How to Position Student Activities, Labs & Extracurriculars on Your Student Resume
6 minute read
Over the past year, I had been looking for internships and applying to positions through sites like my college’s local job board, as well as LinkedIn. One important thing I came to realize was that my resume contained all the necessary information, but not all of it was conveyed correctly. This ultimately led to many rejections before I finally decided to revise my resume for applying to research positions. During this process, there were countless times when I second-guessed myself on whether the volunteering projects, campus club leadership, and lab work that I have done really mattered for a research role. By the time I finished my revisions and landed a research internship for the summer, I understood that every experience counted and showcased me in a different perspective. Here are some of the changes that I made to my resume that helped me in landing a new position for the summer, and that might help you land the Internship (or college acceptance) you're working toward.
Highlighting Research Experience
When it came to my research experiences (both during high school and now working in a lab on campus), the first thing I did was to move them to the top of my resume, right after the section about my education. This was because research experiences can show your employer (or the person reviewing your resume) that you can work in high-pressure situations, work as a team, and write/follow important protocols.
The main mistake that I was making originally was that the descriptions I wrote for these experiences were very generic and task-oriented. For example, consider the following descriptions below for research that I had done at a lab on campus:
Old Description: Worked on projects investigating cortico-striatal circuits that support decision-making and maintained mouse colonies.
New Description: Worked on projects investigating cortico-striatal circuits that support decision-making. Contributing to a better understanding of neural mechanisms underlying autism. Performed mouse colony maintenance, behavioral experiments on mice like rotarod, and surgeries like perfusion and virus-injection surgery.
Now, the main difference between these descriptions is the level of detail. Specifically, the new description hones in on two important aspects: scientific outcome and purpose. It also works on tying all of the work that I have done back to the bigger picture, without giving too many details.
After applying this to all of the research experiences I have done, I started to notice a pattern in the way I was writing these descriptions:
What did I study?
What techniques/skills did I use to study it?
What was the result or impact of the study and how does it connect to the bigger picture?
Following this structure can help make the difference between sounding like a helper in a project and a driver in the project. For example, the following description of another one of my research experiences below makes use of the template above and makes a huge difference:
Description: Researched the impact of human epigenetic inhibitors (DNA Methyltransferase inhibitors and HDACs) on HCT-116 Colorectal cancer cells. Worked on maintaining cell culture lines and conducting assays like Bradford Assay and MTT assays for inhibitors like decitabine, 4-fluorouracil, and RG108. Presented research on the impact of these drugs on the cell viability and genetic expression of HCT116 colorectal cancer cells at the ACS Spring 2023 conference in Indianapolis.
Using the template can also help to contextualize even the smallest of contributions like data collection and pipetting through giving more emphasis on the results, methods, and impact these contributions have brought for you.
Leveraging Extracurricular Leadership
Speaking of small contributions, another important area where all small contributions must be mentioned and noted is in the extracurriculars section of the resume. This section should usually follow after your research, and it should convey the skills that you have learned from them, not just the activity. When I began restructuring my resume, I did underestimate the power of my EC’s, solely because I felt that they were unrelated to the job I was applying for. However, many of the skills that I learned from these EC’s, like time management, leadership, creating budgets, interacting with shareholders, and establishing partnerships, all played a crucial role in the application process, specifically in the interview. Many employers and interviewers started asking questions about these ECs, and also other broader questions about different experiences I have encountered in the workplace. All of these skills came very much in handy for me to answer these questions.
The main mistake I made when writing EC’s on my resume was that I was not giving specific details and examples for the work that I had done, as well as the actions that led me to achieve the results that I had stated. For example, consider the following descriptions for the work that I had done for a club at UC Berkeley:
Old Description: Raised funds for the UC Berkeley chapter of Junior Care Clinic at Berkeley.
New Description: Raised funds for hosting nutritional workshops, vision screenings, and vitals workshops in the East Bay. Received grants from the UC Berkeley Public Health Alumni Association to host these workshops and support the local community. Impacted at least 2000 children across the East Bay with the money received from this grant. Presented results in front of PHAA Board of Directors. Worked with interns to help them host fundraising events for the organization as well.
Now, the main difference between these two descriptions is that I stopped downplaying this experience on my resume by not giving enough details, and I started to talk about my experience in the context of actions and measurable results. Whenever you feel like an EC is not important enough when writing the description for a specific extracurricular on a resume, just ask yourself the following question:
What did I do in this role that brought a benefit to the organization and the community it serves?
This question will help you in guiding your extracurricular descriptions perfectly and make sure that you focus on the impact that you've achieved through your EC on your resume.
Showcasing Publications, Presentations, and Awards
After talking about my research and ECs, the next section that I added was my publications, presentations, and awards. This section is important because all recruiters and interviewers care a lot about the outputs that you have achieved as a result of your activities. Although this output is not the only point of emphasis in an interview, it does help because you can reference these awards to showcase the amount of effort that you have put into the activity.
Some examples of these outputs include publications, poster sessions, symposiums, conference presentations, scholarships, student grants, and fellowships. This list is not fully exhaustive, but all forms of awards should be added to this section of your resume. In the ones that I have mentioned, I do want to address some misconceptions I started with, that I eventually fixed. When it comes to publications, not everyone can get their name onto a publication; however, preprints are often equally as good and more attainable. They also convey the same level of impact and show that you have taken your research seriously and to the very end. Another aspect is that any grants that you apply for on behalf of an organization can be counted as awards to put on your resume.
Lastly, give a small description of the award, and why it is important/relevant. This should help a recruiter/interviewer understand why you think that the award sets you apart.
Making Volunteering Relevant
This tip can be applied across all sections of a resume, but the main aspect where I needed this tip the most when restructuring my resume was the volunteering section. Usually listed just after Awards, Volunteering can give key insights into your interests and passions, as well as how willing you are to help your local community and work to address specific needs. From this, we can clearly see that volunteering is not just something you do to “help out.” Rather, it is something that also helps you build skills: creating budgets, interacting with shareholders, establishing partnerships, time management, etc. For example, I worked at a nonprofit to raise funds to close the digital divide in my local community. Here is the description that I wrote for this activity:
Description: Managed finances as the CFO of the nonprofit, raised $13440 to build 6 computer labs in Tanzania and bring 1155 devices to the organization. Expanded digital access to 2000+ students across the world.
This description is extremely informative and to-the-point: it talks about all of the outcomes that I achieved, the impact my actions had, and the purpose of the position that I held at the time.
After writing descriptions for all of the volunteering activities that I have done, I've noticed a major pattern that I continue to follow:
Skills learned
Impact delivered
Responsibility
Following this template can help you describe your volunteer experience correctly and contextualize it in the overall impact that you managed to deliver from your work.
Final Thoughts
In addition to everything mentioned above, I would like to say that when creating your resume, never second-guess yourself when putting activities on it as all activities matter and can help you stand out from a large pool of applicants for a job position. Whenever you create descriptions for your activities, make sure to focus on the impact that you brought in each activity, the actions that you took to achieve that impact, and the results that you accomplished from it. All of this together will help you to create a good resume and land a good position, whether it be an internship, a college acceptance and more.