Building a resume or presenting your past involvement isn’t limited to just the “official” jobs you’ve done, there’s a wide variety of opportunities which are available both on and off campus  that can be valuable to include in your resume when pursuing a career. Employers highly value multiple forms of personal & professional development, your experiences with student groups, volunteering, or other programming around campus. This is important information for you to share when applying for jobs or other opportunities such as graduate schools.

Student organizations can be sources of leadership positions, skills training, personal & professional development, and volunteer opportunities. Volunteering outside of any official campus groups is also important to mention, along with any programming around campus that helped develop you.

Pointers to Highlight Your Involvement:

1. Spend time thinking and/or practicing how to best articulate your experiences in person
2. Identify & mention real instances where you developed or used skills
3. Focus on your time in college instead of activities in high school
4. Selecting an event or involvement relevant to what you’re applying for to describe in detail can be an effective way to demonstrate your abilities.

All of this information about yourself is valuable to employers when they’re attempting to make decisions on hiring – so share it! Required skills and competencies can be gained from a variety of places outside of jobs you’ve held, and including these will also help to more about you as an individual.

Attend the Grand Valley Career Fair this Thursday, October 19, from 1 - 5 p.m. at the DeVos Place Convention Center in Grand Rapids, MI.