Resume writing for high school students     033

Some parents may be surprised but from Year 10 onwards school students do need to have a resume.  The reasons for this are many: applications for part-time and casual employment; work related professional scholarships; entrance to some college and university programs; and of course early practice in presenting a winning strategic personal profile. Sounds a lot of trouble but teenage level resumes can be quite short.

At the top of the page is the normal identity information: name, address and phone numbers and e-mail addresses etc. Contact details which are provided must be viable—there is no good putting down an e-mail address that hasn’t been used for the last two years and doesn’t work anymore.

Below this of course the real fun starts. There are many headings that can be used and the choice depends on the sorts of experiences, aptitudes and successes which your child wants to display. Generally however the following headings are the most used: education and related achievements; additional educational achievements; work experience and skills; leadership; community service; interests and referees. Headings can be combined if necessary.

It is essential to provide actual details, clear statements of what was experienced or accomplished, and some type of success indicator. These days it seems that about one third to even one half of resumes are embellished, exaggerated, or even have sections which are complete works of fiction, that is, just plain lying. Thus the provision of accurate details suggests authenticity. Let’s start at the top then and work down.

Under education and related achievements will go to school subjects, scholarship details, achievement in academic competitions etc. Your child should always this demonstrate success, so just listing subjects isn’t enough. Perhaps your child has maintained a position in the top 10 per cent of students, or achieved a distinction in at least half the subjects. Well, say so. It may be possible to include a quotation from the principal’s school reference to the effect that your son or daughter displays high levels of application and talent.

With respect to competition performance gives details, for example, ‘Distinction, Australian Schools Science Competition, Year 10’. If your child has been doing well at piano don’t just write ‘Achieved Grade Six in piano’. Instead write, ‘2016, Eighth Grade Pianoforte (Credit), Australian Music Examinations Board, Sydney’. See the difference? The same very much applies to work experience, where leadership and the achievement of results are so important.

Consider the situation where your child works at McDonald’s, a very common experience, and herein lies the trap for young players. Most children simply write something like ‘worked at McDonald’s’. Not good enough, absolutely not! Instead, give details of which McDonald’s, the actual address, the periods worked, and the tasks performed. Remember, authenticity is important. It is common knowledge among employers that many children quit working in McDonald’s after a short period of time perhaps only a few weeks. So longer periods of time automatically evidence your child’s character.

So, what to do right now?  It is vital that your child makes a start, at least with the main headings and the contact details. Then over time all the rest of the resume can be created. It does take time—perhaps weeks—to achieve well presented, accurate and relevant content which effectively promotes your son or daughter. Your child must keep working at the resume, for example showing it to other people and asking, “How can I improve this?”  This persistence over time is difficult for children because at school they mostly do things quickly, and often at the last minute, and then hand the work in. But the resume is an important first link to the real world—and it should present your child in the best possible way. Please put the time in.

State the types of tasks and duties performed. Working as a cashier is something to emphasise because it means the ability to interact with customers. But more than this there must be successful leadership. If it is possible for your child to be any type of team leader, then this is an advantage. Perhaps your child is given the task of helping to induct new employees by being a type of mentor—all quite informally of course—but say so. If your child’s performance has been reviewed, and the rating is ‘excellent’ then say so.

These days community service is becoming an important area because among other things it shows character. So if your child collected money for the Cancer Council, as a school based activity, then give details. Perhaps your child led a group. Perhaps all badges and pens were sold. Again, give details. You see everything is important. Suppose your child wants a casual job at a pharmacy. Well would a manager of that pharmacy want to know that your daughter was captain of the netball team, or that your son was a school representative in zone level cricket? Most certainly, yes. Managers know that children who have that type of achievement are likely, actually extremely likely, to be able to work hard, work without supervision, get on with other people, and not steal the products.

Very much then a well written resume, based on real experience and achievement, is an important first step in the journey to satisfying and successful employment. Your child should put in the effort. Although a general resume should be written and kept on file that does need to be tailored to fit specific jobs and positions. Examples must be given of what your child has accomplished. Actually your child will need to write a number of resumes as he or she becomes older. Once a resume is completed, then it stays untouched, on file. Thus as time moves on your son or daughter will have a collection of resumes, in time order. The reason for this is that sometimes it may be necessary to go back to a much earlier resume to collect an important piece of information.

In actual writing style keep everything very plain and simple. It should go be visually attractive, and also absolutely free of any type of mistake. This means that it needs to be thoroughly checked by at least three different people. Let’s consider an extreme example of this. Google in the US has a policy that if a resume has only one spelling mistake or typo it will automatically be deleted. Now you might expect that applicants writing and submitting resumes to Google would make an effort to present themselves in the very best way possible. Surprisingly however some 58 per cent of resumes have errors. That adds up to thousands and thousands of disappointed applicants.

Referees can be important, and most students find it very difficult to obtain any. As a last resort a teacher or better still the deputy school principal could be used. For employment situations however a better referee would be the manager of the business where your child has already worked, but of course everyone has to begin somewhere. It is most important to ask the referee if he or she would be willing, and if so then details of the job application should be provided. Sometimes I act as a referee and I keep students details right next to the telephone so I can speak authoritatively.

Oh, and while I think of it it’s not such a good idea for your son or daughter to be working casually at either the parents’ or relatives’ businesses. Most employers will not be able to avoid thinking that the employment experience was created in order to get the student out of the house because he or she was being a nuisance. So be careful with this one.

All the ideas presented here apply to the relatively simple types of positions and applications. Later on applications become far more complicated. Indeed nowadays social media can be part of the resume process. In some situations applicants are presenting themselves using video, websites and other online mechanisms. Nevertheless at this stage it still important for your son or daughter to be aware of their identity and profile as revealed on social media—in some cases it can have a negative effect later on as part of an unsuccessful job application experience. School principals repeatedly warn students about this.

All content copyright—Mark Thackray—Australian Educational Services