Resumes: The Importance of Involvement

All of your involvements should be considered when making a resume! I’ve seen students who have had years of volunteering experience, and have never considered including it on their resume. Even though it’s not paid experience it’s still experience. If you’re just creating a resume, think about what you do on a weekly basis, in terms of non-academic commitments. Your resume can be broken down into 3 categories: Academic, Involvement, and Work/Professional Experience. These will be the 3 main portions of a resume. If you’d like to view sample resumes to get started, check out this great Fisher resource!

How should I include involvement in my resume?
When including your involvements on your resume, you want to write 2 or more bullets about each involvement experience. These bullets are supposed to describe what you specifically did, whether that be attending weekly meetings, serving on a committee, or something else. You want to start each bullet with a verb. Did you work on a team? Perhaps you want to begin the bullet with, “Collaborated on a team of 5 to…”. The key word here is to. What did you accomplish? Did you successfully implement a program? Did you plan an event? The to portion of your bullet will specify exactly what you did. The best advice that I can give when creating these bullets is to ask yourself, “How does this add value to my resume?”

How should I include UBWA in my resume?
UBWA is a great thing to put on a resume! There have been countless times in interviews where employers have honed in on this involvement. In a world where women’s rights and equality are being recognized and voiced in the professional space, recruiters love to see people’s passion for the cause.

So what if you only attend weekly meetings? First, I’d say you’re missing out on a lot of what UBWA has to offer. Our weekly meetings are only a small bit of our agenda as an organization. Regardless, you should definitely put your commitment to our meetings on your resume. Perhaps it’d look something like, “Committed to attending weekly meetings, learning about…”. 

How else can you get involved? Our committees and other programs are the best way to further your involvement! For example, the exec board has prioritized the growth and involvement of our members this year by creating more opportunities for you all to get involved! We have a mentorship program, a philanthropy committee, a blog committee, and a Women’s Week committee this year. Maybe your bullet for this would be something like, “Developed marketing strategy to reach UBWA’s Buckeyethon goal of…”.

Even if you aren’t a part of any of these committees or programs, there are still a lot of ways to get more involved. You can sign up for volunteering opportunities, go to our professional development events, attend our socials, or even develop your own ideas. Freshman year, I launched a book drive for UBWA. If there’s something that you’re passionate about, we want to support you in achieving it!
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Are you still unsure about how to get involved or how to incorporate involvements on your resume?
If you are wondering about how you can get further involved, whether that be within UBWA or outside of it, the Undergraduate Leadership and Engagement Office has Peer Impact Consultants that can help you. Their job is to meet with students to help them get involved. You can learn more about this offering here. If you’re still wondering about how you can incorporate your involvements on your resume, I invite you to stop by the Office of Career Management to see me or one of the other Peer Career Coaches. You can learn more about this offering here.

If you have any specific questions, or if you would like to chat further about professional development or getting involved, please feel free to email me at esker.12@osu.edu.

Alli Esker

Editor: Elizabeth Kazemi