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Building a first resume – it’s a chance to show off a bit

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Creating a first or second resume can seem like an impossible task to a 16- year old and his mother or father.

The youth has spent most of her time on the ice, playing hockey or figure skating, or on the courts, playing tennis or basketball, except when she’s on XBox Live with friends from around the world. Or maybe he’s a bookworm who would rather go to the library than any store and whose grades shine bright but whose social skills are a bit, er shy.

Why does a teen with no work experience need a resume anyway?  First off, it shows they’re serious about their job hunt. Second, it’s a chance to show off some talents that don’t fit neatly into the boxes on the online applications. Third, it gives the teen a start on a lifelong skill – career management and job hunts.

Start with three basic truths about a resume:

1. It is a sales tool, something that should make the person look good. That means singing your own praises and highlighting successes. So you include your GPA if it’s high and mighty and include your perfect attendance awards.

2. It represents you, as you want to be seen to an employer. Think of an employer as a cross between your parents, your strictest teacher and a really cool drama coach at summer camp – because they could be like any or all of those. Think of yourself as someone who is worth hiring – responsible, hard-working, bright and kind. So by all means mention fundraising for three mission trips and how you exceeded your goal by 200 percent. And if you’re really into hand made purses or swimming, show that – and think about the values and skills you’ve learned from it too.

3. It must be honest and truthful – not comprehensive. You can and should leave off some things – such as getting fired from a job or having to attend summer school because you failed Advanced Algebra. Just make sure there’s no glaring holes or omissions that would look strange or worrisome.

Now that you have that, let’s get started.

Figure out your skills and talents and abilities, the areas where you excel, writes Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D. of QuintCareers. His excellent career website offers a five-step worksheet to help Jrs. create their early resumes and a sample from Suzie Student of DeLand, Fl.

Start listing your talents and skills – and then when you have a bunch, ask three or five people for their list too. Tell them it’s for a resume and job hunt so they’ll think about the traits that will appeal to your future boss.

Ask yourself: Where have I made a difference? Who have I helped? It could be at your church or synagogue or with a club at school. It may be through the YMCA or Girl Scouts or a family friend’s small business.

Think about all the different ways you’ve worked – as a volunteer in your church or at a soup kitchen or in your aunt’s company; babysitting; lawn mowing; helping a teacher with a special project. Work experience can come from paid jobs or volunteer experiences. It can be picked up as a counselor in training at a summer camp or as helping organize the neighborhood picnic.

Ask yourself: What awards or honors have I received? What other recognitions can I mention?

I also found some fine advice on developing teen resumes on ReadWriteThink.org,  which provides teachers and students resources.

If you have more questions about resumes, JobDoggy, which focuses on part-time jobs for teens and college students, answers 10 key questions, suggesting students include jobs where they’ve been fired (and be prepared to answer questions honestly about that in the interview without trashing your former boss).

And a site called Got A Job offers lists of action words to use in your resume – from improved to founded to solved and more.

Ask yourself: Where have I demonstrated leadership?

Leadership skills also are important, NACE found, so if you were the president of the Key Club or captain of your track team, highlight that. And if you still are stuck as to what to put on your resume, go online and print out three job applications from companies in your area. When you fill them out, they’ll give you some more ideas.

This post is adapted from a WorkingKind article from May 2009.

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A resume writer full of generosity

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Note: This WorkingKind post originally appeared on March 27, 2009. I am reposting it now as Wendy Enelow prepares for her Career Thought Leader Conference in Baltimore.

Wendy Enelow describes herself as an “old hippy girl” who lives on a 35-acre farm outside of Lynchburg, Va. And she does have long hair and dangling earrings – and apparently wears Birkenstock sandals and her PJs to work sometimes.

Enelow also is one of the great resume writers whose work helps advance and relaunch careers of executives all over the country. She spends about half her time as a career coach and resume writer for individuals – most earn well into six figures – and the other half with “career seekers,” people who want to become resume writers or join the career advice field.

So the hippy chick assists the corporate chieftain with career advice – at $2,000 to $3,000 and up for a resume redo.  And then she uses some of her earnings as a “do gooder” — someone who lends a hand freely to those in trouble. She and her husband “adopted” a family displaced by Hurricane Katrina, and helped them relocate to rural Virginia. (They’re still there and still friends and Enelow, a skinny Jewish woman who grew up outside Pittsburgh, now considers herself almost Latina from their connections.) She helped organize Volunteers for Careers after Sept. 11, providing free career counseling and advice for a year to anyone who had lost their job or their spouse to the terror attacks. They reactivated it for Katrina victims and stand ready for the next huge disaster – “God forbid,” she says, yet she knows it may come around again.

Enelow doesn’t have any specific cause or charity as a volunteer focus. “There’s always something that just appears in my life – formal or not – that is the “right” do-gooder thing to do at that exact moment in time,” she says.

Of her kindness and assists, she says, “It’s the right thing to do.”

Community service and volunteering looks right on your resume, she says, providing a “glimpse into who a person is.” She suggests steering clear of political and religious causes on your C.V. since those can be both an advantage and a disadvantage, depending on who’s viewing it. Write about your volunteering in a section called either Personal Profile or Volunteer Experience.

Now Enelow has some excellent advice on her website on making your resume into a key sales tool for your career.  (A bit of it showed up in this week’s Working in the Post. Enelow recommmends the “sell it, don’t tell it” approach to highlight achievements and quantifiable results. A good trick for this, she says, “for each bulleted point you have on your resume, read it out loud and then say and — and … .” And then fill in the result, the impact, the contribution, whether it’s new multi-media materials for sixth graders or reducing the accounting cycle by three days.)

But the biggest inspiration comes from Wendy Enelow’s choices — and her passion to make a difference – whether by creating the Resume Writing Academy with a colleague or by lending a hand for a food drive or another “do gooder” activity.

That generosity of spirit says almost as much as any resume could.

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To learn more about the Career Thought Leaders conference, check their website

You also can follow some of the key career coaches and resume writers who will be presenting there on a Twitter list managed by Chandlee Bryan.

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