10/12/2016
By Ed Brennen

Erin Doyon knows a good résumé when she sees one. The university’s former assistant director of cooperative education has spent the past three years working as campus recruiter for health technology giant Philips, a role that puts her face-to-face with thousands of eager job-seekers.

“From a recruiter’s perspective, students really need to understand that they are a product that they’re trying to sell to a company and their résumés are a billboard for themselves,” Doyon says. “An employer is going to get 100 résumés, and they can only spend so much time on them, so they have to be easy to read.”

Doyon was one of 10 local employers who volunteered their expertise at the Career & Co-op Center’s Drop-in Résumé Makeover session at University Crossing’s Moloney Hall. The semi-annual event gives students a chance to meet one-on-one with industry professionals for 15 minutes and have their résumés critiqued in advance of upcoming Career Fairs.

Image by Ed Brennen

While résumé workshops are nothing new on campus, the drop-in makeover sessions have grown in popularity in recent years as more employers have become involved. This fall’s session, held for the first time at Moloney Hall, attracted 149 students, up from 119 the previous fall and 138 last spring. In addition to Philips, the event drew representatives from Putnam Investments, Comcast, BAE Systems, iSpecimen, Research Labs at Children’s Hospital, Atrium Health, ALKU, Sovos Compliance and Maine Drilling & Blasting.

“Students love to hear from employers,” says Career Counselor Emily Brown, who organized the four-hour event. “They’re able to get industry-specific advice directly from the source. And if they’re applying to the company soon they can make a connection with the employer, which is obviously a bonus.”

That was the case for senior mechanical engineering major Justin Lozier, who had his résumé reviewed by Doyon of Philips.

“She gave me great feedback on how to structure it and told me how I should create two documents: one an extended version and the other a simple one-pager that I can take to the Career Fair,” Lozier says. “And she also had a potential job offer on one of her teams, so coming down here was a win-win.”

Image by Ed Brennen

Other students in the earlier stages of the résumé-building process, such as sophomore business administration major Jana Stevens, were grateful to receive some expert input before the Fall Career Fair on Oct. 26 at the Tsongas Center.

“This was very helpful. My résumé wasn’t really set up the way it should be, so I’m going to go fix it based on suggestions I got,” says Stevens, who met with Corey McAuley ’08, an operations supervisor at Putnam.

McCauley, who began her career at Putnam as an intern while studying management in the Manning School of Business, is now a regular at the résumé makeover sessions.

“Being able to help students is definitely a passion of mine because I remember being in their shoes,” says McCauley, who reminded students that even though different employers look for different things on résumés, there are a few golden rules. “Students should keep their personality on their résumé, but the organization and formatting is a really big piece because it shows the time and effort that was put into it.”

Image by Ed Brennen

McCauley was joined at the session by Putnam colleague and fellow alumna Xiara Souza ’10.

“This is always such a great event because you meet so many wonderful students, and they end up coming back to see us at the Career Fair with their updated résumés, wanting to apply for a position,” says Souza, a senior operations supervisor at Putnam who has a bachelor’s in finance from the Manning School.

Like McCauley, Souza got her start at Putnam as an intern.

“They recruited me at their table at Southwick Hall, and I’ve been here ever since,” Souza says. “That’s definitely due in part to the preparation I got here from Career Services.”