<p>My D (a first-year college student) is submitting her resume to her college’s career services office to apply for summer internships. These are internships that are offered for academic credit. </p>
<p>I know that most resumes have an “experience” section but to be honest, D does not have much that could be called experience at this point. I am thinking that maybe she could just omit that section? She would then have three sections: Education, Honors and Awards, and Skills and Interests. She does have significant things to say for these sections, even limiting the time frame mostly to this year, leaving out her high school stuff except for college courses she took in high school, a competitive summer leadership institute she attended while in high school, and the Girl Scout’s Gold Award.</p>
<p>Does this sound within the realm of acceptable? Should she add high school experience to make an “experience” section? Or should she take out all of the high school stuff?</p>
<p>Also, when describing an award she received, is it okay to describe the award using the words that the school’s website uses? My teacher instincts want to put quotation marks around words taken from any source, but this is a resume, not an academic assignment. I am conflicted.</p>
<p>If she’s describing an award she received and uses the exact words the school uses, I don’t think that needs quotation marks. She’s being accurate, not taking some else’s opinions. It’s just sort of stating facts. </p>
<p>My son is graduating from college and has the same problem - his “experience” is working in retail, in a warehouse and at a sports venue. All hourly, entry-level, part-time jobs. I think he is listing them anyway - at least it shows he was able to hold a job, show up on time and fulfill some responsibilities. So if your daughter has had any paying jobs at all, I’d include them, I guess. If they were in high school, so be it.</p>
<p>But here’s the thing - I wouldn’t put the “experience” section at the top of the resume. She wants to highlight her strong points. I’m assuming that would be her current education, followed by awards. In “education” she should include her major, her expected year of graduation, and her current GPA.</p>
<p>I don’t think she should omit her HS stuff; that would mean her life began about 7 months ago. I wouldn’t go back to freshman year, but IMO info from junior/senior years is fair game.</p>
<p>Also bear in mind that “experience” is defined differently for a college freshman than it is for, say, a 40-year-old. They don’t expect her to have a bunch of paid work in her background. But that doesn’t mean she has nothing to put on the resume. </p>
<p>Has she done any volunteer work? Was she an office assistant or teacher’s assistant at her high school? Did she help lead classes at her dance studio? Was she in scouting? Participated in a ministry at church? Worked on a fundraiser? Camp counsellor? These can all demonstrate that she is reliable, takes direction, gets along with co-workers.</p>
<p>I agree that under experience, I’d list any paid or volunteer positions your D held, especially those she held for longer time periods and those in which she held leadership positions. If she advanced while participating, that can be mentioned as well. Prospective employers are interested in seeing people who have been involved in activities–paid and unpaid, showing responsibility, particularly if there’s anything related to the field she’s now pursuing.</p>
<p>I would also recommend starting the resume with her strengths and ending in her “weakest” section.</p>
<p>We had same situation. For Experience, we listed D volunteer opportunities and an internship she had aswell as her partime job at A gym and Dunkin Donuts.
You can include any leadership roles she had or if she ever organized an event.</p>
<p>D1 listed some of her courses on her resume. When she was a freshman she had work experience - tutor, ballet instructor, office worker. But under each of those experience, she went into detail on what she did over and above. </p>
<p>As an example, as an office clerk, she took the initiative in creating a customer database and automating their billing emails. It saved them money and organized their customer data. As a tutor, she mentioned about teaching time management in addition to regular subject knowledge to her students, and how some of them went from B, C students to A.</p>
<p>Some people list their most important section on top. For most college students, it’s not surprising that their education is the most important section, so D1 has that on top.</p>
<p>It is good your daughter is doing her resume now. Seeing very little work experience on her resume is a wake up call for her, and for any college student. Most employers would be very weary of hiring anyone for internship or permanent job without some work experience. If a student couldn’t put down what he/she had done over and above for any job, then she was just doing a mediocre work at his/her job. When I interview, I will always ask what made them stand out as an employee at each job.</p>
<p>Thanks for all of your thoughts. D does not have any paid work experience other than babysitting (and nothing like babysitting every day for the same family–more of an occasional thing). The major things that she listed for experience on her high school resume were two long-term volunteer commitments at church (food pantry and nursery) and positions she held in high school clubs (she helped found one and was president of another). These things now sound more like activities than experience, when she is applying for a position that will involve actual experience.</p>
<p>Amesie, IMO the long-term volunteer commitments at church are valid work experience for someone at her stage of life. Think about what is expected of a paid employee: they are expected to show up for work reliably, to perform various tasks, to do their part toward achieving a result. They should be able to answer questions about what they do, be conscientious and dependable, interact with “clients” or “customers”, fit smoothly into a team, report to a supervisor for directions and accountability. Didn’t your D do all of that? Except for the lack of a paycheck, I don’t see the difference. She has shown that she knows how to be an employee.</p>