My sibling, Alex, works career services at a college. They were hired right after graduating because they let them turn their work-study job into a full-time job; isn't that awesome?

Recently I had an internship interview that I was preparing for nearby where Alex works. I was sure my resume was formatted perfectly. To be honest, I was probably being pretty cocky about it when I said I didn't need their help. But they insisted on looking at it anyway.

Turns out, I should have listened to my sibling who literally fixes student resumes for a living. My resume was in need of serious work. Even though I had basically all the information I needed on there, the format was just not optimal at all.

You should stick to the ideal resume format. This is a relatively simple concept and not at all hard to do, but since there are so many different ways to format resumes, it can be a bit confusing figuring out which way is the best.

Here are the tips my sibling gave me on how to fix up my resume while I'm still in school.

1. Objectives are dead (RIP)

According to Alex, employers typically don't look at "objectives" anymore, so it is best to omit them and save space for other information. Even if your objective is a good one, odds are they won't look at it anyway, so save yourself some time.

2. Times New Roman is too hard to read

Alex suggests Tahoma, or maybe Arial. I assumed TNR would be okay, since it is so standard in academia, but I guess the working world is different. Even if it doesn't look "academic," employers can read and understand them much more quickly. And not to be ageist, but many of the people who will read your resume are older and might have trouble reading flouncy fonts.

3. Keep all text the same size (and never go smaller than 11-sized font or bigger than 14)

Again, ease of reading. Employers only spend an average of 6 seconds reading an individual resume; so you better make sure they get the most out of those 6 seconds!

5. Be concise and to-the-point

Don't glamorize or over-explain anything in your resume, even if you think it was a really important job. Use language that is concise but still explains a job fully. And describe your experiences with language that is applicable to any job. For example, don't say "keep dish room clean." Instead, say "keep organized workplace." See what I did there?

6. Keep. It. To. A. Page.

Seriously. Some employers will not even look past the first page.

7. If you're still in school, education goes firstImage result for i hate school gif

The order Alex suggested is: Education, activities, professional experience, and then skills last. This one was actually really surprising to me. I've been working since high school and I always just assumed work experience should go first. But, at least for internships, that's not the case if you are still in school.

8. If you're in college or have a Bachelor's degree, don't list your high school

For some reason I thought employers would be suspicious, but Alex says they don't care about that. If you're a graduate student, however, you should probably still list your undergrad, as it's often important to employers what your Bachelor's is.

ALSO: Don't include activities from high school unless you are still in high school, or have continued doing them after.

9. Include your GPA ONLY if it is required

This should go without saying. Only include it if there is a GPA cap or minimum. Of course, if you have a very high GPA that you think will impress an employer, you can list it. But don't advertise a less-than-stellar GPA unless you absolutely have to.

10. For activities and work experience: Describe them, and clearly define your duties

Don't just list anything -- only include an experience on your resume if you can describe clearly the goals and duties of the position. If you don't have room to describe them. For example: originally on my resume I listed a plethora of extracurricular activities but didn't describe them. Many of them were just clubs I was associated with, but really hadn't held a leadership position in. Alexhelped me pick out two organizations I had explicit, clear roles in and we deleted all the others.

They also advised me to remove a fast food job from my resume because, really, that wasn't impressing anyone.

11. It's okay to modify your resume for different employers

For this particular internship, I actually kept that fast food job on my resume, because it was my only customer service experience, and the internship was in marketing. What you should include really depends on what you're applying for: if something doesn't look like it will impress an employer, leave it out. You can put it back on your resume if you think it will be helpful in another job. Having multiple different versions of your resume is not a bad thing.

11. Present tense for current positions; past tense for past positions

Something else I did that was really stupid: I described everything in the past, even if it was where I currently worked. For example, I wrote that I "supervised up to thirty students at play" rather than "supervise up to thirty students at play" at my current job. Another thing to avoid is pronouns: "I write weekly articles for Odyssey" (ayyeeee) should just be "Write weekly articles for Odyssey." List job duties the same way employers do in job descriptions: like a command.

12. Order experience in reverse chronological order (most recent to furthest in the past)

Employers care most about your most recent work, so put that first.

And finally (this was the most important one for me):

13. Shorten your margins to fit everything in one page

Typically, Word and Google Docs have the margins set at 1-inch, but margins as small as 1/2 inch are acceptable on resumes. Since college resumes should not exceed one page, shortening your margins might be your best bet.

What you include on your resume should be very personal, as you are an individual person; but the format should really be standardized so as to make it easier for employers to read, and to avoid wasting time on details they won't care about. I can promise you, no one cares that you helped put up posters for the chess club senior year.

I hope this helps you guys! If you liked this article and would like to read more from me about work, please comment! And feel free to share this article with your friends.