School-Year Program Week 3 - Turning Experience into Opportunities with Resumes

This week’s session focused on resumes and these three key points: what makes them effective, how to improve them, and how to clearly communicate skills and experiences. The objective was to help members understand not only what belongs on a resume, but how to present it in a way that stands out to colleges, internships, and future employers.

The session began with a hands-on activity where members were split into groups and given half of a “bad” resume. Using the concepts taught during the lesson, students worked together to identify weaknesses and suggest improvements. To guide this process, members used a curated sheet of strong action verbs and received support from undergraduate mentors, helping them reframe bullet points in a more impactful and professional way.

To give members a clearer picture of what a strong college-level resume looks like, undergraduate mentor Greg shared printed examples from members of his BU finance modeling club. This gave students valuable insight into how resumes evolve at the college level and what kinds of experiences and formatting are commonly expected.

The session concluded with a more informal review period, where undergraduate mentors sat down with members one-on-one to discuss their personal resumes. This allowed for individualized feedback, questions, and practical advice tailored to each student’s goals and background.

Several aspects of the session went especially well. The one-on-one conversations between members and undergraduate mentors were highly productive, allowing students to receive personalized guidance. By the end of the session, members showed a clear understanding of what steps they needed to take to improve their resumes – from strengthening bullet points to refining the structure.

Overall, the resume workshop was an engaging experience that empowered members with tools they can continue using beyond this session. By combining activities, real-world examples, and genuine feedback, the workshop helped make resume-building feel so much more achievable.