Building a resume

Thursday, April 7th, 2022 Tips to writing your first resume

Lila Cohen

Co-Editor-in-Chief

Aresume is something most people will have to make at some point in their lives to keep track of their work experience and showcase their accomplishments to potential employers.

“A resume can show your professionalism, a resume can show your personality but a resume is really trying to get a physical log of all of your experiences and skills,” explains Tyler Fant, Business Marketing teacher at Arcata High School.

As a high schooler, if you want to apply for a job, building your first resume is something you will have to tackle, often on your own. What sections should it have? What should I put on it if I have never worked before? Let’s dive on in.

When you are first starting out, there are a variety of software you could use including Canva, Adobe Spark, or Google Doc templates.

To find Doc Templates, Darcy Robbins from the AHS Career and College Center instructs, go to your Google Docs, select templates then under the ‘general’ header you can scroll down to find resume options. Once you have chosen your Resume style, you need to start compiling information.

At the top of your page, you should have your full name and contact information followed by your objective statement.

“Your objective statement should always have research into the job you're looking into, then using the phrases that they’re talking about in their job description in your objective statement,” Fant explains.

As well as including how you would be a good fit for your targeted business, you can treat this paragraph as a mini cover letter and allow the reader to get to know who you are.

The next section that is important to include on your resume, is the skills category. Under this heading, you can include both your soft and hard skills.

“Hard skill is something you developed in a trade. It could be you know how to code, or maybe you know how to work with an online program. A soft skill is really how you work with something,” Fant summarizes.

For example, a soft skill could be saying that you are a team player or innovative thinker.

Usually, these soft skills are things that can only be proven in your interview or if you are observed working, so it is important to have a balance of both soft and hard skills Walston recommends.

The last section you should include is your relevant experience. As a high schooler making a resume for the first time, you may be thinking you have never had a job so there is nothing to put in this category.

“Most people will sell themselves short on the experience that they have had and they often will think that their general experiences don’t apply to a job,” Fant explains.

Besides jobs, under the experience section you can put volunteer experience, leadership positions, school clubs, even odd jobs or any activities you are engaging in at home, at school or in your community.

Once you finish imputing your content into your template it is important to double-check spelling, verb tenses and capitalization. All very important to showing your attention to detail.

“They are like the non-verbal communication,” Walston explains. “[The applicant] is not detail oriented if they're giving me a resume with typos on it or spelling errors.”

The text should be readable, and most importantly, your resume should not be lengthy.

“The only rule I have about resumes, one page, make your resume one page,” Robbins emphasizes.

When you go to print out your resume it is important that the print quality is good, not streaky like some of the printers on campus.

“For material, it’s always best to use card stock and color helps you stand out,” Fant summarizes.

When your resume is all printed, it is time to deliver it (or email) to the business you are interested in.

“Don’t go in a pack, go alone.” Robbins recommends you demonstrate that you are taking the opportunity seriously.

Once your resume has been received, it is good to call and check back.

“Some students might feel like they are harassing them but actually you're just showing your serious,” Robbins explains.

Lastly, Don’t wait for summer to start making your resume and looking for jobs.

“The time to hop on it is when all the HSU students are leaving for the summer, around the first two weeks in May when they tend to be putting in their two weeks notice,” Robbins shares. If you don’t know where to look for job postings, Robbins recommends carefully searching Craigslist or emailing drobins@nohum. k12.ca.us for a list of recent postings.

Now that you have a foundation of information, go for it! Start your resume! You will be happy you did it, even if it’s just for practice.

Lila Cohen/PEPPERBOX Key parts of resume: the objective statement, skills (both hard and soft), and relevant experience