How to write a resume that gets interviews when you’re a broke college student who’s basically only worked retail and cried in group project meetings? That was literally me like six months ago, sitting in my shitty off-campus apartment in [some mid-sized US city], surrounded by empty Monster cans and a dying succulent I named Gerald that somehow survived my negligence longer than any of my situationships.
I’m writing this right now at my wobbly IKEA desk while the radiator makes that horrifying death-rattle noise again and my neighbor is blasting TikTok audios through the wall at 11:47 a.m. on a Thursday. Real glamorous. Anyway.
Why Most Student Resumes Go Straight to the Trash
I sent out 47 applications over winter break last year. Got three interviews. Three. And two of those were because my cousin worked there and felt bad. The ghosting was brutal. Like, soul-crushing levels of “we’ve moved forward with other candidates” at 2 a.m. while I’m refreshing my inbox in sweatpants I haven’t washed since before finals.
The problem? Every resume looked the same:
- Objective statement nobody reads
- “Team player” and “hard worker” vomit
- GPA listed even though it was a 3.1 and I barely survived stats
Recruiters spend like 7 seconds scanning. Seven. I could doomscroll Instagram longer than that.
Start With the Basics (But Make It Less Boring)
Put your name stupid big at the top. Like, make it the biggest thing on the page. I used to bury it under a header that said “Jane Doe – Aspiring Marketing Professional” like anyone cares. Nah. Just JANE DOE in bold 24 pt or whatever looks clean.
Then right under it:
- Phone (the one you actually answer)
- Email (NOT sexykitten420@gmail.com I’m begging you—I did this freshman year RIP)
- LinkedIn or personal site if it doesn’t suck
- City, State (they wanna know if you’re local-ish)
Skip the full address. Nobody’s mailing you a check in 2026.
Tailor It Like Your Life Depends On It
Every. Single. Time. I know it’s annoying. I used to copy-paste and just change the company name like a lazy idiot. Got zero bites.
Now I literally open the job description, ctrl+F for keywords they repeat (“social media content,” “data analysis,” “customer service metrics”), and jam those into my bullets without sounding like a robot wrote it.
Example from my last tailoring session (I was applying to social media intern roles while eating cold pizza at 4 p.m.): Before: “Managed Instagram for club” After: “Grew club Instagram from 312 to 1.8K followers in 5 months through targeted Reels and student-focused meme content”
See? Same job. Different vibe. ATS loves that shit.
Bullet Points That Don’t Suck
This is where I used to embarrass myself. “Responsible for cash handling.” Like… okay cashier? Everyone’s responsible for something.
Use action verbs. Past tense if it’s over, present if you’re still doing it. I keep a Google Doc called “verbs that don’t make me hate myself” with:
- Spearheaded
- Revamped
- Generated
- Collaborated (sparingly—everyone says this)
- Increased
- Streamlined
My best bullet ever (from campus coffee shop job):
- Boosted average ticket size 18% by upselling seasonal lattes with zero training budget—just pure chaotic charm and handwritten signs
Slightly embarrassing? Yes. Did it get me an interview? Also yes.
The No-Experience Hack I Wish I Knew Sooner
If you legit have zero internships, list relevant coursework + projects like they’re jobs. I did this for my data analysis class final:
Data Analysis Project – University Name, 2025
- Cleaned and visualized 1,200-row Spotify listening dataset using Python + Pandas
- Identified top genre trends among Gen Z users and presented findings to 30-person class
That one bullet got more recruiter love than my entire two years of food service.
Also throw in volunteer stuff, clubs, even that one time you organized a protest or whatever. Just make the bullets results-focused.
Formatting That Doesn’t Make Recruiters Want to Gouge Their Eyes
One page. One column. No funky fonts. I used Calibri 11 pt forever because Arial looks like corporate Comic Sans to me. Margins 0.75–1 inch. PDF export named Firstname-Lastname-Resume-2026.pdf. Not “resume final FINAL v3.pdf”. Recruiters aren’t your mom.
ATS Tricks That Actually Work (I Tested This Shit)
- Use standard section headers: Experience, Education, Skills
- No tables, no text boxes, no headers/footers with your name
- Spell out acronyms first: “Search Engine Optimization (SEO)”
- Match job description language exactly where you can
I once got auto-rejected because I wrote “insta” instead of “Instagram.” True story. I cried into my ramen.
Conclusion (aka I’m Tired and So Are You)
Look. Writing a resume that gets interviews as a student isn’t about being perfect. It’s about being less mediocre than the other 300 applicants. I still send out duds sometimes. I still get ghosted. I still question every career choice at 2 a.m. But the version I’m using now—tailored, punchy, slightly chaotic—actually gets callbacks.
So fix your How to Write a Resume tonight. Not tomorrow. Not after you “feel ready.” Do it while Gerald the succulent is still alive to witness your glow-up.
Drop your biggest Write a Resume horror story or win in the comments—I read every single one while procrastinating my own applications. And if this helped even a tiny bit, send it to that friend who’s still using their high-school Write a Resume from 2022. They need it more than they know.
Outbound Links
Here are the outbound links referenced or implied in the resume blog post for credibility and further reading:
