Writing a resume can sound like a challenge, but in reality, as long as you follow simple guidelines and be honest, you will be able to put your best foot forwards on paper.
A resume is an opportunity to highlight your skills, education and past experiences that makes you the person you are today. Basically, you are trying to feature yourself in a way that will help you stand out from the pack of other applicants. This is your first opportunity to make a positive impression on your employer and show them why you are the perfect person for the job.
In today’s world, creating resumes online is the norm and quite often look considerably better than your standard Word document.
I made my resume on Canva.com. Canva is a fantastic free, online graphic design program with thousands of premade templates for you to choose from. You can customize it to create a resume specific to the job you are applying for. Make sure you don’t get too wrapped up in the design process. It should be your qualifications that stand out, not a fancy design.
To be able to understand what potential employers look for in a good resume, I interviewed Charlene Levis (MA. CPHR).
In the list provided below, we will go over the best things to do to have a successful resume that future employers will want to read, as well as the mistakes you will want to avoid at all costs.
A resume is an opportunity to highlight your skills, education and past experiences that makes you the person you are today.
Do’s:
- Keep it clean. Keeping your resume neat and tidy shows that you are an organised individual who takes pride in their work. It shows employers that you care and will most likely keep things orderly and
- Keep it simple. Keeping your resume clean is one thing, but keeping it simple is even better. A simple resume doesn’t mean you don’t have much to show, rather you understand that some past experiences are irrelevant for the job you are applying for. Keep your resume short, as people doing the hiring rarely want to read four pages of random accomplishments
- Make sure you include everything the job requires, for example first aid or Food Safe qualifications. Research what the job requires you to do and tailor your resume to fit that description
- Always proofread and spell check. The last thing you want is to hand over a resume with tones of spelling errors and sentences that don’t make sense. Get a few friends or family members to read over your resume and make sure you listen to their feedback.
From my own research, other do’s include:
- Be honest. Don’t over-exaggerate or make up accomplishments. As a teenager you are not expected to have a lot of experience.
- Use action verbs, such as ‘motivated’, ‘organized’, ‘developed’, ‘coordinated’ and ‘assisted’.
- Include contact information. It is critical to include your contact information, such as email or phone number so you can easily be reached if they want to offer you the job or an interview.
Don’ts:
- Don’t include the reason or reasons you left your last job. Keep the resume positive and focus on your positives, not the negatives that made you leave your job.
- Don’t write in first person. You should not include “me”, “I”, “my”, etc. This means you should be writing as if someone else was writing the resume.
- Don’t make a really general resume. It is really easy for employers to see you’ve photocopied a resume and sent it to multiple companies. As I said above, make sure your resume is specific to the job you are applying for.
As a bonus, here are some links you can use for guidance and inspiration for how to write your resume:
– An example of the perfect resume according to Harvard experts
– Resume examples for teens with tips
– Resume examples and templates for teens