High School Students need a Resume too!!

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As a high school student, you may think that you don’t need a resume until you are about to graduate from college and begin your search for a full-time job. However, high school students need resumes just as much as college students do. From getting into college to obtaining a part-time job, a resume is essential because college recruiters and employers alike want to see a brief summary of your abilities, education, and experiences. Here is what you should include in your high school resume.

Heading
Your name, address, telephone number, and e-mail address should all go at the top of your resume. Be sure to use a permanent address and telephone number. Also, remember to use an e-mail address that sounds professional. FirstnameLastname@ is the standard format for an e-mail address when using it on a resume. Do not use an e-mail address such as hotbody@soandso.com. It just doesn’t sound professional.

Objective
An objective lets college recruiters or potential employers know your main goal. If your target is a college recruiter, tailor your objective to that specific school. For example, your objective may be, “To earn a degree in Psychology at Boston College.” If you want to get a part-time job, you will need to modify your objective to that particular job, such as “To obtain a part-time sales position with Hollister.”

Education/Academics
In the education section, list the schools you have attended. Be sure to include your GPA if it is a 3.0 or higher. You can also mention any academic honors, awards, and/or recognitions that you have received. These can include honor-roll recognitions, essay-writing awards, science competitions, etc.

Experience
The experience section should briefly give an overview of work experience that has taught you valuable skills. In this section, include: title of position, name of organization, location of work (town and state), dates of employment, and description of work responsibilities. Be sure to use action words to describe your job duties, such as sold, created, processed, etc. Since many high school students do not have a lot of work experience, you can also describe class projects in which you have learned important skills or even leave this section out all together and concentrate on the education/academics and additional information/extracurricular sections.

Additional Information/Extracurricular Activities
The additional information or extracurricular section should be used to place key elements of your background that don’t fit in any other section. You may want to include: special skills, leadership roles, volunteer experiences, participation in sports, band, yearbook, etc. This section is where you can demonstrate your uniqueness.

References
Be sure to ask people if they would serve as your reference before you give their names out. You do not need to include your reference information on your resume. A statement at the bottom of your resume that says, “References available upon request,” is sufficient.

Having a resume in high school is just good sense. You never know when a recruiter at a college fair or a potential employer might request one.

Source: http://www.ecampustours.com/collegeplanning/applyingforcollege/highschoolresume.htm

Preparing for the Real World:

Found: http://www.hrworld.com/blog/20090415/2009-college-grad-face-brutal-job-market/

Employers reported that the following activities qualify as pertinent work experience for recent college graduates to include on their resumes:

– Internships
– Part-time jobs in another area or field
– Volunteer work
– Involvement in school organizations
– Class work
– Involvement in managing activities for sororities and fraternities
– Participation in sports

When asked to identify the biggest mistakes recent college graduates make during the application and interview process, employers reported the following:

– Acting bored or cocky – 63 percent
– Not dressing appropriately – 61 percent
– Coming to the interview with no knowledge of the company – 58 percent
– Not turning off cell phones or electronic devices – 50 percent
– Not asking good questions during the interview – 49 percent
– Asking what the pay is before the company considered them for the job- 38 percent
– Spamming employers with the same resume and/or cover letter – 21 percent
– Failure to remove unprofessional photos/content on social networking pages – 19 percent
– Not sending a thank you note after the interview – 12 percent