Graduate Resume — for new graduate job applications

Graduating means your most recent and most relevant work is mostly academic. The trick is not to hide that — it is to translate it into language a hiring manager scans in eight seconds.

Translating academic work

• A dissertation becomes a project with a question, a method and a result
• A group assignment becomes collaboration with a defined role
• A lab report becomes documentation and reproducibility
• A presentation becomes communication to a non-specialist audience

Section order for graduates

Education first, then projects, then experience, then skills, then optional sections. Once you have a year or two of relevant work, flip experience above education.

Passing the first screen

• Mirror the posting's vocabulary where it is true of you
• Use standard section headings so parsers classify them correctly
• Keep it to one page with a single-column ATS template
• Put your availability and work-authorisation status if the market expects it