Resume tips for school leavers

School's out! Finishing school usually means you are now a job seeker and a realisation that the hard work now really begins. Many school leavers who are looking for work don't take the time to do up a good CV. Whether you are a school leaver or looking for a career change, there are some rules and tips which will help any resume stand out. Let's take a look at this guide to get the most out of your resume.

10. Be honest

Don't make stuff up in your CV to make yourself stand out because you will be caught out. Be totally honest in your resume about your skills, achievements and qualifications.

9. Career objective

State your career objective at the top of the resume. This is difficult but it is important. It needs to be brief, specific and personal. State what you have, what you will give and what you want to achieve. For example "To gain a retail manager position to demonstrate and apply my customer service skills and develop my communication and team work abilities."

8. Resume layout

A good resume for a job seeker should be have a lay out such as this:

Name, address, contact details

Career objective

Core strengths

Career history

Qualifications

Achievements

IT skills

Relevant personal information e.g. community service

7. Don't sell yourself short

A lot of school leavers omit generic skills in their resumes. For instance if you have been part of a committee at school or you have had a part time job or done community service work then you should be able to demonstrate team work, time management, problem solving skills. Expand on these a little in your resume.

6. Visual appeal

Make sure the resume looks good. Have consistent font, sufficient spacing and use headings/titles to draw emphasis on important points. Consider using a border around the page and a good tip is to have your name and mobile number at the top of every page as a small header.

5. Tailor the resume to the job

If you are seeking different types of jobs then you will need to tailor your resume to the position descriptions, selection criteria and requirements. A generic resume looks lazy and will be quickly overlooked if it's not relevant to the requirements of the job.

4. Less is more

A resume should not go over 2 pages in CV. School leavers should have plenty of information to fill 2 pages but any more than that will probably be disregarded by employers. Say what you want succinctly, bullet points are great and you will have a better a chance of getting that job than if you ramble on.....

3. Read it, then read it again, then get someone else to read it

Don't expect to get a great job if your resume or CV is full of spelling and grammar errors. Don't rely on spell check, print the resume out, give it to someone to read then read it again.

2. Don't state the obvious

Too many school leavers put on their resumes "Please contact me for an interview." or "References available on request" Duh! This is a given and doesn't need to be stated. Leave this stuff out so you fit more of your skills, education and qualifications in.

1. Only recent stuff

A potential employer doesn't really care if you aced Kindergarten. The general rule is mention your experiences, skills and so on for the last 3 years, in other words the more recent the better. Believe so many resumes get tossed when employers start reading about junior school awards.