7 mistakes most college grads make on their resumes (and how to fix them)

Many college graduates haven't had much experience in their dream field. Maybe they've done an internship, maybe not.

This can seem like a vicious trap. Employers want experience to hire you, but to get hired you need experience.

The solution is to play up the skills you've learned from your non-work experiences such as school projects, hobbies, and volunteering.

Mention every sort of “experience” you've had, as long as it’s relevant enough to the job you’re applying for. All the small experiences build a bigger picture.

Every employer wants to know that you are excited to work for their company in the role you are seeking to fill.

That's why a custom resume is worth the effort.

And if it's a job you really want, then you may want to come up with a whole, bigger online marketing campaign for yourself to get noticed.

It's hard to talk about yourself. But don't make it hard for a person reading about you to understand where your work skills come from.

When talking about your traits, skills, or strengths, offer real life examples and explanations.

When writing, "An excellent team leader," add information about a team you led and the outcome.

Instead of naming the technologies you worked with, like Python and Linux, discuss what you did with this technology.

Maybe you won a hackathon, landed a rare internship, or had a success at your part-time job.

Those things should go on your resume, but don't expect recruiters to understand what they are or why they were a big deal.

Explain them: A first-place win in a contest involving over 500 people; Working with technology in your internship used by schools in your state; Improving a process by 20% (even if it was at your part-time university job.)

And if you've got something like that to show off, put it up high on the page, too.

Recruiters aren't just looking for specific job skills, they are also looking for what they call "culture fit."

They want to hire personalities they think will jive with the rest of the team.

So give them a sense of who you are. But be specific.

Don't just say you love books or movies. List the books that most influenced you. Or list your hobbies, sports, social causes and/or the places you've traveled.

As a recent graduate, you’ve definitely taken classes, and in your work as a volunteer or at part-time jobs, you may have made flyers, worked on social media, and so on.

But telling a recruiter what classes you took or what tasks you did is fairly meaningless.

Instead, say how your work had a measurable impact on the organization: how your work increased donations, sales, or customers, or how you improved efficiency.