So you're earning your degree or already have it. Now what do you do? How can you land the job of your dreams? If you can't showcase where you've been and what you've done, then how can anyone know what you can do? And the case may be that you already have a job and are switching careers or looking for something more. It may be time to update that resume !
Sitting in front of a blank piece of paper can be extremely frustrating. Trust me, I know. As a writer, I constantly look at the white space in front of me and think, how can I fill this with the most appropriate and significant information? But, you see, for a resume there is basically a formula. They all contain the same types of information - you just have to know where to put it and how to fill it.
Where to begin: well, there's the obvious stuff. Place your full name, mailing address, phone number, and e-mail in the header. It should be centered, slightly larger than the rest of the text, and bold so that it will stand out. It can look something like this:
Jane Student
1500 School Way • New York, NY • 10001 • (555) 555-5555 • jstudent@emailaddy.com
In the resume there will be various categories, which should be bold, capitalized, and underlined. These include professional experience, education, and skills. I will outline in the following paragraphs what you should include in each. Some people will also make an extra page that has a list of references. I did not include this as part of my resume. It was something I preferred to put in the cover letter. But it's up to each individual person.
Remember, the resume is a document about you. It's like an advertisement where you are trying to sell yourself to the potential employer. Make sure to triple and quadruple check each and every word -- no one wants to hire someone who makes careless mistakes. It's an indication of laziness and not paying attention to detail. You don't have to be the world's best writer. You also don't want to use crazy fonts or anything that's too big or small. It's usually a good idea to keep it simple -- Times New Roman or Arial are most common, point size from 10-12. The most important part -- keep it to one page. Employers want to see the information right away and don't need to be flipping through your life story.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
It's exactly what it states. Where have you worked before? And what were your duties at each place? Start with the most recent experience first. If you are currently working, place that job first and write the date you started until present. Listed under this will be your job title. The duties in the current job should also be in the present tense and you should include anything that shows any kind of task and responsibility. And you should also put the location of the job (on the right side of the page, lined up with other jobs) so that the employer will know where you worked just in case they look it up online. Speaking of online, for your own sake, you might want to "google" your own name and see what you come up with. Your online persona is an important part of who you are and how others perceive you.
If you haven't had many jobs before, include anywhere you've worked so that you can put your responsibilities there as well. Even if you've worked at a store and don't think that's significant enough, it is. In that instance, you'll be able to put that you dealt with customers, showing your interaction with people.
The following example shows a sample of what a present job could look like. The parentheses are my comments as to what personal characteristic is illustrated:
Steve Madden, NY, NY July 2006 - Present
Sales Associate
Assist customers in finding what they are looking for (shows interaction with people)Answer phones (shows that you have acquired a phone manner)Ring customers' purchases (shows responsibility in handling money)Set up displays and keep store neat (shows organizational skills)
If you had worked at the store in the past, you should change all the duties to the past tense, ie. Assisted customers, Answered phones, etc.
EDUCATION
Here you put any institution of higher education in which you have attended or are attending. Place any special academic distinctions here. There is debate whether or not a GPA should be placed here. If you have an exceptional GPA, I'd say put it in because it won't hurt. But if you don't have the best GPA, I really don't feel that it will be an issue if you're a good worker. Why make them question your work ethic just because you may have had a tough time in some of your classes? If it comes up in an interview (which it most likely will not) then you tell the truth. Also put what type of degree you have earned and the dates attended.
Example:
School University, NY, NY Sept 2003 - May 2007
B.A. in whichever subject; Honor Society; Activity that shows character
(You can also bullet this list if there is space and the info isn't necessarily related)
SKILLS
Put any skills that you have here. Do you speak other languages proficiently? How well do you know computers? Any specific programs you have training in? Tread carefully, however. Be prepared to speak about anything that you put in your skills. If you've only been on a program once or only learned a couple of words of French in high school, you may not want to say that you are skilled in these things. You don't want to be like Joey on Friends, trying to learn how to play the guitar just because he thought it was a good idea to stick it in his resume. Skills usually are conversation starters that employers use to see how knowledgeable you may be.
Example:
Proficient in five languages, including English, Spanish, French, Italian, and MandarinProficient on PCs and MACs.Knowledge of Microsoft Office, Adobe Pagemaker, Quark, etc.
And with that, you have your resume!! Lucky you! Of course, how you choose to create your resume stylistically is up to you. These are just some suggestions based off my own resume. Now go out in the world and start submitting it so you'll get the job you deserve!
About the author:
http://www.collegesurfing.com/content
Amanda Fornecker is a staff writer at The CollegeBound Network. Learn more about finding a school that's right for you.
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