Know what makes you qualified
The first step to creating a stellar resume is identifying your skill set. There are three different categories to consider. The most important one is experience, followed by knowledge-based skills and personal skills.
Identify Your Skillset
Reflect on Experience
-
Recollect on past jobs/experiences ~ Get a blank sheet of paper or use the provided template and write down all of your past jobs and activities.
-
Include jobs like working at the local movie theater or grocery store
-
Also add volunteer work, internships, and other extracurricular activities to the list.
-
Identify Professional Skills
Identify Personal Skills
-
Brainstorm the tasks corresponding to these experiences ~ Next, take your time to brainstorm and jot down all of the tasks associated with each job/activity. Be specific!
Reflect
-
Make connections to arrive at a comprehensive list of all of your skills ~ Connect between your jobs/activities and the tasks associated with them. Each of your tasks involved a certain skill that you developed or learned through that experience. First, identify the technical skills you developed. These skills are pretty straight forward. For example, did you learn how to code, file papers, or create resumes?
Professional
Skills
-
Next, identify your personal skills. For example, did you develop a customer service mindset, learn a foreign language, or enhance your public speaking skills? Identify and record these skills.
Personal
Skills
Reflect
Click here to get started with a template