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Resumes

 

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What is a Resume?

  • The purpose of a resume is to provide a summary of your skills, abilities and accomplishments.

  • Your resume is a "living document" that you will add to and change over the course of your lifetime.

  • A resume is a list that is a quick advertisement of who you are.

  • The goal of the resume isn't necessarily to get you the job, but to get you an interview.

 

Three Minute Video on How to Do a Resume

General Resume Rules
  • This is one of the most formal documents you will write in your life. For that reason:
    • Abbreviations are kept to a bare minimum, however, you may use the abbreviation PA for Pennsylvania.
    • Numbers that start a sentence are to be written out with a capital letter: “Two” instead of “2”.  You may use the numeral if the number comes later in the sentence.
    • ALWAYS have someone proofread your resume.

 

  • Fonts: use a professional looking font, employers won’t like ‘comic sans’. Also, if you send your resume electronically in a Microsoft Word document, the person reading it might not have that font installed on their computer. Basic fonts like Times New Roman and Arial are your best choice.
 
  • If you are sending your resume electronically, convert it to an Adobe PDF so that it can be read on any computer - not everyone has Microsoft Word, or the fonts you have installed on your computer.

 

  • Employers are most interested in what you have done lately, so you will want to list your Education and Job History in reverse chronological order with the most recent first, this means backwards with your first job at the bottom and your current job at the top.

 

  • When you print, use nice white paper, you should never use colored or decorative paper.
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  • Resumes have changed over the years and "Career Objectives" and listing your References or writing "References Available Upon Request" are no longer used on resumes.
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Parts of a Resume
Heading:

The heading contains the information necessary to contact you:

  • Your name - use your formal name, the way your name appears on your license or ID.

  • Full address with the following format:

                       

             821 Plymouth Road                       (Make sure to write out road/street/avenue, etc.)

             Plymouth Meeting, PA 19462       (The comma is AFTER the city, PA is capitalized.)

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  • Phone number(s) – do NOT put the area code in parenthesis, there was a time when area codes were optional, now they are mandatory, so no parenthesis () are needed:

            

              610-277-2301                    (Be sure to include dashes)

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  • Email address – make sure it is appropriate. Also make sure that it is NOT an email given to you by your high school - you will not have access to this email after you graduate!

 
Skills and Certifications:

  • This section of your resume is a place where you will list your skills and abilities.

  • Refer to the "Employment Skills" worksheet you filled out during the Hard vs. Soft Skills Lesson.

  • Verbs: Use action verbs whenever necessary in the present tense. For example, “Taking orders from customers” instead of “took orders from customers”.

  • You should include any certifications in your field of study and they should be at the top because they are most important.

  • List only skills that you have learned; if you didn’t learn it, don’t include it.

 
Education History:

  • In this section you will list your education and all of the schools you have attended.

  • It is important that you list education with the most recent first.

  • Since you are at “tech” and your sending school at the same time, CMTHS should come first because that will make you stand out that you have already studied a trade.

  • Do not list elementary or middle school.

 
Employment History:                                                                                   

  • In this section you will list all the jobs and internships you have had.

  • It is important that you list jobs with the most recent first.

  • Make sure the information is correct and complete.

  • You do not need exact dates; the month and year are enough.

  • Use present tense verbs with -ing endings to describe what your duties are

  • If you are still working there, instead of an ending date, put "to present".

 
Awards and Activities:

  • List special activities or awards you have received since 9th grade and where and when you received or participated in them.

  • Activities include any organized club or sport

  • You are all members of SkillsUSA here - CMTHS pays your dues!

  • You may abbreviate your home school in the Activities section after you have written it out once in the Education History section.

  • If you have no awards or activities, do not include this section.

 
Community Service:

  • This section shows where you have volunteered and when

  • Community Service done for a judge or a court of law does NOT count here - you paid your debt to society and can not take credit for it on your resume.

  • Other than that, anything else you have done as a volunteer counts - fundraisers, charity events, blood drives, or other volunteer activities.

  • At CMTHS, we traditionally have a Food Drive in the Fall, and then a "Toys From Tech" toy drive at the holidays - if you participate in these events, you can put those on your resume.

  • If you have never volunteered, do not include this section.

 

Nine Common Resume Mistakes

You are not the first person to ever write a resume.

Work smarter, not harder by taking tips from the experts.

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