy and build skills you can carry into future experiences.
You might discover a new interest through a student club, realize you’re good at something you never considered before, or meet someone who introduces you to a career path you didn’t even know existed. Those experiences matter, too!
So, start small. Join a club, practise a skill, update your resume, or strike up a conversation with someone new. You don’t need to do everything this week, and you certainly don’t need to have your entire future planned out.
Your first year is just the beginning. Make the most of it!
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