Career fair season is underway! Events like these are excellent networking opportunities because they are filled with potential contacts who already work in your chosen field—and people like you who want to succeed. Career fairs give you a chance to make connections with potential employers, mentors and peers.

When attending a career fair, we encourage potential employees to bring plenty of resumes to share your contact information and be prepared to tell a little bit about yourself, including your talents, skills, experience and education. Your resume isn’t just a piece of paper. It should tell your story through events, successes and experiences.

Here are some key tips to ensure your resume is considered:

• Format your resume wisely.
  • Use logical format and wide margins, clean type and clear headings.
  • Selectively apply bold and italic typeface that help guide the reader’s eye.
  • Use bullets to call attention to important points.
  • Make sure it is not too text heavy; summarize as much as possible to tell your story and keep it simple!
  • Keep your contact info prominent.
• Identify and Quantify Accomplishments.
  • Accomplishments should be unique to you, not just a list of what someone else did.
  • Focus on what you did in the job, NOT what your job was (there’s a difference).
  • Include and highlight specific achievements that present a comprehensive picture of your marketability.
  • Include expected graduation date (if applicable).
  • If you don’t have any professional experience, list class projects or relevant courses.
  • Include professional organizations and/or leadership roles.
• Tailor your resume to the industry.
  • Be conservative stylistically; avoid bright colors or wild fonts.
  • Highlight your accomplishments and ensure error-free writing, correct grammar and clean, crisp type font.
  • Utilize clean, legible paper stock.
• Carefully stand out.
  • Add tasteful design elements or a bit of color to make it pop.