Life After High School: My First Resume Tool

That first resume can be a stumper. Exactly what goes on a resume when you have limited education and work experience right after high school? The answer is anything you can think of that reflects positively upon you. Awards, even academic ones, show you are a go-getter and set goals. Volunteering at local organizations and hobbies highlight where you have strengths and passion.

To make an automated first resume, try the My First Resume tool from CareerKids.com. If you are already graduated from high school, and have held jobs before, try the My First Resume for Adults.

The tool allows you to just see a sample resume based on your life experiences. Here is a sample first resume completed by LifeAfterHighSchool.info using My First Resume for Adults. This is not a professional resume to turn in for a job. Why?

* The skills are very generalized. Use that as inspiration to write about your own skills, and if possible tie them to an act. For example, "Entrepreneurial: took flyers door-to-door to advertise my babysitting services in my neighborhood. Increased my requests for babysitting by 5 new families."

* Keep it short and simple, the skills list on the sample resume is too long, employers do not expect someone directly out of high school to have the resume of someone 5 years past high school graduation. Never lie on your first resume.

* You can use alternate forms of resumes that make sense for your life experience. A strict outline is best for someone with many previous positions or line items. In a functional resume, you list descriptions of your duties, goals, and achievements at that position directly under the position name. This helps the hiring agent to understand exactly what you did in the roles you held.

How to Use This Tool

• Make a practice resume just to see an idea of what it could look like.
• Email the file to yourself, and copy and paste it into any word processing software (Word, OpenOffice.org's Writer)
• Adjust the resume so it fits your life experiences and the job you are applying to for employment.
• Follow the 5 First Resume Writing Tips

Life After High School : 5 First Resume Writing Tips

Resume guides are great, but they are generally written for people with years of accolades and work experience. How do you write a resume when in your life after high school you have only held one or two jobs, and are still working on your education? Here are some tips for fleshing out that first resume.

• Absolutely no spelling mistakes. Your resume is a reflection of your attention to detail, if you turn in a first resume with errors what is the employer to think? Print your resume and cover it up with a sheet a paper. Raising the piece of paper line by line from the bottom first, read each word from right to left. This will ensure you look at each word on its own merit. When you read sentences left to right, your brain likes to correct any mistakes you see automatically. You can't rely on spell check as the computer tool will not catch correctly spelled words used in an incorrect context. i.e. “Their I maintained the file system, keep an Outlook calendar, and developed document templates to speed up document generation.”

• If you are still working on your education, it is permissible to include your course of study information with an expected graduation date. For example: Pursuing a Bachelor's of Science in Computer Science, concentration in IT Networking, minor coursework in Communication Studies. Expected graduation date May 2012.
  
  
• If you can't support working while going to school, seek out volunteer opportunities with some relation to your intended career. Majoring in journalism? Find some places to publish your work without payment (local publications and magazines are a great place to start). Planning on a medical career? Organize a blood donation event with the Red Cross at your university. Business administration your game? Volunteer to provide office hours for a local non-profit.
  
  
• Include skills you have as a result of independent study or hobbies that relate to the position. If your job is going to include public speaking, include your acting skills honed at a local community theatre or even in high school drama. You can also include any duties you fulfilled for a club or organization if you held an elected or appointed position.
  
  
• Find valuable references that are not related to you and include them at the bottom. Speak to your references first and let them know you are including them on your resume. A good reference is someone who has worked with you in some capacity such as during a volunteer project or even on a group school project. If possible, try to choose someone who was in a leadership role over you.

Your first resume is going to look fairly sparse, but using the above resume writing tips will help you flesh it out to a full page. Be generous with white space in between items and make sure your first resume is a positive outline of your accomplishments to date. As long as you are not applying for a position inappropriate for your education and experience, submitting a polished resume will place you head and shoulders above the competition.

To generate a first resume in 5 minutes, try the My First Resume Tool

New Type of Internship: Learn How to Farm!

Internships are a vital part of career development planning. They act as trial runs at new careers. Paid and unpaid, any internship can provide vital experience and networking contacts.

One way to ensure job security-- everyone has to eat! The recent improvements in community supported agriculture (CSAs) are developing into novel internship opportunities for the upcoming generation. A local piece about one such program, Growing New Farmers Incubator Pilot made me dig a little deeper. A little research, and it turns out there are numerous farming internships around the country.

Here is where recent high school graduates and those with college degrees can benefit the timeless agricultural business: technology. More modern farms are using web based technology, email, databases, and real-time inventory levels to fill up-to-the-moment orders for farmer's markets, high-end chefs and restaurants, and specialty grocery stores.

In the Charleston, SC area, the average farmer is 59 years old. This means within 10-20 years, there will be a large gap in supplies of locally grown produce. Many communities in the United States are facing the same plight. Yet this could easily turn into a golden opportunity for graduates looking to bring farming into the 21st century.

• Not into farming but love computers? Consider a consulting business to provide web interfaces for small, independent farms.
• Before you graduate, look for a volunteer position with a local farm. It could pave the way to a paid position later on. Remember volunteering is what you do to pad your resume while someone else is still paying for your food and a roof over your head.
• Don't think farming doesn't require an education. Savvy growers learn the latest in farming technologies. In fact, many famous college started out as farming schools (think Texas A&M, where A stands for agriculture). 2 and 4 year degree programs cover everything from growing the crops, selling the crops, and even becoming a crop inspector.
• Average salaries range from $30,00-$60,000 for ranch manager, and similar salaries for agricultural inspecter (Salary.com)