US: Graduate jobs · 5 min read
How do I write a new grad resume?
How to write a resume as a new college graduate in the US: one page, education first, internships and projects as results, a skills section that passes ATS.
The short answer
A new grad resume is one page, in a single column with a plain font, that leads with education (school, degree, graduation date, GPA if 3.5 or above, relevant coursework) and then shows evidence: internships, research, projects, part-time jobs and leadership roles, each written as what you did and what resulted, with numbers where you have them. A skills section lists specific tools and languages, not traits. Applicant tracking systems at large employers parse the file before a person reads it, so use standard section headings, no tables or graphics, and the exact terms the job posting uses. Tailor the top third for each application; the rest can stay.
Key takeaways
- One page until you have about five years of experience. Nobody needs your high school.
- Education first while you're a student or within a year of graduating; experience first after that.
- Every bullet: action verb, what you did, what changed, a number if there is one. "Built a Python script that cut weekly reporting from 6 hours to 40 minutes."
- Mirror the posting's language in your skills and bullets. The software is matching words; the human is checking whether the words are true.
On this pageThe layout
The layout
| Section | Contents | Space |
|---|---|---|
| Header | Name, city and state, phone, email, LinkedIn, portfolio or GitHub if relevant | Two lines |
| Education | School, degree and major, graduation month and year, GPA if 3.5+, honors, three to five relevant courses | Four to six lines |
| Experience | Internships, research, part-time jobs, in reverse order, three bullets each | Half the page |
| Projects | Two or three with tools used and results, if experience is thin | A quarter of the page |
| Leadership and activities | Roles with responsibility, briefly | Two to four lines |
| Skills | Languages, software, tools, certifications, spoken languages | Two to three lines |
Writing the bullets
Start with a verb, say what you did, say what happened. "Responsible for social media" becomes "Ran the club's Instagram for two semesters, growing followers from 300 to 1,900 and filling three events to capacity." "Intern, finance department" becomes "Reconciled 40 vendor accounts a month in NetSuite and flagged $18,000 in duplicate payments." Numbers make a reader trust the rest of the page. Where you have none, use scope: how many people, how often, how long.
Getting past the software
- Use standard headings: Education, Experience, Projects, Skills. Clever names don't parse.
- Single column, no tables, no text boxes, no images. The system reads top to bottom.
- Use the posting's exact terms. If it says "SQL" and "stakeholder communication," those words should appear where they're true.
- Spell out acronyms once. "Applicant tracking system (ATS)" matches both forms.
- Submit a PDF with real text, not a scanned image.
Cut these
An objective statement that says you want a challenging role (everyone does). A photo. Your full street address. High school, unless you're a freshman. "References available upon request." Soft skills listed as skills. Microsoft Word as a skill. Hobbies, unless one is a serious pursuit that shows something. Anything that pushes you to a second page.
Illustrative example: the same experience, rewritten
A communications graduate's first draft lists "Marketing Intern: assisted with campaigns, social media and events." Her rewrite reads: "Marketing Intern, regional credit union, summer 2025. Wrote and scheduled 60 social posts over ten weeks; posts averaged 3x the account's prior engagement. Coordinated two member events of 150 people each, managing vendors and a $4,000 budget. Built the first post-event survey; 41% response rate." Same summer. Her interview rate doubled.
Questions people ask
- Should I put my GPA on my resume?
- If it's 3.5 or higher, yes, next to your degree. If it's between 3.0 and 3.5, include it only if the posting asks or your major GPA is higher and you can label it as such. Below 3.0, leave it off; many employers that once screened on GPA have stopped, and you can let internships and projects speak instead.
- What if I have no internship experience?
- Lead with projects: a capstone, a class project with real data, a hackathon entry, a research assistantship, a club you ran, a website you built, a business you started. Write each like a job, with scope and results. Part-time work belongs too; a job held for three years while studying is evidence of reliability and time management that recruiters value.
- Do I need a different resume for every job?
- A different top third. Keep a master resume with everything, then for each application adjust the skills section and the order and wording of the first few bullets to match the posting's language. The rest stays. Fifteen minutes per application is the right amount of tailoring; an hour is too much.
- Should I use a resume template or a builder?
- A plain template in Word or Google Docs is fine. Avoid two-column designs, graphics, photos, skill bars and headers in text boxes; applicant tracking systems often misread them. Save as PDF unless the posting asks for Word. Name the file Firstname-Lastname-Resume.pdf.
Exercises are practice, not evidence of career fit or a qualification. How to read our guides and report a correction.
Sources
- Salaries expected to climb for Class of 2026 grads despite flat hiring · National Association of Colleges and Employers
- The labor market for recent college graduates · Federal Reserve Bank of New York
How this page is written
Sources support the factual background, not a guarantee that an exercise predicts career fit. Fictional practice material is labelled. Dates record content updates; no independent expert review is implied. More about OffLadder.