A battered red "for hire" sign.

Creating a Master Resume

Before you make your resume, which will be your primary pitch to prospective employers, it’s really helpful to create a summary of all your accomplishments. This may be longer than your final resume and it doesn’t have to be nearly as polished.

Things to include in this list are:

  • Any form of employment

  • Community service

  • Any form of education and educational awards

  • Clubs you were in in high school

  • Professional development

  • Any projects you’ve worked on outside of work (helping a friend roof his house, etc.)

  • Committees you’ve sat on or organizations you helped with (HOA, church, etc.)

Continue to update this document as your life goes on. It doesn’t have to be beautifully formatted, or chronological, or organized in any particular way, as long as it works for you. It’s primarily helpful when you’re building a final, formalized resume later.

Building a Formal Resume

Now you’ve made your master list, it’s time to pull all the things from it that make you qualified for the type of job you want. This is your resume.

  • Pick accomplishments. Highlight actions you took or impacts you had. Think about what made you good at other jobs you’ve had compared to others.

  • Where possible, quantify your results: “25% increase in sales,” “hundreds of lawns landscaped.”

  • Keep the resume to one page.

  • Bullet point your achievements.

  • Make sure you proofread the resume. Have someone else proofread it as well, if possible. Grammar and spelling (especially of former employers) is extremely important.

Your font should be greater than 10 pt., all headers should match, and your contact information should be at the top of the page. Use our resume template below to help you with formatting.

Nobody has ever made a resume without looking at other peoples’. Click below to access a Google doc template (so you can put in your information easily) and an example resume.

Resume template | Example resume | Example resume (with comments)

References

References are important because they are how an employer learns about your work habits from someone who isn’t yourself—someone who they view as more objective. Make sure the people you use know and like you and your work style.

  • Ask first. Never use someone as a reference without asking for their permission, since this could unintentionally make them give you a worse review.

  • Variety is good. If possible, you want managers from a variety of jobs, or teachers from a variety of subjects.

  • You want at least three. Too many can be overwhelming, but fewer than three can be too few. Make sure you have three really solid references from people who will help you get your new job.

You can ask teachers, professors, managers, coworkers, or supervisors for references, but the best references come from people who have positive experience with you as an employee. If someone else hired you and liked you, then your interviewer sees that this is a possibility for them, as well.

If you have no prior experience, you can have personal references (professional friends, acquaintances, or other people qualified to provide reference materials who will vouch for your character).

Once you have three people lined up, you can put together a reference sheet! Keep this separate from your resume and cover letter, and format it the same way (you can use the templates on this website or make your own—just make sure it matches your other documents). Below we have Google docs you can copy and edit to make your own.

Template reference sheet | Example reference sheet | Example reference sheet (with comments)

Finding Jobs

Who’s hiring? Who do you want to work for? There are a lot of ways to approach this question. Our jobs board is a good start—we keep track of publicly listed openings in St. Johns and update each position monthly.

But that’s still a long list, and there’s no way you can apply for all of them. Some things to consider when deciding where to commit your effort:

  • What’s your career goal? Is there any job you can work right now that would get you closer?

  • Are there people you know who work somewhere and enjoy it? Is that for you?

  • What are your skills? What type of place generally accepts people with your skills?

  • Do any jobs seem like they will help you build skills you want to have, either professionally or in your personal life?

A woman moves a ladder into a coffee shop.

You’re shooting for a list of 4-8 employers to apply for, at first. Don’t worry if you don’t get the first job you apply for; this is a skill like anything else, and the more you do it the better you are at it. You want enough employers to have your information that you have a good chance, but not so many that you forget who each of them is and why you might want to work there.

Once you’ve done that, you’re ready to start the applications.