Writing a Resume, a skill that isn’t taught? Confusing Resumes!

Writing a resume can be confusing, unknown and often a scary thought. This is especially the case now, in this day and age, where some applications have extensive particulars about what must and must not be included.

Something that often baffles me is why is this a skill that isn’t taught in school? And if it is taught, why isn’t it done properly?

Talking with some teens who have been through it, the process for them was far too simple. ONE lesson (50 odd minutes), here is a template, fill in your parts and print it out, done.

Getting your foot in the door, making an impression and getting a jump start as a teen is so important. Making yourself look good on paper, to possibly make it through to an interview is vital.

Here are a few points, that might help you and confusing resumes.

• Spell check: Go over your resume and even get someone else to read it. You will find that simple mistakes are so easy to make and also easy to miss when proofreading. Simple mistakes can make you move to the bottom of the list, or even off the list, very quickly.

• Update your email address: Remember that email address you made when you were a kid? “kait_rox” or something similar? Time to upgrade haha. Start by making a free email address, preferably through gmail or Hotmail. Using your name or something clean and simple is the best approach.

• All of the relevant information: Only include relevant information in the resume – the participation award for soccer you won 20 years ago, no longer relevant. Keep the information relevant and what the person reading will want to see. Tasks and duties from relevant positions, educations and achievements from the past 10 years etc.

• Formatting consistency: Keep it consistent!!!!!! Font style, font sizes, colours, indentations, bullets, all sections of formatting should stay the same. Not only does this look much better, but it is also much easier to read when skimming (what most people who have lots of resumes to look at do).

• Compare to the job guide: If your job application has a section on what must be included, an application guide or procedures, check them off against your resume. Make sure every part that they request is completed in your resume and application.

• Templates: Websites like Microsoft have templates available for download. Whilst these are a good starting point, try and customise or personalise the template for your own needs.

If you have a resume and you would like me to look over it, contact me for free advice. If you are stuck and would like me to make you a complete resume, I can also do this for you as well, at a set cost.

I hope this helps.

-Kaitlin-