In today’s world, entering the job market right out of college is a very daunting exploration. For some, nothing can be more overwhelming than competing against other well-educated students who have worked equally hard for that very same job. Making your resume stand out is the key to success.

The resume is, in most cases, the only way to set yourself apart from others for many employers. With the application process moving to a more common online basis, the competition grows as more people can apply from literally anywhere in the world.

“I used to get maybe 50 applications when I posted a job description,” said Donald Wyatt, program coordinator for business career services. “Now with applications online, I can get 200, 300 or more for that same job.”

The resume is where it call begins.

“It’s a statistical document,” Wyatt said. “Essentially, all employers want to know the same information.”

Employers want to know what skills you have and what outcomes they produced, Wyatt said. An example may be if a student works for a food chain: Not only did they prepare food, but they also learned quality customer service. Taking that a step further, the student did not only learn quality customer service, but also helped increase profitability for the company, which is the outcome.

But how can a few words on one piece of paper make on applicant stand out over another with no actual interaction between the employer and the applicant?

“Your work experience is the heart of the resume,” Wyatt said. “Relevant or not, employers want to know what life skills from these previous jobs you have gained and what the outcome was.”

So, whether it’s a career in engineering, business or design, employers want to know who an applicant is and what they have accomplished in only about 15 to 20 seconds of reading the resume, Wyatt said.

Your year in school makes a difference in how your resume should be formatted. First- and second-year students need to focus on the format of their resume while the more experienced students need a more key word focused resume, said Patricia White, program coordinator for engineering career services.

“As freshman or sophomore, in this part of their life, they have little proof of employability,” White said. “At least you can take the time to have a well-formatted and well-structured resume to offer a promise of potential employment.”

A well-formatted resume can say a lot more to an employer than the average student might think. It really shows a lot about how well they can focus on detail.

When a student gains that proof of employability, they can focus more on those key words to impress the employer.

“You need to think like an employer for them to want to bring you back for an interview,” White said. “Your resume has to do that for you.”

Students should use key words that relate to work experience and how that work experience helped develop the skills needed on the job.

“These key words need to come directly from the job description so that you can speak the same language as the employer,” White said. “That is how you think like an employer.”

The key to a successful resume is understanding the balance between format and language, White said.

Thinking about your resume and how it would connect to employers in a possible interview in the future is very important.

“You direct the conversation with your resume. Think to yourself ‘Is that something that could spark conversation with an employer? Is that something a potential employer might ask me?’ If not, then don’t include it in your resume,” White said.

Remember that the resume is the only thing an employer knows about an applicant, on one sheet of paper, White said. Make a good first impression and explain yourself in the language of the employer.