When you are looking for a foot in the door to your first full-time job, a position as a Graduate Trainee is a good place to start. However, with so much competition out there it is necessary to produce a killer resume to potential employers. Start by checking out our top-notch Graduate Trainee resume sample. You want to make sure your resume stands out from the rest by being both informative and entertaining to read without overwhelming the recruiter or hiring manager with irrelevant information. Graduate Trainee roles differ from internships because they are full time and you receive a monthly salary with benefits in most cases.

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Graduate Trainee Resume Examples

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Resume Sections

1. Contact Information: Name, Address, Phone, Email. Be sure to include alternative contact channels as well, such as your LinkedIn profile.

On the subject of email address, create a professional one on Gmail or use your university student email address.

2. Career Objective: View this as the introduction to your resume and include 1-3 sentences giving a broad overview of your background, the industry sectors of interest. You should be specific and state which role you are applying to.

3. Qualifications Summary: Provide accurate details about the certifications and qualifications you have completed with the institution, qualification name, and dates. Don’t forget to include qualifications you are currently completing too.

4. Relevant Experience: Clearly state your previous experience such as internships, part-time gigs, official and unofficial vocation employment history. Use brief sentences with bullet points to list your most important daily activities under each role you have had.

5. Other Employment Experience: This will include events or work history outside of the field that you are currently applying to. Examples may be volunteering at a nursing home or animal shelter or even being a camp counselor for summer camps during the holidays. This section is especially important if you are looking for your first Graduate Trainee job without any previous internships completed.

6. Skills Summary/Key Skills: Incorporates keywords from the job posting and your specific skill set. This adds much-needed credibility to your resume.

7. Education/Licenses/Certifications/Relevant Coursework/Training: As you would normally have no formal working experience which required licensing, certification and so forth you can perhaps provide courses you have done while completing your degree. Examples include computer courses, bookkeeping courses, social media mastery or any self-taught training via online course platforms like Udemy.

What to Highlight in a Graduate Trainee Resume

As you will probably be busy completing your undergraduate Bachelor’s degree and may be tempted to list only your theoretical knowledge, there are a few essential details employers and recruiters need to know about you as to ensure that you are the right fit for their team.

The first aspect to highlight is the types of internships or in-service trainee jobs you have already done, and these go beyond that summer job as the office assistant at your father’s law firm.

Once you have categorized all your informal and seasonal or temporary working experiences, you need to indicate the industry where these took place. The types of industry areas you have worked on a need to be included both in the summary at the top of your resume, as well as within each position description.

Next, employers want to see your casual experience where you may have assisted at the farmers market part-time, help to organize the annual county Christmas event or being a tutor for mathematics during your high school years. The key here is information and lots of it. You need to show prospective hiring managers what you have done with your time during high school and university apart from studying (and partying).

Make sure to include the following details

The locations you are available to work in and whether you are willing to travel or relocate temporarily
Special skills like your activities on social media with your YouTube channel if you are applying for a marketing Graduate Traineeship or the fact that you are familiar with AccPacc accounting when you apply for a Graduate Trainee role in finance.
Written references can do wonders for your credibility so don’t forget to add them
Your GPA score is essential as well
Remember to add your computer literacy, for example, Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, VisualStudio, Adobe Photoshop, Dreamweaver MX, Flash MX, Oracle

Graduate Trainee Career Objective & Examples

Some organizations receive thousands of Graduate Trainee applications each year. Your resume needs to stand out amongst the applications. Keep your career objective concise and to the point. Add the most important information first to capture their attention while they’re quickly skimming your resume.

Start your career objective with a little detail about yourself and your interests. Then state the degree that you are currently completing and finish off with the reason why you are interested in the advertised Graduate Traineeship. Very important to note: you need to customize your career objective for every role you apply to by using the buzzwords listed in the job description. Your career objective should not be a one size fits all paragraph. For instance, if the job you are applying emphasizes an energetic personality or detail orientated work ethic use those phrases in your resume if you have that type of skill. The more your resume resonates with the job description of keywords, the better fit you will seem.

Next, add a line that showcases any outstanding qualities that will add value to the company. A hiring manager would be interested to know if you have “strong time management skills, creative problem-solving abilities and if you can ‘’think on your feet in times of crises.

Lastly, close with your educational degrees completed or in the process of completion

Graduate Trainee Career Objective Examples:

'Recent Bachelor of Marketing graduate seeking a Graduate Traineeship that will allow for learning the ins and outs of the marketing field and provide an opportunity to add value to ABC Marketing by applying theoretical knowledge into practice. Previous informal experience with social media channel set up and blogging has been gained during university as part of the Campus Radio team.'

'A dynamic graduate trainee with 18 months in-service training completed in the insurance sector would appreciate the opportunity to continue a learning curve experience at a national insurance provider. Currently completing a Master’s degree in Sales Management part-time and already completed four regulatory insurance exams required by the state of New Jersey.'

'Current Dean’s List student (3.8 GPA) motivated to learn the ropes in a community-oriented healthcare clinic during the 18-month graduate rotation program. Fast learner and a hard worker with a particular interest in community healthcare, specifically focused on children from low-income communities.'

'Motivated, creative graphic design student seeking to apply design skills, writing skills, and social media experience into an experience-building Graduate Traineeship in at PeDac Graphic Design Studios'

'Seeking a Graduate Trainee position that will allow me to explore career choices in the IT sector. An energetic, hardworking graduate student with majors in computer and data science, I have worked in the computer center, tutored undergraduates, and completed advanced projects in data analytics relevant to this Graduate Traineeship position.'

Graduate Trainee Job Descriptions and Responsibilities

An employer would expect to see details regarding your main tasks and duties completed during previous Graduate Traineeships or your internships and summer jobs. As there are literally hundreds of different Graduate Traineeships available in every field imaginable, we have given a few options below:

Example

A Graduate Trainee in Banking may:

Complete an 18-month graduate trainee program at regional headquarters rotating through all main departments for three months at a time
Application of marketing and finance skills within the banking industry
Assist with the administration of client accounts
Received consistently positive feedback and reviews from supervisors
Receive hands-on training from customer relations manager at the bank
Conduct bank reconciliations for different accounts
Perform journal entries and payment adjustments
Complete accounting software updates

A Graduate Trainee in Engineering may:

Estimate project time frames, labor costs, and materials procurement
Conduct due diligence surveys
Dealing with local contractors
Present project outlines to managers and clients
Communicating with government agencies and local authorities
Evaluating, organizing & prioritizing labor resources to align with the overall project schedule
Preparing sketches, draw up schematics and write specifications
Liaising with architects, engineering technicians, and IT employees
Assist with structural inspections/assessments to serve as the foundation for recommendations

A Graduate Trainee in Web Development may:

Maintaining and enhancing company software and servers.
Repair and web components and websites for both new and existing clients
Test site functionalities, complete debugging exercises and fix site errors
Coding using front-end technologies, such as Java. Python and HTML.
Ensure site usability, SEO, web standards (W3C) and browser compatibility.
Working on back-end technologies for example such as C#.NET, VB.NET, ASP.NET, Classic ASP
Conduct front-end design and site maintenance

A Graduate Trainee in Procurement may:

Doing troubleshooting to eliminate costs throughout the supply chain
Updating and maintaining the supplier database.
Oversee production cost target reports to monitor expenditure
Follow up on deliveries to warehouse
Responsible for monitoring product quality standard
Responsible for pricing administration
Maintain supplier billing and invoicing records
Develop procurement strategies in line with divisional objectives

A Graduate Trainee Electronic Design may:

Repairing customers LCD / TFT displays and other electronic products.
Provide troubleshooting, fault finding, and repair service
Adhere to workplace safety regulations
Handle customers IT queries verbally or via demonstrations
Providing customers with quotations and product information
Design, assemble and testing electronic circuits for electronic equipment
Calibrating instruments to ensure accuracy
Providing technical support to customers to end users
Organizing routine servicing schedules for clients

A Graduate Trainee in Financial Services may:

Providing advice on mortgages and related products such as investments, life insurance, critical illness cover, and pensions fund options
Meeting with clients to do a financial needs analysis
Researching and finding the best financial products for each client
Contacting other professionals like estate agents, solicitors, and valuers.
Administering all paperwork and regulatory documentation to comply with the Financial Services Authority (FSA)

A Graduate Trainee in Accounting may:

Responsible for draft reports and journals to be checked by the accountant
Assist in compiling year-end financial accounts.
Prepare financial documentation for the yearly auditor’s visit
Conduct tax administration duties during filing season
Assisting in bank reconciliations
Compile trial budgets for approval by the accountant

Highlight Your Accomplishments

Under your experience section, you may be tempted to copy and paste the list of duties you performed as detailed in your Graduate Trainee job descriptions or part-time and vocational employment duties. The drawback to doing this, though, is that you won’t stand out from the other applicants with similar experience.
Your goal is to think about what sets you apart, what you are most proud of, or what you accomplished in your previous roles, and communicate these through action-packed statements that are compelling.

Examples:

Flat, Simple Duty (NOT GOOD):

Update client database

Accomplishment Statement (BETTER):

Update database of 5000 clients using MS Access and categorize data by client demographics

Quantifying Your Resume

When writing your resume, if you can answer the questions, “How often?” or “How long?” You should include those numbers. For instance:

How many Graduate Traineeship roles have you completed?
What is the average duration of your Graduate Traineeship roles?
Have you implemented strategies to reduce expenses?

Examples

Reduce data processing time by 30% after building a new cloud data infrastructure as part of the Graduate Trainee Project program.
Created three new websites for the California State City Planning’s marketing, engineering and customer relations departments within a period of two months.
Spend time as a graduate trainee in the company’s travel and events department and organized the company’s annual international summit, including flights, accommodation, and itineraries for 40 attendees.

Graduate Trainee Education Section

The education section forms an integral part of your resume. In short, just indicate What, Where and When regarding your qualifications, certifications or industry licenses obtained. The name of your qualification, institution, and date of completion is more than sufficient.

Remember to mention current qualifications you are in the process of completing. Regarding courses and certifications, discretion and relevance must be considered.

Completed High School and Post School Education should be listed as follows:

Start with the commencement date and completion date for diplomas, associate degrees, and bachelor’s degrees. For courses, you can just list the date of completion. Next comes the full name of the qualification, then the full name of the institution and then the City or abbreviated State name. List your high school diploma details similarly.

Here are some examples of a Graduate Trainee’s education section:

2016-2018 Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration, University of Ohio, OH
GPA: 3.8
Majors: Business Management, Marketing Management
Minors: Communications, Accounting, Economics
Accolades: Deans Honors List

2015 – Certificate in Microsoft Office, Udemy Online

2014 – Ridgefield High School, High School Diploma Ridgefield, NJ
Leadership: Part of the Student Council Body, Captain of the Cheerleading Squad
Sports: Athletics (1st Team), Swimming (Regional Squad)
Achievements: State Championship Competitor in freestyle and backstroke events, Academic Honors (2012 / 2013 / 2014)

Graduate Trainee Resume Skills Section

Although the catering field requires specific technical skills, employers look for other skills, called soft skills. These are the main types of skills that indicate to your fitness as a potential employee who will add value, has adequate knowledge, sufficient experience and will be easy to manage. Incorporate these into your summary, or profile, and your accomplishment statements.

Technical Skills Examples

Educational Attainment: A university degree is typically required to become a Graduate Trainee. With some organizations, a Master’s Degree is preferred.
Technical Aptitude: Graduate Trainees these days need to be digitally savvy so be sure to include all the IT programs you can work on. Furthermore, any project management applications, calendar apps and collaboration apps (Slack, Asana) that you have worked with before is a plus. Think about the type of Graduate Traineeship you are applying to and add specific competencies you have accumulated on an informal basis. For instance, in marketing and communication, you may want to include your exposure to WordPress, Instagram or Pinterest. If on the IT side things like previous coding experience or app development may be helpful.