<p>My son is a junior in college. He’s working on his resume for a summer internship and my H and I are disagreeing about which jobs should be included on this resume. He is interested in real estate development and finance which he is studying, but is not the main focus of his program.</p>
<p>Last summer he had entry-level service experience in his major. (definitely include)</p>
<p>Previous summer he had an internship in with a real estate development firm, not exactly entry level, and included some solo travel and research around the region – not just our state. (definitely include)</p>
<p>Summer before college entry he worked as a bank teller. Yeah, it’s entry level bank stuff, but he completed their training program and worked 10 weeks handling money and greeting the public. He was invited to return, and his supervisor was disappointed that he could not get practice-credit for it. I think it’s a definite plus, my H thinks it was a nothing job and should be lost to posterity. So – include or not?</p>
<p>The summer after his high school junior year he did an internship in the Lt. Governor’s office in our state capitol. Not very long, and just a typical high school internship that kids with connections can get. Our connections were fairly remote, but our son did get a spot, learned a bit, and had the experience. Include or not?</p>
<p>I think you should include them all. They all demonstrate initiative, good work habits, he was well-regarded in all, and it provides talking points during an interview. He can talk about what he learned at each job during an interview.</p>
<p>Once his career is really underway, he’ll drop the first two jobs.</p>
<p>Include volunteer activities, computer skills, relevant courses under his major.</p>
<p>Once he has established himself in the real world, he can drop the internships OR create a separate section for college experience. For example, I have a post-college and college activities section so that employers know what I’m doing now. My resume is 1.5 pages long. Employers do like to see how active you were in college.</p>
<p>For anyone who says that you should only have a one-page resume, that is a myth. There’s nothing wrong with having a 1.5-2 page resume. Just make sure it’s very organized into easy-to-read (and skim) sections highlighting your education, work experience, accomplishments, awards, skills and activities. Once you’ve been working for more than five years, it’s common to have resumes longer than two pages.</p>
<p>My current resume is 1.5 pages long (I’m in my early 20s). I have no problems getting interviews.</p>
<p>Totally agree to include “nothing” jobs. S got his first internship in his field (Engineering) and the interviewer specifically commented on the interesting jobs he’d had (other than Engineering-related) - ice cream scooper and maker, bellhop,…</p>
<p>Of course, he will drop those jobs as his career goes on. But S is a graduating senior now, had two job offers in his field… still kept one of the “nothing” jobs on his resume when doing the job search. This will be the last time for that, I imagine. But they are a definite plus.</p>
<p>And on the one-page resume thing… I am a firm believer in keeping it to one page (unless in academia). I’m sure some folks such as tenisghs can be quite successful with a longer resume, but it is a turn-off to many hirers, so not worth the chance imo.</p>
<p>He should include everything at this point. Any experience working any job at all is good. For an internship some of his competition will have ‘no’ working experience of any kind which will make your S look that much more desirable.</p>