Resume writing:

Writing Prep
List two of your best attributes and write about a time, or times, when you displayed these attributes.
Rememberattributes are not jobs or achievements: they are qualities inherent to your character, such as honesty, integrity, hard-working, diligence, empathy, etc.

Our work today involves

Heading Objective Brainstorming - content Categories
You should leave class today with a rough, rough draft in which youve written out your objective, and organized your skills and experiences into specific categories.

Resume - reflection of you

Your resume is a reflection of you and your experience. It is a marketing tool that introduces you to potential college (or employer) and helps obtain an interview. Your resume should be an accurate representation of your education, background and experience, but try to emphasize information that makes you stand out from other applicants. Your resume is your first impression to a potential college or employer. Keep it professional.

Heading
Your name should be most prominent. You need to include your home address. You need to include a phone number. You can decide if its your familys phone or your cell phone. Make sure your outgoing message sends an appropriate first impression for employers or college personnel. You need to include an email address. Make sure your email address sends an appropriate first impression for employers or college personnel.

Social Media
Note about social media:
With the competitive world we live in, employers and college personnel often take the time to check. Make sure what you social media says about you sends an appropriate first impression for employers or college personnel. Avoid unprofessional E-mail addresses, such as, alliecat@, bacardigirl@, bighotdaddy@, drunkensquirl@, foxylady@, gigglez217@.

Objective
The objective is an infinitive phrase which shapes the resume by giving its specific design/purpose.
Example: To obtain an engineering degree at the University of Minnesota. Consider what you want your resume to accomplish Begin with the word To Finish with a period

Resumes without a specific objective can be used for a broader purpose, but are not as effective as resumes with a specific focus (objective). For this resume, you MUST have an objective.

Categories
Your resume will be divided into categories that highlight the most pertinent information from your brainstorm. Common categories that are used on resumes include:
Contact information (required for MGSH juniors) Objective (required for MGSH juniors) Education (required for MGSH juniors) Awards and Accomplishments Extracurricular Activities Leadership Community Involvement/Volunteerism Work Experience

In addition to contact information, objective, and education, MGSH juniors will need at least 2-4 additional categories. Choose categories that will relate to your objective - consider how you can classify your content to best showcase your skills and experiences.

Careful with clichs

Don't tell a prospective employer that you are a team player -- instead, show him or her. Maybe you helped create an app for the accounting department of your company. Explain why that proved you were a team player by using ACTION TERMS
"Collaborated with accountants to determine what their needs were, communicated those expectations to the programming team, and in turn communicated their feedback."

Check all the "action" terms you use in your resume to make sure they're not vague. A trick you can use to see if your action terms are meaningful if to ask yourself if they all answer the question "How?" That is, if you're a team player, does your statement demonstrate how?

Brainstorming - Awards and Accomplishments

Create a laundry list of the awards you have received or accomplishments you have achieved. Remember that many accomplishments may qualify even if you never received a trophy, medal, or certificate.

Brainstorming - Experiences
A resume highlights your strengths as a potential candidate (for a college, for a job, for a scholarship) by showing off your skills and experience.
To begin, brainstorm all of the experiences in your life so far that have made you more competent, qualified, knowledgeable, etc.
This can include jobs youve worked, classes youve taken, extracurriculars youve been involved in, volunteer roles you have had

Brainstorming - Skills
After youve finished brainstorming experiences, move to the skills you possess that you would like to highlight in your resume.
This is not the time to be shy; if you dont market yourself, nobody will.

Along with each of the skills, create a list of measurable ways you have demonstrated your identified skills.
Avoid including skills you do not possess; if you want to list leadership skills, make sure you can back it up with examples of how youve demonstrated leadership.

Example of a category and transferable skills

Youth Pastor St. Dominics Catholic Church Winterfell, MN 2013-14

Mentored 5-8 graders on how to develop successful study habits, and how to use their faith to motivate and succeed Developed small group discussions based on specific Bible chapters and passages

Closing
Look at your rough, rough draft and evaluate where you are 4 I have formatted all the elements of a resume (heading, objective, categories, and skills), and the use action terms to describe my skills and accomplishments in the bullet points 3 I have formatted all the elements and listed the transferable skills I will use, but the skills are not put into action terms 2 I have formatted all the elements but do not yet know the transferable skills I will use. 1- I have not formatted all the elements yet 0 I got nothin