Résumé

I'm 18 years old and I don't have a resume.. well i do, but its from high school and it means nothing in the real world.


Do you guys have yours? Should i update mine? I don't know if its important enough haha

 

Are you seeking an internship anywhere or applying for a job? Even if you are not, it certainly wouldn't hurt.

If you're lacking stuff to put on your resume, remember you can always list the awards/honors you received in HS, volunteer experience (such as captain of your sports team or leader of a children’s or youth church program), and skills you learned in HS (such as typing or languages you took that you're now proficient in).

 

If you need to apply for a job where you have no connections to help you bypass the selection process, then yes. 99% of the jobs out there require resumes.

I got a job that I held for 4 years at a local YMCA only because I knew the director of the department. After moving to a new town for college, however, I turned in applications and resumes to approximately 25 jobs, and only got 3 interviews. I had an impressive resume as well. I already had my AA two-year degree and 4 years of work experience in administration, finance, and customer service, and I was only one year out of highschool.

My advice to you is to ham up whatever experience you do have, however little. Elaborate on your computer skills, that's a pretty common requirement in many different fields of work. Ham up your word processor, application, internet, and troubleshooting abilities, use big words, include leisure time spent on the computer as skill building experience. If you took two years of spanish or some other language in highschool (which is required for Americans anyway), ham up your foreign language skills. Programming languages. Soft skills (hard worker, team worker, independent), hard skills (anything you can quantify, like computer skills for example). Include jobs you've done for family, babysitting jobs, yard work, paperroutes.

And make it look nice. Use blue a lot. It's a trusting color. Buy expensive resume paper and envelopes. Don't use Comic Sans font. Serif fonts for title elements, sans serif for filler information. ABSOLUTELY NO PICTURES unless it's a portfolio. Make contact information easy to find. Include a statement of intent; "I want to be employed [fulltime/parttime/temporarily] at your company". Include a cover letter, a paragraph or two that elaborates on your statement of intent. What do you want, why are you the best choice. Use advanced Word processing layout techniques to showcase your computer literacy.

 

Always handy to have a Resume or a CV at any point past the age of 16

Once the first one is done, all you have to do is keep updating it

 

Got everything i could ever need from this right here, thank you! You may close this thread whenever anyone gets a chance, thanks!!

 

Oh! And reference letters help, just make sure they're not from family. They lose all credibility, even if you've worked under a family member in a professional environment. Include your cover letter, resume, and your references in that order all in the same folder

 

Ehh unless your uncle is Bill Gates then maybe family ;D lol, but year rewards help alot to include sports etc

 

May I suggest volunteering anywhere that may be relevant to your position? Currently I've been applying for tutoring roles at my university but I've also been invited to a selection day for volunteer student leaders to help first year university students transition from highschool, foreign students who might have language difficulties etc.

Also make sure you list any skills that are practical and relevant. Computer skills and technology based hobbies are always good, and even for work experience you don't need to play it down if you've only done something small; they don't need to know the extent of the position, just that you've done it.

 

Start building your resume now. It is so much easier to start off with a good base and continue modifying it as opposed to just doing it all at once.

Try and get some volunteer experience in one way or another, that always looks great on a resume with limited work-experience.

 

I'm trying to get into law enforcement, right now im going to the #1 community college in NYS but i have 0 experience with any law enforcement jobs, my only job ive ever had was at Wendy's but i was there for 1 1/2 years.

 

You can probably arrange work experience in the field through your college. If not, you will specialise and do hands-on work if you go on to University.

To answer the OP though, yes a resume is needed and most definitely recommended.

 

Sorta like an internship?

 

Yeah you'll need one. By the way that's a "High school transcript" not a resume that you have now.