Resume Writing 101

Good afternoon, internees!

Resumes.
When you get an internship, you must provide a resume. When you head out to your next endeavor, you must provide a resume. When you apply to a job or graduate school...jeeze, if you make pancakes, AUNT JEMIMA might even need to see your resume.

Since we have distinguished in that short paragraph that a resume is extremely important, you are going to have to GET ON THAT!

But what? What was that, dearest internee? You do not know how to write a resume?!

POPPYCOCK.
(Insert Superman entrance music here)
This is what I am here for! I shall assist you in beginning your lovely resume!AND give you great sites to check out for additional help!

Here we go.

The first thing you're going to want to do is make a list of EVERYTHING you've done. Every group you've been involved with, sport you played, job you had...include everything. As they say, the more, the merrier! Here is a list for you to start with:

• clubs, sports, groups, titles you held (such as student body president or student government treasurer), if you took AP classes or were involved in the "accelerated track", volunteer work or projects, jobs, etc. Anything you deem worthy and feel like someone at a job interview should know that you were involved with a certain performance, group, anything. Write it down!

Next, make a separate list for all of your education background. You do not need to include elementary/middle school, only high school and college (unless they tell you to do so). For college, write down a couple of classes from your core curriculum (your major) that you can list on the resume.

Before we begin putting it all together, keep in mind, there are VARIOUS different templates or ways to build your resume. A lot of websites offer sample resumes such as How to Write a Resume and About.com (this is the site I used) both offer a lot of sample templates on how to make your resume look. I, however, am going to teach you the most common template. You can always change it up.

Moving on.

When you have your list of activities, educational info, and job lists together, you can begin putting it all into a word document. This will need to be TYPED. I believe, if you were to give a future employer a hand written resume, they would laugh at you. Many websites will be different in the way you list things on your resume (as I said before). I don't think there is necessarily a wrong way to write a resume, but you will ALWAYS want to make sure the most important information is at the beginning of your resume and the not-so-important is at the end.

So, with that said, here is the way you should begin constructing it (Take a peek!):

1. CONTACT INFORMATION - Include your full name, address, phone number, and email
2. EDUCATION - Most current goes first. So, if you received you Master's, you would want to list that first and then your bachelor's degree. Example: MBA - University of Texas, BA - Texas A&M, High School - Texas High
3. EXPERIENCE - Again, current goes first! Your present job should be the first one you list and so fourth and so on.
4. ACCOMPLISHMENTS - The example resume I offered as accomplishments at the beginning, however, being that you may be fresh out of college, your accomplishments should come after experience UNLESS you have some really important accomplishments. In that case, go you! Accomplishments should include awards you have won, contests you've been involved with, etc. (National Honor Society, Best Person Ever...those awards go here).
5. VOLUNTEER WORK - I had quite a lengthy list of volunteer work. If you do as well, include it in it's own category! Internee! What a good heart you have.
6. ACTIVITIES/INTERESTS - All those sports, clubs, extracurricular activities go here.
7. SPECIAL SKILLS - Computer skills, MAC skills, software, camera/video equipment, that goes here.
8. LANGUAGE - Make sure to include if you can speak/are fluent in a different language. (his is good for southern areas of the United States!)

KEEP IN MIND

Feel free to change items area, switch it up like this admin resume, a target resume, or this one!

You can always make your own categories if you want, no harm in adding more stuff AS LONG as it is significant. I would advise you NOT to make 60 thousand different categories with one item listed in each. Don't try to force it to look long! Your resume will be superb!

Always put the most recent first!

Dates are important! You worked at Burger King from 2000-2005 or you were an intern from May 2009 - July 2009. It is not necessary to provide EXACT dates, but you can if you really, really want to.

When it comes to the dreaded job descriptions, which you will want to include when you list your jobs/experience, don't be afraid to look online for help. This teacher resume has extremely detailed job descriptions. If you worked at Burger King, one of the descriptions you will want to include is cashier/cash register work and cleaning duties. But, again, don't be afraid to utilize the Internet!

This should definitely be enough to get you started writing one awesome resume! Need more assistance? I'd be happy to answer your questions!

OR. You can use these sites with more pointers on resumes!

A How-to video can be found my clicking here!

Rockport Institue has helpful tips on how to write the ultimate resume

Or you can click here for a resume builder.

GOOD LUCK and happy interning!

Love, Alice