Resume Building
Resume Building & Professional Presentation
A strong resume is more than a list of jobs—it’s a personal marketing tool that tells employers who you are, what you can do, and why you’re the right fit. This course teaches young adults how to build effective resumes, highlight their unique strengths, and present themselves professionally to future employers.
Participants will learn how to:
Understand resume basics – What belongs where, including contact information, work history, education, and skills.
Use different types of resumes – Learning when to use chronological, functional, or combination formats depending on work experience and job goals.
Tailor resumes for specific opportunities – Creating more than one version of a resume to highlight skills for different jobs or industries.
Look at skills from different lenses – Learning how transferable skills gained from school, volunteer work, caregiving, or community activities can be reframed as valuable workplace abilities.
Showcase intangible strengths – Expanding beyond technical abilities to highlight communication, teamwork, leadership, problem-solving, and adaptability.
Highlight job history effectively – Presenting time on jobs positively, explaining gaps, and showing growth or progression.
Leverage references – Understanding how and when to include professional references, requesting letters of recommendation, and recognizing the value of verbal references.
Polish for professionalism – Using strong formatting, action verbs, and clear language to make a resume stand out.
Prepare for the digital age – Submitting resumes online, understanding applicant tracking systems (ATS), and creating professional profiles on platforms like LinkedIn.
Through hands-on activities, students will draft their own resumes, practice customizing them for different roles, and learn how to reframe their experiences through multiple lenses to show employers their full range of strengths. By the end of the course, participants will have a professional resume ready to share and the tools to update and adapt it throughout their career journey.
