As a young adult, with little experience, it may seem like an impossible task to put together a resume that has more than your name and address. It's not.
As a teenager or young adult, you probably have very little experience; both life experience and work experience. So what can you put on a resume?
1. Your Contact Info should be kept simple.
- Name
- Address
- Phone number (including cell phone if you have one)
- Email address - get a Yahoo or Gmail address.
2. The Objective Statement is optional. Most people state in their Objective Statement what they want, like To obtain an entry level position in a fast growing company. DON'T tell them what you want. Tell them what you can offer. But keep it simple. How about Ambitious, highly intelligent, go-getter who is ready to take on any challenge thrown her way.
3. Education is where you detail your educational history. Being in high school will make this fairly easy. Just list the name of your school, its city, your dates of enrollment, expected graduation date and GPA (if you know it). If you're in college, list similar information including your major and areas of concentration.
4. Your Work Experience comes next. Include your job title, the company, its location, and your dates of employment. This even includes the paper route you had when you were 10. I would suggest you also list any volunteer work you've done. Recruiters like people who volunteer!
For each job, list a couple of bullet points that explain your work and what you did.Did you take on extra responsibility? Did you help plan the team holiday party? Did you design a database with contact info for your boss?
5. You can also include Special Projects that you may have worked on. Include what your role was in the project.
6. Miscellaneous is that catch-all portion of the resume where you can include clubs and organizations you belong to, any special awards you've received and also any special skills you have, i.e. Level 5 Knot Maker or Eagle Scout or Ruby on Rails programmer.
7. There are a couple of ways you can go with the References portion of your resume. It is perfectly acceptable to just say "References Available Upon Request", but if you need to fill up space then you can actually list your references. It's recommended to have 3 references. At least one should be a teacher or manager from one of your jobs. BE SURE TO ASK THEIR PERMISSION TO USE THEM AS A REFERENCE before listing them!
If you list your references, include their name, title, company/affiliation name, email and/or phone number.
Now you have all the components for your resume. IT SHOULD NOT BE MORE THAN ONE PAGE!! For most of you, you'll be lucky if you have a full page worth of information. Play around with the font; size and type. Make the margins bigger so that your page looks fuller.
Lastly, have someone (or several people) proofread your resume. Most high schools and colleges have Career Placement Centers and people there whose job it is to help you with your resume. Have your English teacher proofread it. The more eyes on it and the more feedback you have, the better. Or just send it to me Beth Fox and I'll be happy to proofread it and offer suggestions.
Miscellaneous Thoughts
- Use spellcheck
- Use bullets
- Use Action Verbs
- Don't be cutsie
Here are some sites that may help you with putting together your resume.
Job Search
CollegeGrad.com
Yahoo
