College Strategies

Lesson 7: Part Time Jobs: the Good and the Ugly

Writing your Resume

At the very top of your resume should be your name and your contact information. Place that information in the middle, and make your name a larger font.

Typically you start out with your education, but if you feel your experiences speak for themselves more you can put your education after the experience section. Make a section with relevant experience, where you list what you have done that required the same or similar skills as the present job does.

After this you can add a section with “other experience” if you have done other things you believe are impressive but not directly related. The person who will read your application is human! So remember that! They can be impressed by something that is not relevant to the job opening, and be more sympathetic to hiring you as a result. Have you frequently been published in a local paper or your school’s paper? That might be one of those impressive things worth mentioning. If you have won any awards that is definitely important to add as well.

Add a separate section for skills, where you list in point form the skills you have. Try not to stray too far from the skills that are required. This is a section the employer will use to reference with the listing and see how compatible you are. This is also the reason you have to read the listing very well and make sure you list every skill you have and they are looking for in that section.

After that you can add in a section with personal interests, try to add in a few interesting or work related things.

The most important thing about a resume and a cover letter is that they have to be absolutely free from any spelling and/or grammatical errors. Use a spell check on it and have someone else proofread it for you to make sure it looks good. Never send out a resume with even just one spelling mistake. It can severely ruin things for you, because if you are careless in your application, how careless are you going to be in the job? It might sound silly, but it is a major thing for employers.

Make all your headings bold, and place the date of the previous experience on the left hand side. Add the relevant experiences in equal distances next to the dates. Look up a sample resume or ask a successful friend if you can have a look at theirs. It doesn’t matter if they are in arts and you are in science, it’s about the structure, not the content.

Use positive action words, like “achieved, completed and organized”, they can really empower your message! Do not make your resume longer than an absolute maximum of two pages. One page is optimal if you can get away with it.

The three most used formats for résumé’s are the chronological, functional and combinational resume formats. They each have their own advantages and disadvantages so it is really up to you to decide which one suits you best. As an assignment go to http://businessmajors.about.com/cs/resum... and read more on the three formats. Then decide which one is best for you. Just remember; be consistent when you pick a particular format! This means you have to be consistent in the resume, it does not mean you always have to use the same format.

There are many different resume format’s possible, and it is difficult to teach you how to write the right one for your in just one section. In the links section there are a few websites I strongly recommend that either have templates or article on resume writing.

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