Resume Example - DOC - DOC

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					                                          MARKETING YOU

      “Learning by doing” is the principle upon which 4-H is founded.

As you have participated in 4-H you have learned knowledge and developed skills related
to your specific project interest. You have also developed skills and knowledge that can
help you to achieve a goal that could include admission to a college, university or other
post secondary school or to obtain a job or to reach another goal that you have set for

What are your accomplishments? Your accomplishments are at times difficult to identify
but once you have identified them, you have a better chance of achieving your goals.
How can you express them so people will consider you for a job, college, volunteer
position, recognition, etc.? In short, how can you market yourself so people will see you
as competent and knowledgeable?

With well kept records you will be able to summarize your accomplishments. Once you
have prepared a summary of your accomplishments you are ready to begin your resume.
You will be able to use the same resume for interviews throughout your life with simple
updating as your experiences grow.

A resume is an advertisement for you. In a resume, you tell people about your skills,
accomplishments and experiences – what you do well and what experiences you have
had. You may be good at working on cars, selling, cooking, or any number of skills. Use
your resume to sell those skills.

With so many people applying for jobs, college, and recognition, people like to have a
data sheet that summarizes your personal characteristics, educational and work
experience as well as competencies and skills. With a finely tuned resume you will be
able to dazzle employers, recruiters or evaluators.

                                           THE RESUME
                                   An advertising tool to sell yourself

                      The objective of a resume is to get a personal interview.

Good resumes have a real “SNAP” to them. They are short, neat, accurate and positive.

                                   WHAT A RESUME SHOULD DO

         Promote your skills, talents, and education much like advertising sells a product.
         Be easy to read, logical to follow and professional in appearance.
         Describe the education, experience, and skills that make you desirable for
         Demonstrate good writing skills and be error free, indicating your attention to
         Create a good first impression that will cause the employer to select you for a
          personal interview.
         Lend itself to easy modification and update to make your experience apply to
          different occupations and industries.

                               WHAT A RESUME SHOULD NOT DO

         Be difficult to read or hard to follow.
         Look like it is going to be hard to read or follow.
         Contain personal information such as age, marital status, sex, religion, national
          origin, health status, or early background (most employers don’t want to know
          because of legal issues).
         Include ANY information that brings up more questions than in answers.
         Include pictures, salary history, jargon, unexplained abbreviations, or weaknesses.
         Make demands of any kind (the time for demands is only after a serious job
         Include sample of workshops presentations that you have done, etc.


Self description and documentation is never an easy task. In fact it is one of the most
difficult things to do and many of us try to avoid it.

Before you begin to prepare your resume, you will need to do some data gathering. Here
are some things that will be helpful.

         Project records and other records
         Awards and certifications
         Programs or materials for conference and workshops you attended
         Newspaper clippings
         Report cards
         Club minutes

You will find that record keeping of some kind is important.

Now that you have some of the materials gathered you can begin to organize your
thoughts about what you have accomplished up to this date. Now you are ready to gather
your thoughts and ideas about who you are, what you have done and what you have

                         CHOOSE A FORM THAT WORKS FOR YOU

There is no right or wrong way to set up your resume. But, these two forms (or a
combination of them) are most common, and will work for most 4-H activities, job or
college interviews.

     1. Chronological Form – job experience is arranged listing most recent job first. In
        writing think about:
             What are the most important things you want an employer to know about
             What can you bring to a job that makes you better qualified than another
             What impression do you want to leave with the person reading your

     2. Functional Form – experiences or competencies are arranged according to areas
        of skill. You have learned a great deal from all that you have done in your
        projects. In writing think about:
             What did you do in this project? What happened? What was new and
                 different about what you learned and did?
             How are things that I did and learned in these projects similar?
             How does your project work relate to things in your family, school,
                 church, community life?
             What am I going to do with the skills and knowledge that I have?

                                       WRITING YOUR RESUME

Whether you are using the chronological from to apply for a job or the functional form to
apply for an award, here are some general tips:

     1. Emphasize the positive. Include the positive contributions you’ve made to your
        employers, your school and your community, “Sell Your Strengths”.
     2. Highlight Accomplishments. Tell what you actually achieved and be specific. A
        list of “duties” doesn’t tell much.
     3. Use action verbs. Start with an action verb whenever possible. Verbs such as
        supervised, organized, planned, developed, created, tell exactly what you
     4. Avoid wordiness. Use key words and phrases instead of complete sentences.
        Eliminate the pronoun “I”. Be direct.
     5. Use familiar terms. Use language that fits the type of job that interests you.
     6. Be neat. Make sure your resume has no coffee stains, smudges, handwritten
        corrections or anything else that detracts from its appearance.
     7. Limit your resume to 2-3 pages.


         Choose an easy to read, professional font comparable to that in good textbooks.
         Avoid fancy script fonts (your resume must spell BUSINESS from start to finish).
         Avoid dot matrix printers.
         Pick a font and use that font’s italic and bold variations for effect.

     This looks like a Typewriter

     Courier looks like dot matrix printers

     This is elegant type, but not for a resume

         Times New Roman or a “Times” variation is the BEST choice, and is the most
          widely used professional font in the world!
         Use 12 point font if possible (each point = 1/72 inch)

     This is 12 point type
     This is 11 point type
     This is 10 point type
     This is 8 point type (for eye exams)

         Use line spacing no smaller than 6 lines per inch.


Here you categorize your skills (not your credentials) in light of the employer’s needs –
such as communication skills or writing ability. This resume highlights what you are
capable of doing.

To organize your thoughts, you might think about a list of workforce competencies and
skills identified as basic for the world of work and a good beginning for you.

     1. Identifies, organizes, plans and allocates resources; such as, time, money,
        materials, and facilities as well as human resources.
     2. Works with other by participating as a member of a team/group and providing
        leadership as needed.
     3. Acquires and uses information to make decisions.
     4. Understands and can work with relationships among people, ideas and things.
     5. Works with a variety of tasks, techniques, or equipment.

Other skills to consider are basics such as reading, writing, listening, speaking, thinking
creatively, and making decisions, problem solving and personal qualities which include
responsibility, self-esteem, integrity and honesty.

As you begin, write down several of the most important experience you have had in 4 -H
and how they would fit into the skills listed above. Then look at the sample functional
resume and develop yours’ using this format. This is the format your resume for Youth
Congress will follow.

                          HINTS FOR CHRONOLOGICAL RESUMES

This form gives a clear picture of where you’ve worked and what you accomplished
there. It is logical and easy to follow. You list past jobs in sequential order with a brief
description of duties. In today’s job market, you have approximately 10 seconds to
capture the attention of a prospective employer. If you can get the employer’s attention
in those 10 seconds, she/he will read the rest of the resume and perhaps decide to select
you for a personal interview.
     Use bullets and short statements about your education, experience, personal
        qualifications, achievements, skills, etc.
     Drop all pronouns and the result is an abbreviated third person voice that allows
        you to brag about yourself without seeming boastful. It also saves space.
     Have someone read your resume for correct spelling, punctuation, grammar, etc.

This is the type of resume you would use for the Job Readiness Event. An example


                                            ANNIE E. BATES
                                               16 East Street
                                         Kingston, Minnesota 06006
                                              (333) 555-5555

     To work full time as a reporter for a newspaper.

    Alexandria College, Alexandria, Minnesota
    B.S. Communications, June 1986
    Journalism award, 1986

     The Daily News, Kingston, Minnesota
     Working part time as a reporter
     Responsible for covering local high school and college events.
     Wrote a 3-part series on the growth of women’s inter-collegiate sports.

          Alexandria College News, Alexandria Minnesota
          Served as feature editor.

          (Summer 1983)
          WXL – Channel 52, Ashland, Minnesota
          Completed a summer internship in broadcast journalism.

     Fluent in Spanish
     Skilled in work processing


                                               ACTION VERBS

                       Start your job description statements with action verbs

abstracted              composed                examined          itemized       regulated
academized              computed                executed          launched       rehabilitated
accelerated             computerized            expanded          launched       remodeled
accessed                conceptualized          expedited         lectured       renewed
accompanied             conducted               explained         led            renovated
accomplished            consolidated            extracted         maintained     repaired
accounted               contained               fabricated        managed        replicated
achieved                contracted              facilitated       marketed       represented
acquired                contributed             familiarized      mediated       researched
acted                   controlled              fashioned         moderated      resolved
adapted                 coordinated             focused           monitored      restored
addressed               corresponded            forecasted        motivated      restructured
adjusted                counseled               formulated        negotiated     retrieved
administered            created                 founded           obtained       reversed
advanced                critiqued               functionalized    operated       reviewed
advised                 decreased               furthered         organized      revitalized
advocated               delegated               gained            originated     saved
allocated               demonstrated            gathered          overhauled     scheduled
analyzed                designed                generated         performed      screened
appraised               determined              guided            persuaded      shaped
assembled               developed               identified        planned        solidified
assigned                devised                 illustrated       prepared       solved
assisted                diagnosed               implemented       presented      specified
attained                directed                improved          prioritized    stimulated
audited                 dispatched              inaugurated       processed      streamlined
authored                dispersed               increased         procured       strengthened
automated               distinguished           indoctrinated     produced       structured
awarded                 diversified             influenced        programmed     summarized
balanced                drafted                 informed          projected      supervised
budgeted                edited                  initiated         promoted       surveyed
built                   educated                innovated         provided       systemized
calculated              eliminated              inspected         publicized     tabulated
catalogued              enabled                 installed         purchased      taught
chaired                 encouraged              instituted        recognized     trained
clarified               enforced                instructed        recommended    translated
classified              engineered              integrated        reconciled     traveled
coached                 enlisted                interpreted       recorded       trimmed
collected               established             interviewed       recruited      upgraded
compiled                estimated               introduced        reduced        validated
completed               evaluated               invented          referred       verified
                                                investigated      reformed       wrote

D:\Docstoc\Working\pdf\3faf2f6e-abe6-44c7-a4d4-11c53b2ba47b.doc                                  Revised 01/2003

                                                 Your Name
                                                Street Address
                                             City, State, Zip Code
                                                Phone Number

                                 SKILLS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Directions. List 3-5 skills you learned in 4-H in order of preference down the life-hand
side of your resume, as shown below. Next to each skill, list three to five ways in which
you used that skill in a 4-H, school, or other project and what you accomplished. Keep
your description to one or two sentences.

Skill # 1
                                    Best example of how you used this skill and what you
                                    Another project or activity in which you demonstrated that
                                     you had this skill.
                                    Yet another example of this skill in action - perhaps a
                                     description of a workshop you participated in where you
                                     practiced or learned more about this skill.

Continue in the same way with your other four skills. Here is a sample skill description.

                                    Persuaded my 14-member 4-H group and the local Citizens
                                     Association to clean up a neighborhood park, for which we
                                     won an award for civic beautification from the mayor.
                                     Organized a clean-up day and bake sale; press coverage
                                     resulted in more than $1000 in donations from local


NAME OF CURRENT SCHOOL                                               City, State
Date you received or expect diploma                                  Dates attended

Directions. List your academic major or area of strongest interest. Then list up to three
outside activities, such as 4-H, and any offices you have held, such as Student Council
representative or Class Secretary. Finally, describe any honors, awards, or recognition
you received for academic achievement (National Honor Society, for example), arts,
sports, community service, citizenship, or other activities-but do not repeat those you
included in your skills descriptions.

             Your Name                                                       Page Two

Here is a sample entry:

NORTHSIDE SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL                                       HIGH VALLEY, IDAHO
Diploma, June 1993                                                 1990-93

Concentration in physical sciences. Treasurer, Class of 1993. Varsity track and field
team, 1991-93. Member, High Valley 4-H Club, 1990-93; served as President (1991-92)
and Treasurer (1990-91). Letter in track and field, 1992. Named as one of five "Junior
Citizens of 1993" by the High Valley Farmers Coop for community and school service.

                         EMPLOYMENT AND/OR VOLUNTEER WORK

List your previous employers here, beginning with your most recent job. Include the
company name, city, state, and dates (month/year) you were employed. If you have not
been employed, you can list significant volunteer work; such as, hospital volunteer,
church, parks and recreation programs, etc. Include organization and short description of
your volunteer work.

6/93-9/93                     Wilderness Ranch, Salmon, Idaho (summer job)
                              Ranch hand. Assisted with all aspects of operations on a large,
                              family-owned cattle ranch: fed and cared for cattle, cleaned and
                              maintained ranch equipment and buildings, and provided
                              mechanical help with farming machinery.

6/92-9/92                     Stillwater Community Hospital (volunteer work)
                              Candystriper. Worked in the supply department. Responsible for
                              filling orders from various units/floors for basic supplies. Entered
                              orders into computer for inventory control.


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