WKU News

Creating a resume can be overwhelming and interviews can be intimidating. Both of these are meant to display your personal skills, but consolidating information can be difficult. To help students navigate this, the Professional Writing Club held a meeting over Zoom on March 7^th to talk over resumes and interview skills with current students. The club is organized by Dr. Angela Jones, but the meeting was led by staff from Kirkpatrick Price, an auditing company that often partners with the PW Club to work with students on their technical writing skills and offer real-life insight to the job market. At this meeting, staff, who are all WKU alumni, reviewed how to create a resume that reflects your skills and some general tips for interviewing.

Fallon Randolph conducted the meeting on behalf of Kirkpatrick Price and opened with Mara Lowhorn and Trenton Grant giving a step-by-step breakdown of each section of a resume. Grant advised students to use strong action verbs when writing about their work experience to further demonstrate the tangibility of these skills. Sarah Slatton also joined in to remind students to always write the full name of their university on the resume, and steer clear of abbreviations on first mention.

The staff then segued into interview tips, starting with preparing questions for the interviewer to show you are engaged in the interview and interest in the job. A question to keep in mind may be “What’s a typical workday look like?” Jessica Barksdale, another employee at Kirkpatrick Price, urged students to always bring extra copies of resumes to the interview, regardless of if the posting asks for it or not because it shows engagement. Carly Mathews, another Kirkpatrick Price employee, informed students that confidence is key in interviews and to always try and restrain from making distracting movements with your hands or feet.

Fallon Randolph closed the session with the reminder that sending thank you notes makes a great final impression and reminder of your interview to the employer. It shows commitment and engagement with the office and can help maintain good relationships regardless of whether or not you get the job. At the end of the day interviews and resumes are meant to reflect your personality and help you to get to where you want to be—they aren’t anything to be afraid of!