Curriculum Vitae Requirements & Information

Two Common Types of Jobs for Teens

Customer Service---this type of job involves working with people, usually in person but sometimes on the phone

These jobs can be found in department stores, mall stores, big box retailers, video stores, fast food restaurants, full service restaurants, movie theatres, telemarketing companies, libraries, gas stations, and book stores.

These are some of the qualifications desired by these employers:

Availability: ---open long hours and seven days a week

---if you have better availability than others mark it down on your c.v.

Reliability: ---dependability and punctuality are highly not only highly prized but a necessary skill.

---reliability can be proven through school attendance records, letters of recommendation, and telephone references.

Flexibility: ---scheduling and shift changes are common

---this includes staying late, coming in early, working on scheduled days off, or working at other locations.

---demonstrate your flexibility through references, acknowledging the importance of it, and providing examples from your past.

Manual Labour---These relatively unskilled jobs often fall to young adults.

Positions can be found in roofing, construction, warehousing, landscaping, maintenance, painting, factories, stock rooms. It is physically demanding work and employers look for these qualifications:

Physically Fit: ---these require strength and endurance, which can be

heavy lifting, standing, walking or moving all day,, working at heights, working in all weather conditions, or operating machinery.

Safety: ---these jobs are dangerous so employees must be safety conscious at all times.

---previous training in first aid, workplace safety (media arts or woodshop) or handling hazardous materials (biology or chemistry classes).

---you will have to supply our own hardhat, gloves, steel-toe footwear or other safety equipment

Transportation: ---often these jobs require the employee to have their own vehicle due to jobs that are not always found on bust routes or in residential areas. Also, the employer may require you to travel with supplies or make deliveries.

Make sure you understand as much as possible what skills and knowledge your potential employer is looking for in an employee and tailor your c.v. to match.

The Purpose of a Resume (C.V.)

A resume is personal advertisement. As a potential employee you want and need to set yourself apart from your competition. There are four important criteria or steps that you need to follow to complete a successful resume:

A.I.D.A

1) Get the receiver’s Attention:

---employers only take a few seconds to look at each C.V. in their stack of applications, which falls into three categories:

Stack A: the pile to look at more closely

Stack B: the pile to look at in case none make it into stack A

Stack C: the garbage can

---make sure your C.V.’s overall appearance is consistent and professional; make it stand out from others

2) Get the receiver’s Interest:

---once your C.V. has caught their eye, something else in your resume has to encourage them to continue reading

---the appearance of your C.V. will get their initial attention but the framework and structure will determine their level of interest

---the framework and structure refers to whether your C.V. targets their industry, does it have clear section headings, a relevant job title, and are the most important job qualifications at the top.

3) Elevate the receiver’s interest to a level of Desire:

---you want the receiver’s casual interest to escalate to the level where they want to meet you in person.

---your resume has to give your reader a reason to think that you will benefit their business or their company

4) Entice the receiver to take Action:

---they will take action by calling so make sure you are available for the interview at the their desired times

---if you are too busy or have too many conflicts your receiver may think that you aren’t really interested and that your ability to prioritise and your time management skills need serious work

This concept shows why appearance and content are both important to a successful resume. A number of things to check off your list of available skills that you can develop at school that will help you in the job world are:

Punctuality ---how often are you late to school or class?

Adaptability ---how much do you struggle with getting work done when plans don’t go well?

Integrity ---how often do you meet your student and personal

obligations?

Prioritizing ---do you place your friends and your leisure time ahead of your schoolwork and familial obligations?

Reliability ---have you managed your reputation so that your parents, teachers, and friends know that you can be relied upon to do certain things when asked?

Cooperation ---how do you rate your ability to cooperate with your peers and teachers?

The Four Main Areas of

Concern for Employability

Education

---most employers are not only interested in what level you’re at but also what are you’re

involved in at school. The following qualifications could be included in your resume:

1) Volunteering: did you volunteer your time for in school or out of school activities (G.R.A.V.Y initiative, or delivering food donations to those in need in the community). Did you get involved with student council or the prefect board? Have you volunteered for social causes outside of school?

2) Work Placements/Training: did you experience some kind of work experience placements. Your job shadow or in-depth interview would qualify as an on the job observation experience---include it. Are you participating in C.I.T. (L.I.T)?

3) Sports Involvement: are you an outstanding athlete? Have you ever been the captain or co-captain of your team, either in or out of school?

4) School Clubs: were you part of a school club or afterschool activity? Did you participate in a school play?

5) Academic Achievements: did you achieve distinction or honour roll?

Work Experience

1) Work Training: did you complete a C.I.T. (L.I.T) course and get your certification? Have you worked in the family business?

2) Paid Work: do you have past paid work experience?

Proving Worth

Examples & Comparisons: Which is the better written Qualifications?

Summary of Qualifications (Candidate #1)

· Leaderships Skills

· Physically Fit

· Mechanically Inclined

Summary of Qualifications (Candidate #2)

· Leadership Skills---elected captain of my ice hockey team two seasons in a row; completed two leadership courses in grade eleven

· Physically Fit---played organized soccer for three seasons; former high school wrestling team; competed in Earl Davidson Marathon in 2010

· Woodworking Inclined---completed high school course in woodworking over two year period; comfortable with both hand and power tools.

Everytime you use words like self-motivated, hard-working and reliable you must back that up with facts and dates. Otherwise you are only expressing an opinion that an employer cannot and is not willing to verify.

Additional Qualifications

Other parts of your background can be very helpful so consider the following:

· Travelling

· Bilingual or trilingual

· Physically fit

· Hold a clean driver’s license

· Have published poetry or writing

· Acted in theatre productions in and out of school

Again, make sure that you provide details, facts and dates where applicable or the employer will simply not consider your application.

Possible Section Headings

· Knowledge of Books & Literature

· Gymnastics Accomplishments

· Community Involvement

· Statement of Interest

· Sports Background

· Computer Skills

· Wilderness Experience

· Travel Experience

· Availability

· Languages

· Mechanical Skills

· Personal Work Related Characteristics

Formatting Your C.V.

There are a number of important formatting elements to consider when putting all your information together.

White Space

The white space around the page should be consistent; it doesn’t have to be 1 ½”. Think of symmetry since you don’t want a section of short, choppy sentences aligned to the left and leave a huge white space on the right. Use tables in that case or place information side by side to give your page a balanced look.

Paragraphs/Bullets

Keep paragraphs short and to the point, longer ones are intimidating to the reader. Bulleted lists are better because they’re easier to navigate. Make sure your same type of information is bulleted the same way (see the attached C.V.)

Fonts

You can experiment with different fonts and sizes but keep two things in mind. Fonts should be easy on the eyes---just don’t use one because it’s your favorite, it may not be your readers favorite. Secondly, your font size is crucial because you don’t want to leave your reader with the impression that your large font, which is just filling up white space, is hiding a lack of qualifications.

The kinds of fonts you can use should be clean, simple, and easy to read such as Tahoma, Arial, Century, Georgia, Book Antiqua, Verdana and Times New Roman. In terms of font size stay between 10 and 12 though, depending on the amount of information you have and your formatting you can go as low as 9.

Text Enhancements

When you want to bring attention to a heading, word, name, title or phrase use the following:

Bold is generally the best because it is easiest to read.

Italics are more difficult to read so use them with caution.

Underlining is okay but if you have other lines on the page, such as borders between sections, it may get confusing to the eye.

Be careful not to overuse these features and combining them usually doesn’t work