Translating Greek Experiences to Your Resume

Posted: 

This week's blog is written by Peer Career Coach, Jackson Goodall (B.S. Industrial and Systems Engineering, May 2024).

The point of your resume is to highlight your best experiences with respect to work, involvement, leadership, projects, skills, volunteering (and much more). When it comes to students’ involvement in Greek Life, it’s really no different.

Greek Life provides students with not only an opportunity to get involved outside of the classroom, but also with countless opportunities for further engagement through leadership, committee membership, outreach, and philanthropy. Whether you are looking to include your Greek experience under a “Leadership” section, an “Activities” section, or even a “Volunteer Experience” section, below we will dive into some general tips, advice, and ideas to pack in valuable information and showcase your experiences.

Getting Involved

No matter what you do, I highly encourage you to step up, get out of your comfort zone, and get more involved. The same goes for Greek Life – sometimes to an even higher extent. Most Greek Organizations have countless opportunities for leadership; executive board roles, chair positions, and even committee membership are great examples. These opportunities can allow you to build up your resume with leadership experiences and develop your leadership skills. You should not feel like you need to be President to hold a valuable leadership role, though – even low stakes positions can allow you to have measurable impacts.

Sometimes It's the Little Things

Some of the best opportunities that Greek Life can provide are experiences that you wouldn’t often think of putting on your resume. As an upperclassman, have you ever met with a new member over lunch or a coffee chat and talked about summer jobs, clubs you're involved in, or recommended something academically? As an underclassman, have you ever received advice from an upperclassman, on anything from classes to jobs? In both cases, you can view these experiences as informal mentorship, networking with peers, and (depending on the extent of the assistance), you could almost view them as professional or academic development. This thought process and these experiences could make for a great additional bullet point or two when describing your involvement in Greek Life.

Philanthropy

An often-overlooked aspect of Greek Life organizations is their strong ties to philanthropy. Philanthropy opportunities also provide great experiences to add as descriptions of your Greek involvement. In your Greek Organization, have you “volunteered at local foodbanks to…”, or “fundraised ‘X’ dollars, for ‘Y’ cause through ‘Z’ event”? Both examples make for great bullet points on a resume.

“Growth Behaviors”

When companies look at your resume, they seek out role-applicable experience, which is arguably one of the most important factors. However, they also look for what some call “Growth Behaviors”, which can be demonstrated through any experience, regardless of the subject matter. Including Greek Life on your resume can speak towards a variety of these “Growth Behaviors”, such as your skills with teamwork, collaboration, leadership, and even organizational ability. Besides, it also goes to show that you are far more than just your academic major; almost all involvement outside of the classroom is a good thing and helps to make you appear more well-rounded (assuming your Greek Organization is in good standing with their corresponding University and National Chapter).

Greek Life as an Extension of Your Network

One of the most underrated aspects of Greek Life is the proximity you gain to students across (depending on the type of Greek organization) different school years, disciplines, involvements, and interests. You may have heard of “networking” and only thought of it in a professional sense. However, your network also includes your friends, your peers, and even your family. Joining a Greek Organization forever connects you with a group of students and alumni that transcends your University, State, and sometimes even Country. Use this to your advantage, because there truly is power in numbers – especially when it comes to your network.

“The only source of knowledge is experience.” – Albert Einstein

Category: Resumes