"This class has made me more nervous, but more importantly excited for the future ahead of me!"
Read L's Chapter 9
Unlike vitas which can (and should) be boring in terms of format, resumes should be eye catching, professional, and document your work experiences (paid and unpaid), volunteer, internships, and community service, as well as skills (languages, software, certifications). They should only be 1 page long. There is some debate on whether you should include literally all work experience, or whether you can omit some if it is not related to the job you are applying for. If you truly have space considerations, you can delete non-relevant employment; but I'd encourage you to maintain a complete lifetime resume that has all of your work history on it. Edit this as necessary for specific applications.
Even when people carefully craft their resumes, there are still common errors I see. Here are some of them:
Each section should have the entries listed in reverse chronological order (most recent things first).
Each job should include your title, the business name, city, state, and duties, and dates of employment
Even though the assignment says only 1 page, I still regularly get resumes that are, um, longer than one page! Gotta get it down to one page. One way is to use .5 inch margins all the way around, and effectively use formatting. Trust me. Even if you have had a lot of employment, it's possible (and necessary).
So create or update your resume.
Next, you will provide the names, titles/positions of 3 people you think will be your references for jobs. It is possible that some of these people will overlap with someone on your vita and that is okay. References can be supervisors in work settings (managers/bosses/supervisors). References should not be family members, relatives, or personal friends. Normally, you do not put references on a resume without express permission from the person. However, given that this is an assignment, you made do so. However, if putting the references on your resume makes it be longer than one page, then simply put 'references available upon request' at the bottom, centered (and for the purposes of this assignment, include these three references in the email, not on the resume in this case).
Keep in mind, that a goal for you is that by the end of this course that you have confirmed one reference for your resume. How do you confirm references? In other words, how do you ask people to be a reference? For a job, it might be a bit easier. If you are a server, cashier, or other type of employee, you usually can get ask your supervisor, manager, or boss, if it is ok to put them on your resume.
For this assignment, provide me with your 3 references. IF you have one confirmed (someone you have asked and they have said yes, indicate that in the assignment). The assignment is NOT to run around asking people to be your references. It is to think about who COULD be your references, and why, and to start the process of securing those references.
Create or update your resume.
Bring your resume and 3 refs to class.
Explore!
(and check out the links in the vita assignment too)
The career services page also has resume tips
Google 'graphic design resumes'--given their discipline area they have a much wider range of 'acceptable' resume styles than we do in psychology...but you still might find some cool ideas
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