Whether you are a freshman rounding out your first month of college, or a senior graduating in the upcoming semesters, a quality resumé is something you cannot go without. We will begin with a few beginner tips for the youngsters; seniors stay tuned for some more advanced tips towards the end.

The first step is to decide your format, typeface, and colors. This will definitely depend upon what field you aim to get into. Three solid choices would be Univers, Frutiger, or Minion Pro. If you don’t have these typefaces preloaded, check out the lab in the design building to style your resumé. Besides a portfolio, for a more creative field like art or design, it would bode well to have a well-designed, attractive resumé. With that said, please don’t go overboard as recruiters will not want to get a headache while reading. For most students though, the most important thing, no matter what typeface or layout you decide on, is to stay consistent. If your resumé is all over the place, recruiters are likely to skip on to one of the few hundreds of other resumés they have to sort through.

Something else to stride for is to emphasize your strengths. Not many students have a lot of real world experience, so lead off with your academics, like your major, expected graduation date, and grade point average–if it is good enough–check with your college career services program to find out the cutoff. If you have some real world experience, like an internship or co-op, include it, this can be a great leg up on the competition. If you have not had an internship or co-op do not worry, include past jobs from high school and college that may not be relevant and spin them to your advantage. While scooping ice cream may not help you get an accounting internship, the fact that you balance the books and count the cash at the end of your shift can certainly help. Don’t forget your extracurricular doings like clubs, organizations, and even Greek life. Showing that you are involved on campus, and the roles you play in each organization you are involved with will not go overlooked.

Juniors and seniors listen up; ditch the objective statement, please. A boring, vague objective statement towards the top of your resumé is a waste. Stating that you are “looking for an engineering internship” while applying to an engineering internship with Boeing is redundant and boring. To switch it up, replace the objective statement with a qualifications summary. Sue Campbell, a professional writer, and owner of 1st Writer Professional Resumé and Career Strategies suggests writing two to three sentences towards the top of your top qualifications and some traits/ qualities that make you stand out.

Whether you are starting from scratch, or just making some last minute adjustments, take into account some of the aforementioned tips and you’ll be just fine.