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[RandomNumberGenerator]

Alright, well... right now I'm going part-time to a community college while I'm working on an application to another college. I wasn't really looking for a job, but I found an offer in the paper today for an IT Job. I'm not exactly a computer guru, but I've worked a lot with XP/Vista and Microsoft Office, and I have some hardware experience, so I figure it's worth a shot.

Spoiler: The Ad (click to show/hide)

Problem is, I've never had a real job before. My experience is pretty much limited by babysitting... and I have no idea how to write a resume. I tried to google some resume builders, but all I found were ones that cost money or requires a subscription to something. Which is why I'm posting here. I'm hoping some of you guys would know the best way to go about this.

[Cthulhu]

My college has some resume stuff for free that I'm pretty sure is publicly available, I didn't have to log in to see it at any rate.

[Muz]

You should put "writing a resume" in the title. Lol, don't worry about it, the job sounds a bit lenient.

I have a fairly good resume, but I'm not going to put it online. Basically, just make it professional looking and easy to read. There's no "format" for it. My dad sends his resume to multi-million dollar companies, and it's basically a bunch of big words, with details.

Start with a segment on your education. Where you graduated from (including schools), what national exams you've taken, what grades you got. Depends on what's applicable in your country.

Next segment on work experience, whatever you feel applies. I used to put in (unpaid) Internet site administration positions when applying for any job with leadership, it helps to prove management experience while you're young. In your case, you might want to put your babysitting job, as well as any other you can think of - freelance computer repairing, tutoring, charity work, internships. Not too much fluff and it should be fine. Your resume is where you brag.

Since you're still studying, you put a small section on extracurricular experience. Whether you play basketball, cheerleading, joined math competitions, etc.

Then, finally, just list down general skills and competence. Here, you do want to say you know how to use MS Office. Maybe Open Office. Write if you have C++ skills, Python, HTML, whatever. If you know more than one language, also say so here.

And if you like, add a section on your personal interests. If you like skating, golf, quantum mechanics. Whatever you feel is interesting to you. Be warned that your interviewer will most likely question you if your interests seem a little odd (like quantum mechanics, etc), so only put in stuff that you're genuinely interested in.

[Blacken]

The job's a monkey-work position. Given your current position, that's a good thing. There's always the chance that you get some bored kid genius looking for a job blows you out of the water, but for that kind of position, if you walk in with some intermediate computer skills, a willingness to learn (critical), and a good, positive attitude (even more important), your resume won't matter as much as how you present yourself in person. The cover letter, in such a situation, matters more.

[RandomNumberGenerator]

The job's a monkey-work position. Given your current position, that's a good thing. There's always the chance that you get some bored kid genius looking for a job blows you out of the water, but for that kind of position, if you walk in with some intermediate computer skills, a willingness to learn (critical), and a good, positive attitude (even more important), your resume won't matter as much as how you present yourself in person. The cover letter, in such a situation, matters more.

Cover Letter?

[Cthulhu]

You have to write a letter to go with your resume.

[RandomNumberGenerator]

Okay, this is what I came up with so far:

Spoiler: Resume (click to show/hide)

Sean Hughes
256 S. Lookout Mountain Road
Golden, Colorado 80401
(303) 526-1425
rndmnumgenerator@gmail.com

Objective:
To secure a decent job and gain experience in the workforce.

Education:
1.5 semesters at DeVry University
5 part-time semesters at Red Rocks Community College during high school
Graduated Golden High School 2009

Skills:
Experienced with Windows XP and Vista
Knowledge of Internet Explorer Microsoft Word, Powerpoint and Excel.
Knowledge of third-party programs such as Mozilla Firefox and Open Office.
Knowledge of internal and external computer hardware and their functions.
Basic knowledge of networking and IP addresses and their confrigurations.
Basic knowledge of C++, C and Actionscript 3.0 programming languages.

Achievements:
Scored a composite score on 27 on my ACT test.
Member of the National Honors Society in high school.
Competed in the Technology Student Association competition in 2008
Built my own computer from parts ordered online.
Awarded DeVry's Presidential Scholarship.

Spoiler: Cover Letter (click to show/hide)

Sean Hughes
256 S. Lookout Mountain Road
Golden, Colorado 80401
(303) 526-1425
rndmnumgenerator@gmail.com

February 08, 2010

Human Resources
Berry Petroleum Company
1999 Broadway STE 3700
Denver, Colorado 80202
hr@bry.com

Dear ?(I wasn't given a name)

I would like to be considered as an applicant for the position of PC Support Specialist. I don't have much professional experience being right out of high school, but I do have a strong work ethic and an eagerness to learn. I have worked with computers a lot over the years and know a good deal about how they work and how to make things work correctly when they are not. I would value any opportunity to gain professional experience working for Berry Petroleum.

I am self-motivated and will always complete any tasks assigned or if unable, figure out how to complete them. It is not like me to leave anything unfinished, as I believe that your work is a reflection of yourself. I naturally strive for excellence and seek out challenges to improve my skills. These traits are what I will bring to the company.

While I realize that I may not be as desirable an applicant with little experience working in a company, I hope that you will give me the chance to prove myself as a hard worker and useful employee.

Sincerely,

Sean P. Hughes

[Muz]

Looks nice.

For the resume, things like EDUCATION, SKILLS would be like in bigger font. I personally use Arial 14 bold, but up to you.

Objective is not necessary, lol, so I'd take it out. I'd put some detail in the education, like what degree I'm taking, and I'd move the ACT to education. Not too much detail, don't want to bore them, but don't want to leave them questioning.

For the cover letter, "Dear Sir/Madam" works. The tone is a bit too humble. I'd remove the "While I realize that I may not be as desirable an applicant with little experience working in a company" part.

In general, (American) companies value confidence more than humility. You're usually better off saying like "I can do this" rather than "I know I suck but give me a chance", as long as you don't sound cocky/annoying. Of course, it varies depending on corporate culture, but generally, that's how it usually is. But in any culture where you're expected to look the interviewer in the eye, confidence is a plus.

[Blacken]

Resume notes:

• Get a professional email address. Real name @gmail.com, or (even better) get a domain with your name. That email address screams "kid", and you don't want that.
• Strike the objective section. You don't have the professional standing to have an objective, so lose it.
• As mentioned, declare your major. Also your current GPA.
• Mention potentially relevant courses you have taken.
• You don't have skills unless you have a way to prove those skills. If you've taken a class on C, say so. If you've taken a class on AS3, say so. Otherwise, it's meaningless. Settle for "proficiency with office productivity software" for that other software, it's largely unimportant. Remember: this is a monkey-work job, and they expect you to come in dumb. You may actually hurt your case by throwing around unsubstantiable claims of skills; they see that all the time. (And, well-intentioned or not, "I know IP addresses" just looks silly. Similarly, lose the "built my own computer from scratch"; that's more informal and is great to mention during the interview, but not so good on a resume. Stuff like that comes off sillier on paper than it does when you say it.
• Spellcheck. Don't be goddam sloppy.

Cover letter:

• To be honest, your grammar's pretty bad and your phrasing is clunky and ineffectual. Get it checked over by somebody who has a solid grasp of literary style. You have very few pluses on your resume, but a tight writing style can give the impression that you're "with it" and have a detail-oriented outlook on this stuff. That can be valuable.
• Strike "Dear." You aren't speaking to a specific person; "Dear Sir or Madam" is outdated and could conceivably piss off somebody with a wild hair up their ass. "To whom it may concern:" is a safer route.
• Stop talking down about yourself. If you say a single negative in your cover letter, you screwed up. They will see the negatives themselves. You don't need to point them out.
• Everyone says they're self-motivated. This is a null phrase.
• Talking about what's "not like me" just leads employers/HR down really bad paths.
• Just...rewrite the whole thing. Carefully. Read it out loud. Record it and play it back, if you can. If it sounds hackneyed, screwed up, or dumb when you read it, it's wrong and needs to be fixed.

[Starver]

No-one could accuse me of being particularly good at CVs/Resumes, although the position I'm currently in (started yesterday, but first full day today) is particularly nice, and as such I've gone a whole day without logging into the forum.  I'm on my own time now, more or less. 

Also, I'm UKian.  There's probably a lot of differences (on top of the CV/Resume nominative one) in expected style.

First comment: "a composite score on 27 on my ACT test"... first "on"=>"of"?  Check for things like that.

If you don't have a name for the "Dear..." then the advice I received was to put a Sir/Madam.  But even better to phone the place up and see if you can get the name...  What approach to use is tricky.  "Hi, I'm wondering who your recruitment officer is/head of <department> is?" is short and sweet but could be taken as a cold-caller from recruitment/sales.  Brute honesty of "I'm thinking of applying for <role>, who should I address my application to" is probably the best, though.

Also, British English standards tend towards "Dear <name>" ending as Yours Sincerely" and "Dear Sir/Madam" (or similar unnamed) ending as "Yours Faithfully".  You might want to check US advice on this matter, though.  (I understand that "Sincerely" alone is acceptable in the US...)  But don't get caught up in that detail, just an observation.

I'm a little unsure about the slight negativity of the final para in the covering letter.  I might try to rephrase in a more neutral tone, but I can't work out how to do that right now.

Finally (because most of the intermediate points I might have made sound even more pedantic than the above, like general formatting that I expect you have down pat put gets lost in the posting to these forums), can you either put down some references (with either implicit or explicit pointing towards the job you're doing, e.g. a personal friend who just happens to be a manager of a computer store) or "References available on request"?  I don't know if that's a feature of a Leftpondian resume, or how it's traditionally put.

Sorry, rushed reply.  Got busy here and I abandoned my plan of personal time online for a while, and now it's hometime...

[Postscript, Ninjaed, it looks like]

[RandomNumberGenerator]

Okay, I tried modifying them with the advice I've gotten. They seem a little empty with everything I've taken out, so I'll post them again. Still, I suppose it's better than just filling it up with trash.

Spoiler: Resume (click to show/hide)

Sean Hughes
256 S. Lookout Mountain Road
Golden, Colorado 80401
(303) 526-1425
sean.pat.hughes@gmail.com

Education:
1.5 semesters at DeVry University majoring in Game & Simulation Programing; 3.9 GPA
 - Taken classes on programming logic and design, using C and C++ as examples.
5 part-time semesters at Red Rocks Community College during high school; No major
Graduated Golden High School 2009

Skills:
Experienced with Windows XP and Vista
Knowledge of Internet Explorer Microsoft Word, Powerpoint and Excel.
Knowledge of internal and external computer hardware.
Proficiency with office productivity software.

Achievements:
Scored a composite score of 27 on my ACT test.
Member of the National Honors Society in high school.
Competed in the Technology Student Association competition in 2008
Awarded DeVry's Presidential Scholarship.

Spoiler: Cover Letter (click to show/hide)

Sean Hughes
256 S. Lookout Mountain Road
Golden, Colorado 80401
(303) 526-1425
sean.pat.hughes@gmail.com

February 08, 2010

Human Resources
Berry Petroleum Company
1999 Broadway STE 3700
Denver, Colorado 80202
hr@bry.com

To whom it may concern:

I would like to be considered as an applicant for the position of PC Support Specialist. I have a strong work ethic and an eagerness to learn, and I have worked with computers a lot over the years. I know a lot about how computers work and how to fix them when they are not working right. I would value any opportunity to gain professional experience working for Berry Petroleum.

I naturally strive for excellence and seek out challenges to improve my skills. These traits are what I will bring to the company, and I hope that you will give me the chance to prove myself as a hard worker and useful employee.

Sean P. Hughes

[Qloos]

Shorter can often be better, employers usually do nothing but paper work.  It's a refreshing change to have something short - but informative, to read.  What you have there is good.

[Blacken]

Your formatting is still pretty poor. You are best off making it very easy for them to see, at a glance, everything they need to know.

Here's a hacked-up version of mine, for reference - your sections are good, but the presentation is lacking.

And don't put down skills that don't relate to the job; this iteration of my resume was for a system analyst position with a major contracting company, so I emphasized my technical skills.

[Goron]

Strike the objective section. You don't have the professional standing to have an objective, so lose it.

Eh, I disagree.
He has a very clear objective, and should his resume get separated from its purpose, the reader can determine what he is looking to achieve. Without the objective it is without purpose and requires the cover letter and appropriate recipient to be of any use.

I also advise offsetting and/or bolding your headings (Education, Skills, Achievements) for easier scanability. The reader may not care about your education and achievements and may want to jump right to skills- this will help in that.

This was my resume's format

                                     Name
                                     Email
Present Address                                     Permanent Address
123 fake street                                      456 other street
town, WX 12345                                    city, YZ 67890
(555)555-5555                                      (555)123-4567

OBJECTIVE:    blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
                      blah continued blah blah.

EDUCATION:   Mexico University           Awesome City, NY
                      B.S. in Womenstudies     Expected May 2011
                      Minor: Spanish
                      Major GPA: 1.23/4.00

                      Relevant Courses
                        Cool Course                 Other course
                        Another course            Gender Studies
                        Network Security          Digital Systems
                        et                              cetera

PROFESSIONAL
EXPERIENCE:    Company Name      City, ST    Timeframe
                          Title
                          * Task, job or work done
                          * More stuff u did
                          * more stuff... three bullets should be good

OTHER
EXPERIENCE:       Other jobs, use same format as prof exp

SKILLS:                  C++                  Unix        etc
                             Microsoft Office   HTML      andSoOn

ACTIVITIES:       High School Match Club       2006-2008
                          Sport Team                      timeframe
                          Honors Society                  timeframe

Also it should be clean cut, not like I did above... everything should be lined up (hard to do in a forum rich edit).

I understand my resume format may not translate the best for your uses, but maybe you can get ideas from it.

EDIT:
Also, try a google search of "example resume"... I just did it and found a ton of free examples... not sure how you only managed to find pay-for stuff.

[RandomNumberGenerator]

Your formatting is still pretty poor. You are best off making it very easy for them to see, at a glance, everything they need to know.

It's actually formatted somewhat better in the word document I have saved, the formatting just didn't transfer over to the forum. I guess I probably should have checked that instead of just copy+paste it over.

And don't put down skills that don't relate to the job; this iteration of my resume was for a system analyst position with a major contracting company, so I emphasized my technical skills.

Erm... I don't think I did put down any skills that don't relate to the job. Did I?

Strike the objective section. You don't have the professional standing to have an objective, so lose it.

He has a very clear objective, and should his resume get separated from its purpose, the reader can determine what he is looking to achieve. Without the objective it is without purpose and requires the cover letter and appropriate recipient to be of any use.

Hmm. So should I add it back in then?

I also advise offsetting and/or bolding your headings (Education, Skills, Achievements) for easier scanability. The reader may not care about your education and achievements and may want to jump right to skills- this will help in that.

Yeah, that's one of the things I did in the word document.

Anyway, I suppose I will submit it today, by e-mail. I'm guessing the resume will be an attachment. Should I attach the cover letter too, or put that directly in the e-mail body? And where would I post the salary/references? Speaking of which... what is a good salary to request? $15? $18? $20?