5 Ways to Help Your Child with Their Resume
Teenagers that are entering the work force for the first time may not know the best way to create a resume. As a parent, you can provide valuable advice that can help them create the best beginning resume possible. Here are five tips that you can use to help your child create a great resume.
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1. Don’t be too overbearing.
You may have a lot of experience and know exactly what your child needs to do to get a job. Great! Use that experience to guide them, not to dictate. Keep in mind that this is your child’s first experience in entering the work force and they are excited about it. They want to be responsible and make responsible decisions themselves so don’t kill the experience by being too overbearing and taking away their independence.
2. Include any achievements, awards, and outstanding performances.
Employers want to know what type of person your child is. Telling employers about their achievements and awards gives an indication of their character. List things such as honor roll achievements, attendance awards, any trophies or competitions that they’ve won, press recognition, or other things that demonstrate their work ethic. If they don’t have anything like this, you could even use school projects or things that they’ve made excellent grades on.
3. Sort through their special skills and volunteer work and put them in the appropriate places.
Employers are well aware that kids have no work experience, but you don’t want to leave this area blank. You can fill this area with any volunteer work that your child has done. Perhaps they’ve babysat for your neighbor or cut grass as a summer gig. This would be great for the experience section. You can also list special skills such as sports, visual or performing arts, typing, or anything else that your child is good at.
4. Help them choose great references.
There is a debate about whether or not references should be included on a resume. Some people put “references available upon request” and others skip the section altogether. For your child, someone who is new to the work force, references can be a very valuable part of the resume. First, your child probably doesn’t have enough experience and skills to fill the whole resume, so adding a reference section can take care of that.
Another reason is that it’s a way for employers to verify your credibility. Good reference examples people who can verify the volunteer work, achievements, and skills that you’ve put on the resume. When someone is new to the work force, they need all the help they can get to market themselves, so help your child choose good, logical references that can tell the employer how great your child is.
5. Proofread their resume and help them edit it if necessary.
This is very important. First impressions are everything, so you don’t want your child to submit a misspelled resume with bad grammar. Not only will it make your child look “not smart”, but it gives off a sense of laziness and bad work ethic. These are not qualities that you want people to associate with your child. Proofreading the resume ensures that all the hard work that you and your child put into the resume will propel your child forward. It’s also best to reference examples of other resumes to ensure the highest quality.
