Friday, June 4, 2010

The value of joining organizations

Someone told me to join a lot of student and community organizations because it will look good on my resume. What do you think?

1 comment:

USDCareerBlog said...

We think this is a very good question, but you’ve been given rather bad advice.

A recruiter will know immediately that you’re trying to “pad your resume.” What recruiters and graduate school admissions committees want to see on a resume is what you’ve accomplished in those organizations – whether that’s assuming a leadership role, creating a mission statement, organizing activities, doing recruiting or fundraising, etc. Plus, if you’re asked in an interview about your role in the organizations, the last thing you want to say is “I went to a few meetings,” or worse yet “I really didn’t do much of anything.”

A better tactic is to get involved in one or two organizations in which you take an active role, learn and grow from the experience, and demonstrate the attributes and skills valued by recruiters.