How to prepare a good job resume or CV - Tips & Examples

How to write a good resume or CV, especially if you have no college experience.
by Ayliana

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Ok, so it’s pretty obvious that the majority of us that visit this site have no intention of going on to higher education if we can help it. We all would much rather be experiencing the world first hand, then sitting in a box for four more years writing notes about it. And there are many ways to do that. Not going to college, or at least putting it off until we’re ready frees up a lot of time to do things that we normally wouldn’t be able to do. Particularly, it gives us the opportunity to work and gain experience in industries and fields that can’t be gained through classroom instruction.

One of the few things I learned in high school that was of actual value was how to write up a resume and go on a job hunt. It’s the only skill that I’ve used over and over again since graduating. However, in the three years that I’ve been out, I’ve noticed that not all that many young people know who to present themselves to an employer. They’re still stuck on filling out applications and waiting for call backs. That will land you a job in food service and retail, but if you want a job that’s more rewarding then you need to present yourself in a much better way. And the first way to do that is to write up a resume.

There are a lot of different parts to a resume that one needs to take into consideration when trying to get a job. But not every part that I’ll be going into detail about is required. It also doesn’t need to be in the same order, with exception to the contact info and the objective, which always have to be at the top of the page in plain sight. Also, writing a resume isn’t in itself a guarantee that you’ll get the job you’re looking for. Most employers aren’t expecting a resume, let alone a well written one from a young applicant, so in that area you’ll have an advantage. But it’s still not the end. To truly impress an employer, you need a cover letter, a resume, a reference list, and you need to not be a total douche during your interview. Eventually I’ll write about these other elements to landing a good job as well.

Contact Information:

This is the most important part of the resume. What good is listing all of your skills and experience for an employer if they can’t get in touch with you afterwards? Having contact information at the top of your resume may seem like common sense, but it’s something that a lot of people forget to put on.

Ayliana
123 Fake Rd, Anytown NJ 12345
Phone: 1.123.555.5555
E-mail: fakemail@aohell.com

Objective:

The objective is a one to two sentence statement of purpose. Basically you’re telling your employer why you want this job with their company. Try not to be selfish about it. Your employer wants to know why you’re choosing their company, but they also want to know what you think you can contribute to it.

In other words, it’s your statement of how specifically you intend to kiss their ass for 40 hours a week 50 weeks a year. But it’s still an important piece to your resume

Objective: To use my skills and experience to be a productive asset to your business team

Education:

This is the portion of your resume where you list what schools you’ve been to and what degrees if any you’ve been granted from them, starting with high school. This is also where most people realize that most of what was told to you in school is a lie. For starters, anyone who tells you that you need good grades in high school to get a decent job is full of crap. Most retail, food service, and manual labor employers don’t even double check to make sure you actually graduated, it’s just more of a general expectation among employers that you have it, or that you’ve at least received the GED. Most entry level and internship employers don’t really check it either. The only people who verify your graduation status are those who require a background check for employment, and they’re not looking for your grades, they’re just looking to make sure you’re not lying about your qualifications, or hiding anything that could make you a potential risk to the company (Felony convictions, lawsuits et cetera). That doesn’t mean you should lie about it. Just because most employers don’t check for your diploma company you apply to won’t. This trend also doesn’t apply to vocational or college education. If you put down that you graduated from a college or tech school, they will check to make sure that you actually got the degree you claimed.

Another fallacy that guidance counselors and parents push is that employers value a GED less than an actual diploma. The fact is, one quarter of all high school students eventually drop out [1], and one in seven high school diplomas is an alternative degree [2]. Employers for the most part aren’t that picky, and if they are, then you don’t want to work for that person anyway. Most of them are just looking for the candidate with the best skills and character to do the job right. What path you took to get those skills, doesn’t really matter to them.

If however you had a personal focus in high school, that led you not only to graduation, but to learning other skills and earning other certifications, by all means put that down as well. For example, when I was in high school, I loved biology and learning foreign languages. So what I did to survive the torture of all my other classes was to sign up for extra heath and biology courses to get me through the year. Then in my senior year, I switched from Spanish, to French. What resulted was that when I finally graduated, I not only had a diploma, but two emergency medicine certifications to go with it, and I could speak in three languages, with some degree of fluency, something that most of my peers couldn’t do.

The next thing you should write down is any college or vocational training that you’ve received. Now I know most of us aren’t going to college when we get out of high school. The main reason why I’m writing this article is because most of us would rather be skinned alive then go through four more years of formal schooling. That’s fine, that’s your choice. But that still doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t attend some form of higher education for a small period of time. No one’s saying that you have to graduate with a four year degree. Just taking classes at a local community college part time for a year or two (while working full time) will help you figure out what interests you, and give you the foundation necessary to pursue your goals. You can also receive vocational training for a year in a trade that you’re already skilled in, or that you would enjoy doing.

Education
Ultra Rich White Persons High School (2002 – 2006)
Graduated Class of 2006
Focus: Biology, Emergency Medicine & Foreign Language
Medical Response Technician Certification
Life Guard Certification

Ultra Rich White Persons Community Technical College (2006 – 2008)
General Studies Major
Focus: Foreign Language, and Mathematics

Military Experience:

First off, everyone needs to chill with this issue. I swear to God, I can see the pitch forks and torches already and I haven’t even e-mailed this to SoulRiser yet. I know that many of the people here are opinionated when it comes to the military and particularly the current engagements the U.S. military has overseas right now. You have every right to your opinions. But that doesn’t change the fact that none of us know what the future holds for ourselves or those around us. One day you might just find yourself in a recruiter’s office, seriously considering a four year contract, and you might just decide to go for it. And if you do end up in the military, you need to know how to put your experience on paper.

And the fact is, retention rates for most of the military are quite high, so they’re doing something right [3]. The Air Force and the Coast Guard are particularly high [4]. These two branches are also known as having the highest quality of living. This is due to the fact that they’re both small and very technologically focused. And like it or not, honorable military service looks great to potential employers.

When putting down military experience, make sure to include the branch you served in, your job title and any distinctions you may have earned during your training. Also be sure to include any extra education or certifications that you may have received as a result of your service. The military is generally very good to people who manage to get into the high tech or medical fields. The better you do at your job, the more training the military will be able willing to give you.

Military Experience
U.S. Air Force (2008 – Present)
Basic Military Training Honor Graduate
Airman Leadership School Distinguished Graduate
Cardiopulmonary Lab Technician (Civilian Certified)
Served in Afghanistan (2010 – 2011)
Purple Heart Recipient
Community College of the Air Force Graduate
A.S. Allied Health Sciences

National Service:

If you’re still vehemently against military service, there are still other ways to serve your country that look just as good on to potential employers. National Service organizations such as Americorps, Peace Corps and City Year are all volunteer service organizations that place people in areas of the country (or world, with the Peace Corps) that are the most disadvantaged. Volunteers in these organizations serve around one to two years and are usually rewarded with a small allowance, free health care, and student loan deferments. [5] Other organizations are more local, like Habitat for Humanity, Big Brother Big Sister, and the Boys and Girl Scouts of America. In these organizations you serve your local community and you receive no reward other than personal satisfaction.

When adding national service to your resume, make sure you name the service you were in, as well as your job title, where you served, and any awards you won during your time.

National Service
Americorps (2008 – Present)
Youth Tutor / Construction Laborer
New Orleans LA
Segal Education Award Recipient

Work Experience:

This is the most obvious portion of your resume. Here you’ll list your most recent forms of employment, starting with the job you currently have now. If you’ve never had a formal job, that’s fine. Instead put down any experience that you may have where you’ve worked for someone under the table. Babysitting, yard work, and running errands all count as job experience for first time applicants.

If you’re a job hopper (like me) and you’ve had a number of different jobs over the course of your career, then choose the three that you’ve spent the most time in and put those down. The general rule in the workplace is to stay at one job for at least one year. Having a bunch of jobs on your resume or application that you’ve only stayed in for around six months just doesn’t look good. It makes your potential manager wonder why you left or how reliable you really are. One year is seen as the minimum amount of time needed to learn the skills of the job, and receive some form of advancement, such as additional training or a position of leadership over other co-workers.

Don’t put down more than three jobs. For most people a resume, not including the cover page and references is only supposed to be one page long. Only those with lots of experience, and extra qualifications are allowed to let their resume run over into a second page.

No matter what your level of work experience is, you always have to put down your job title and a brief description of your most important duties while at work. Employers don’t want to read a paragraph about your job, or a laundry list of your most mundane duties. All they want to see is two to four short sentences that describe your most important responsibilities. How you word those sentences is also important. Hiring managers are always looking for people who can do more than just a handful of tasks like a robot. They’re looking for people who can adapt and grow with the needs of the company. Key words like communicate, multitask, troubleshoot and advise indicate the ability to think outside the box and resolve conflicts, something that’s highly desirable to most managers.

Work Experience:
IT Staff Corp (2008 – 2009)
Payroll Specialist / Recruitment Trainee
Approve and submit consultant timesheets to Accounts Receivable
Locate potential clients for current recruiters
Help current recruiters with registration process to vendor’s lists

Drunkin Donuts (2007 – 2008)
Shift manager
Maintain cash register
Provide communication link between staff and management
Advise management on store and employee needs
Close store at night

Family Food Center (2006 – 2007)
Deli Clerk
Prepare food for hot bar and salad bar
Communicate effectively to customers and staff
Operate and maintain meat slicer and kitchen equipment

Other Skills / Experience:

This is the portion of the resume where you plug in everything else you haven’t included that you think would make you a great asset to the corporation. Anything other skills that you haven’t listed should be organized by subject and placed here. This typically the last section of your resume, as it’s typically viewed as the coup de grace of your resume. Examples of secondary skills are foreign languages, programming languages, computer office systems, vocational skills not learned in a trade school, experience with specific types of machinery, and specific types of licenses not included earlier.

Other Skills / Experience
Languages
Spanish, French, Italian, Arabic, & Farsi
Programming Languages
Visual Basic, C++
Computer Operating Systems
MS 95 – Vista, Linux, UNIX & Dos

The Final Resume should look something like this:

Ayliana
123 Fake Rd, Anytown NJ 12345
Phone: 1.123.555.5555
E-mail: fakemail@aohell.com

Objective: To use my skills and experience to be a productive asset to your business team

Education
Ultra Rich White Persons High School (2002 – 2006)
Graduated Class of 2006
Focus: Biology, Emergency Medicine & Foreign Language
Medical Response Technician Certification
Life Guard Certification

Ultra Rich White Persons Community Technical College (2006 – 2008)
General Studies Major
Focus: Foreign Language, and Mathematics

Military Experience
U.S. Air Force (2008 – Present)
Cardiopulmonary Lab Technician (Civilian Certified)
Served in Afghanistan (2010 – 2011)
Purple Heart Recipient
Community College of the Air Force Graduate
A.S. Allied Health Sciences

Work Experience:
IT Staff Corp (2008 – 2009)
Administrative Assistant / Recruitment Trainee
Approve and submit consultant timesheets to Accounts Receivable
Locate potential clients for current recruiters
Help current recruiters with registration process to vendor’s lists

Drunkin Donuts (2007 – 2008)
Shift manager
Maintain cash register
Provide communication link between staff and management
Advise management on store and employee needs

Family Food Center (2006 – 2007)
Deli Clerk
Prepare food for hot bar and salad bar
Communicate effectively to customers and staff
Operate and maintain meat slicer and kitchen equipment

Secondary Skills
Languages
Spanish, French, Italian, Arabic, & Farsi
Computer Operating Systems
MS 95 – Vista, Linux, Unix & Dos
Computer Programming Languages
Visual Basic, C++

Sources Cited:

This is just to prove to future readers that I didn’t pull numbers out of my ass when stating statistics in this article. The following sources are;

[1] http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/10/29/high.school.dropouts.ap/index.html
[2] http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9906E5D9163FF936A25756C0A9629C8B63
[3] http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-07-17-soldiers-re-enlist_x.htm
[4] http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,FL_numbers_041404,00.html
[5] http://www.americorps.org

Written by: Ayliana
6 January 2009