There are several firsts in a young person’s life. These include graduation, getting your divers license, and getting your first adult job. The process of getting your first adult job will include writing your first resume.
Writing your first resume can seem like a difficult task when you realize you have very limited life experience. Remember your potential employers know you are young and just out of school and are not expecting to see years of experience of your resume. Still you want a resume that will impress your employer and make you stand out from the crowd.
One of the first things you may want to do is locating some high quality paper. This tells your employer you are not just throwing together a resume at the last minute but have put some thought into it. You will want to use the same paper for your cover letter and reference page as well. Like the outfit you would wear to a job interview all these things should match.
When starting to think about your resume just start with basic contact information potential employers will need to contact you. You should include your name, address, phone, and email address. Set up an email address for you to just use for employer contact. Pick a professional email address. Sexygirl08 is not a user id that your employer should ever see. If you have an address at a dorm put that address as a temporary address and put your parents address as a permanent address.
After you have put a way for the employer to contact you should think about the objective and skills you will put on your résumé. Since you have limited experience both of these areas on your resume should be concise. The objective is in general the type of position you are seeking. You can personalize this to a specific job you are applying for, or specific job type. If you are applying for several different kinds of job you will want to edit this section each time you change job types you are preparing the resume for.
You will also want your skills section to emphasize the skills you have for the job for which you are applying. You will want to emphasize your roll as an effective fund raiser for a school club if you are applying for a sales job. If you are applying for an office job you may want to emphasize the skills you gained answering the phone and doing data entry at your uncle’s accounting practice. Look at the skills you attained doing all kinds of school activities and summer jobs to fill in this section. You employer understands that not all your skills are job related but many skills you have are from your participation in school. You should draw more attention to your skills, since your work experience is probably limited.
First-time writers will divide their resume into these categories: work experience, academic experience and community service/extracurricular experience.. Many skills learned in part-time positions translate well into adult job work skills. It might be helpful to write down what tasks you performed in your school activities and volunteer work. Remember to emphasize any computer skills you gained in school. These are considered technical skills and are of great values on your resume.
When writing your first resume it may be wise to find a one page template to help you get your thoughts organized. You will want to read sampling of various resumes online to get an idea of what resume language consists of. For example instead of I organized a rummage sale for the youth group at church; you will want to say I coordinated or facilitated an effective fund raising campaign for my church youth group. Then you would briefly mentions the skills that it took you to accomplish that task. Reading other people’s resumes will give you some idea how to word the things you have accomplished in adult business terms. Don’t overdo it or you risk sounding pompous but do show that you can think about your accomplishments in terms of business tasks.
Use any adult mentors or previous teachers to proofread your resume and ask them what you should edit out or add. These are adults who know you well and can tell you if your resume is really reflecting your strengths as a potential employee. You will also want to ask some of these people to be on hand to act as references. You should compile a list of references, but it is fairly standard not to give out references until these potential employer requests them. You simply want to note on the bottom of your resume that references are available on request..
You will want to send a cover letter with your resume you should create a general cover letter, but you should individualize the cover letter to each position you apply for. The cover letters is a tool you use to get the potential employer to want to read your resume. It should include some general note on why you are interested in the position you are applying for why you feel you are a good match to the position. You should sell yourself in the cover letter, but refrain from being over the top or funny in the language you use. You want the cover letter to reflect maturity and the thought you have put into qualifying for the position the employer is offering. Thank the employer for taking time to consider you for the position. These shows you are polite and understand the employer’s time is valuable.
You will acquire a work history and skill set that will make the task of updating your resume less daunting. So hunker down at your computer and start brainstorming the document that is your key to the adult world of work.
