How to Structure Your First Resume

Are you ready for your first resume?

A resume is your calling card to your future employers and a summary of what you can do for their companies. Reading it should make them want to bring you in for an interview. Then, with good interview skills, you should be offered that job.

A resume begins with your Name, Address, Telephone Number, message or cell numbers and your EMAIL ADDRESS. You must have an email address in these days of electronic communication. If you need one, you can get a free email address at Yahoo.com and a few other site (search for free Internet based email accounts on Google.com). Never pay a site for an email address, unless it is connected with your home Internet Provider service, and then it should be included in the monthly cost and not extra.

MONSTER.COM

Yahoo.com had its own job-search site called HotJobs, joined now with Monster. Monster,com provides a place to write and store your resume with some additional resume writing templates. Not only that, but you can apply for jobs online with the stored resume and benefit from other free services, so that is one place to go to become Internet savvy and look for a job! There are hundreds of employment related online groups in Yahoo Groups and Google Groups available free to join for discussions and fun, and they include job search groups and job listings for specific industries. Facebook is another source of work related discussion groups.

TYPES OF RESUMES

There are several types of resumes. The category of resume used most often for a first resume is called a Functional Resume.

This style of resume writing places emphasis on what you can do (that's function). Here is a good sample of a functional resume written for an individual who is graduating from college in about 8 weeks:

First Name, Middle Initial, Last Name (center this section)

Address

Phone # and Cell #

email address

CANDIDATE SUMMARY (center this section)

BS, IT Engineering -- Member IEEE -- Successful Entrepreneur

Pursuing MBA in Finance

QUALIFICATIONS (center this section, or leave it as is)

• Outstanding sales and oral/written communications skills.
• Excellent financial skills in business ownership and operation.
• Successful producer of ideas and products, with complete follow-through.
• Creative problem-solver with resourcefulness, determination, and focus.
• Goal-oriented, achieving results with excellent people/organizational skills.
• Competitive edge in sales, financial controls, and IT engineering.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Operate website for Exercise Classes and Equipment, 2006 - Present.

Operated successful nationwide Cellular Telephone Business, 2005 - 2006

Conducted successful Computer Programming Workshops in:

• Java
• C++
• HTML

EDUCATION

Fairborn University. Fairborn. OH.

• B.S. Engineering, Information Technology (IT), 2007.

Completed a personal study in a traditional 10-Day Vipassana.

• Studied an ancient traditional form of Indian meditation.
• Mastered aspects of maintaining calm, concentration, and patience,
• Certificate of Completion, May 2006.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Champion District-Level Swimmer.

Champion, Inter-School Table Tennis.

Competed 2 years in University Games among 500 athletes. Won Gold and Silver.

Mastered parachuting.

Member, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

Placed 3rd in the state division of the Countrywide Science Olympiad.

SAT Score: 1580

Seasoned traveler in Adventure Learning.

Successfully tutored central-city teens in mathematics during 3 summers.

Notice that you should always put your NAME in bold letters. This shows confidence and gets the reader's attention. The CANDIDATE SUMMARY lists your strongest skill sets or best features. QUALIFICATIONS can list good personal qualities that employers would appreciate and can also include specific accomplishments. For example, if you helped to increase sales at your high school club's annual rummage sale by 25%, then list that because it is an increase in sales and employers like that.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE includes the jobs you have worked, but no more than the last 10 years' worth. If you babysat during high school, then that's a job; so, list that and get a reference letter from the families for whom you sat. If you sold candy for your marching band, then that's a job and you can list that,e specially if you sold the most candy! If you have not worked except cutting grass, washing cars, etc., then that is still work and you should list it. For parents who have not worked outside the home, child raising and caring for a home is work, so list it as such. In addition, VOLUNTEER WORK can be listed under this section or in a section of its own, if you have a large amount of it in your experience.

EDUCATION as a resume section needs to include your college and what degree you earned and in what year. If you did not graduate, then list the major courses you took that would help you in a job. If you did not attend a college or another school after high school, then list your high school and what type of course you took, such as "College Prep", "Office Management", "Vocational Certificate", etc. Additional training and certificates go in this section as well.

Finally, ACCOMPLISHMENTS will appear at the end of the resume. Anything you have achieved that can impress your future employer should go here.

The resume above is formatted for email or to mail in snail-mail to a company's Human Resources office. Below is the same resume formatted strictly for an Internet application. It would go into a form that pops up on employers' websites when they want to accept applications for jobs over the Internet.

First Name, Middle Initial, Last Name

Address

Phone # and Cell #

email address

Candidate Summary

BS, IT Engineering -- Member IEEE -- Successful Entrepreneur -- Pursuing MBA in Finance

Qualifications

Outstanding sales and oral/written communications skills.

Excellent financial skills in business ownership and operation.

Successful producer of ideas and products, with complete follow-through.

Creative problem-solver with resourcefulness, determination, and focus.

Goal-oriented, achieving results with excellent people/organizational skills.

Competitive edge in sales, financial controls, and IT engineering.

Professional Experience

Operate website for Exercise Classes and Equipment, 2006 - Present.

Operated successful nationwide Cellular Telephone Business, 2005 - 2006

Conducted successful Computer Programming Workshops in:

Java

C++

HTML

Education

Fairborn University. Fairborn. OH.

B.S. Engineering, Information Technology (IT), 2007.

Completed a personal study in a traditional 10-Day Vipassana.

Studied an ancient traditional form of Indian meditation.

Mastered aspects of maintaining calm, concentration, and patience,

Certificate of Completion, May 2006.

Accomplishments

Champion District-Level Swimmer.

Champion, Inter-School Table Tennis.

Competed 2 years in University Games among 500 athletes. Won Gold and Silver.

Mastered parachuting.

Member, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

Placed 3rd in the state division of the Countrywide Science Olympiad.

SAT Score: 1580

Seasoned traveler in Adventure Learning.

Successfully tutored central-city teens in mathematics during 3 summers.