To get almost any job that does not pay hourly wages, a prospective employee needs to create a résumé. After the student gets an idea about where he/she might want to intern, the student will develop a résumé to help sell his/her positive qualities at a job interview. This is one of this year’s most practical and beneficial assignments because, sooner or later, almost everyone has to create a résumé, but no one wants to. After creating this résumé, the student will be able to update it as he/she gains more skills and experience. The student should attempt to limit the résumé to one page, although some are longer because some people have more experience. Over-padding the résumé can often be a negative to an employer, so the student should make sure everything included is important information that demonstrates skills or experience.
Requirements:
1. Name, Address, Phone Number – At the top and usually center of the form, the student must write these in an eye-catching and professional looking font
2. Clear Main Sections – Divide the résumé into titled sections. You may be creative with this, but here are some sections that should be included:
Objective – Begins with “To …” and states the goal job of the résumé.
Work Experience – Begins with the student’s most recent job. If the student has no work experience, skip this section.
CIBACS Experience – Much of the experience the students have comes from what they have done during this program. Students should list major work-related tasks and accomplishments along with their dates.
Education – This begins with high school and goes backwards (most recent comes first). The student describes important information learned in particular classes. Students should not describe CIBACS information again, nor should they describe skills, which are listed in another section. List difficult classes or important projects related to classes. Students may list junior high information, but actual companies will not want to know about junior high in the future.
Skills – These are computer skills and any other technical, artistic, or work-related skills. Students should describe levels of expertise as well. Second languages fit into this category.
Activities – Sports, extracurricular events, and serious hobbies should be outlined here along with the number of years doing the activity.
Awards and Accomplishments – Students should list the awards and their approximate dates.
References – Students should request the names, addresses, and phone numbers of three people who would speak in a positive manner about the student. These people are usually former teachers, employers, or friends.
Choose people from three different areas of your life. For example, choose one co-worker, one teacher, and one coach. Do not ask parents or other relatives to be references. To save space on the résumé, the phrase “Available Upon Request” should be included under this section heading instead of listing all of the references and their information. The student should then create a card that lists these references.
3. Clear Subsections – Generally, each section has a secondary level of organization, and one important part is to make the formatting of all sections the same. Here are some ways to organize within each section:
Main Heading – The section title is usually in bold or underlined. It may be in all capital letters.
Subheading – Often, there will be sections within sections. For example, under education, a student may have attended three different schools. The names of those schools should all look the same and should stand out as subsections by using bold, underline or italics. Subsections may also be highlighted by bullets.
Main Text – This is a description of your experience. Each experience may be separated by a semi-colon in paragraph form or they could be on a new line.
Dates – Again, this should be in a distinct format, either in parenthesis, italics, etc. All dates in all sections should look the same.
4. Correct Language – Students should use active past tense verbs when describing their experience. Résumés must be concise. Students simply list what was learned in very brief bursts. The verbs should sound professional and there should be a variety of verbs which explain what knowledge or experience was gained, nothing more. No complete sentences should be used on the résumé.
5. Creativity – Employers see hundreds of résumés. You need to make yours stand out without being inappropriate. Some people use a digital image of themselves at the top. Some use eye-catching graphics. Some use creative formatting. There is a wide variety of résumé making software available so students can design creative and professional looking résumés.
Grading:
Student Examples
Mr. Bronkar Résumé
Student Résumé
Megan Résumé
Jessica Résumé