Leveling Up Your Resume in 2026
“The challenge of life, I have found, is to build a resume that doesn't simply tell a story about what you want to be, but it's a story about who you want to be.” – Oprah Winfrey
spring cleaning your resume
As Milwaukee looks ahead to warmer weather, outdoor networking events, and spring business casual, many students and young professionals are likewise considering a freshening of their resume. This is a great time to update your resume with fall semester coursework and notable projects, describe key wins from first semester internships, and reflect on your experience so far to understand on your ideal professional trajectory. In this Article, we will help you translate your work experience into meaningful resume bullets, organize your recent achievements into HR-friendly formatting, and choose which initiatives be reflect your future goals.
From Internship Duties to Transferrable Skills
Temporary jobs make up most young professional and recent graduate resumes. And while you certainly gained valuable entry level skills during those experiences, you may be questioning if they are “important” enough pieces to put on your resume. You may also be wondering how best to translate your actual work duties and projects into professional jargon. Instead of focusing on the tasks you performed, focus on the "transferrable skills” you developed.
Transferrable skills are the non-tangible professional aspects of your internship. They are referred to as transferrable because they can apply to any job, in any industry, as you begin your career journey. These skills help you navigate common young professional situations and show that you possess the foundational aspects of a young leader. As you progress through your career, these skills will evolve and adapt to your desired goals and level of management experience. By highlighting these skills on your resume, you demonstrate that you took real-world value from your internship experiences and can apply those values to your next opportunity.
What are examples of transferrable skills? In our experience, these are a few ideas that make a high impact on your resume:
Clear and thoughtful communication
Organization, of both your work and your own workload management tools
Teamwork, especially across multiple stakeholder groups
Time management, including balancing deadlines or multiple projects
Adaptability
Leadership, in depicting the projects that you volunteered to do, discussions you led, or unique visibility within your internship
Auditing your Past Roles
How do you find these transferrable skills within your experience? Take a look at your prior roles, educational experience, or internships to identify impactful moments. Then, translate those moments into impact, rather than tasks. Use action verbs and groups involved, as well as any known effects of your work.
Examples:
“Answered phones” could actually be “Connected company stakeholders with correct departments, X times per day.”
This translation focuses on the results of the efforts, shows that the task was done correctly, and provides a frame of reference for frequency.
“Handled multiple projects simultaneously” could be “Prioritized heavy workload for most efficient outcomes, using effective time management and high level stakeholder communication.”
Had a really busy internship ? Make sure you highlight the workload! This skills-based translation shows that this candidate can effectively prioritize (likely using established deadlines), complete tasks within the allotted time, and let their managers know the status at any point. This could also be translated to highlight a heavy academic workload or multiple workshops.
Had a difficult coworker? Perhaps you “Employed effective conflict resolution in collaboration with management.”
Worked retail? Let’s say you “Maintained customer relationships, while providing thoughtful advice tailored to the needs of the individual stakeholder.”
Remember, the goal here is not to reimagine the work into something it wasn’t or embellish the resume too much. You will still have to show that you can perform these tasks in your next workplace, so try not to oversell your qualifications. Instead, use this framework to more fully describe your experience in a way that a potential employer could fit into an open role.
Need help with this? Email membership@fgpm.org to set a Resume Review appointment with a member of the FGPM Board of Directors.
Use jargon correctly
Reading a resume with too much jargon can be cumbersome to recruiters. Further, in regular hiring situations, the first person to review your resume will likely be a non-technical recruiter or a member of the HR team who may not be familiar with the details of your day to day specialization. Therefore, connect industry jargon in connection to impact on your resume.
For example, “Leveraged [very specific computer program/industry standard/research standard] to accurately and timely complete tasks, and provided a report on any deviations X times per [week/day, etc.].”
This being said, if you are entering a highly technical industry, consider having a short section on your resume (likely toward the bottom) of all industry proficiencies and their professional abbreviations. This highlights the breath of your comfort level, without taking up valuable space in the resume.
How to Highlight Leadership
Just like in the workplace, leadership on your resume can come in many forms. Be sure to highlight any student organization involvement and key initiatives your group worked on, including any larger community impact and outside stakeholders with whom you coordinated. For work experience as a young professional, add any subcommittees or employee resource groups and its mission within your organization. Volunteering in your community is also considered leadership. Basically, any time you took on a task or project outside of your job description, or proactively raised your hand to participate in a visible initiative, include those items on your resume as Leadership.
Leadership is certainly impact to others around you, but it is also sharing your perspective and helping those who have come after you understand concepts that you once did not. If you have any publications, articles, or thought articles (i.e. LinkedIn), be sure to highlight those on your resume, as well.
Structuring your resume
There are many articles and opinions in the recruitment world about how your resume should be visually optimized. FGPM suggests the following:
If you are a student, reach out to your career services office to see if there are resume expectations for your major or intended industry. What is typically included, or not included, and to what length should you keep your document?
No career services access? Applicants can also do a quick internet search of “[your industry] and [resume standards].” We do not suggest you utilize AI for this; those models may be trained with inaccurate information or outdated expectations.
Use the “F Format” for your resume. Basically, the F Format encourages you to put all important information at the top of your resume, utilize strong verbs in each bullet running vertically down the left side of the document, and optimize readability for CV scanning software. Check out this article from NRI Staffing for more information (not sponsored).
Interested in adding details about yourself? Similar to your proficiency section, adding a section to the bottom of your resume for Extracurricular Interests, Publications, Language Proficiencies, Key Projects and Initiatives, or Leadership.
Conclusion
Sprucing up your resume should be a fun exercise as we head into spring and summer. Use these tips to highlight your transferrable skills, optimize your resume for recruiters, and effectively describe your leadership. For direct assistance on any of these efforts, email membership@fgpm.org to set up a free Resume Review session.
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