Go to the Career Center!

Shoutout for the career center! 

If you are a student at Santa Barbara City College, you probably have gotten spammed by the Career Center about their events, which have multiplied in the recent weeks. In the previous semesters I never attended their events because I had class at that time. However this semester I have a different schedule, very busy on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but wide open on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, a part for a class and two meetings overall. 

Usually, when I get emails from the Career Center about their events or lectures, I think it would be very interesting to attend, but most of the times I end up either being too busy or forgetting about it. 

Recently I received an email about one such event: it was a lecture on how to build an effective resume and cover letter. The event was scheduled for Wednesday from 3-4pm, a time that fit my schedule perfectly, as my PTK meetings run from 5:30 to 6:30 pm on that day. That sounded like a great opportunity to get some professional advice on how to brand myself when I apply for a job, so I decided that this time I would actually make the effort to mark the event in my calendar and set up multiple reminders for it.

The one hour event was very helpful. First, I learned that there are different types of resumes, including a chronological one (in which you list the information in anti-chronological order, from the most recent accomplishments down to the oldest ones), a functional type (based on skills and experiences rather than their chronological order, and is best used when changing careers or when having a big gap in work experience) and finally a combination type, that still uses chronological order but also focuses on skills and experiences. 

Most employers appreciate to see some chronological order because it gives structure to the resume. My resume includes my Name and contact information, my Objectives, Education, Work Experience, Community Service, and Leadership. One thing I learned is to avoid including References in my resume. In fact, federal law forbids employers to contact your past employers before hiring you, making it pointless for you to include them. In addition, it’s assumed that you will have somebody who can be your reference, therefore there is no need to put them on your resume to show that you have some. After they have given you the job, they are free to call whomever you deem appropriate, so it is generally good advice to have an additional document for your references ready to be used whenever necessary, and it would be a good idea to print it and bring it with you at a job interview. 

Important tips included to be consistent throughout the document (fonts, format), to quantify your results whenever possible, and to describe the projects you have been involved in using action verbs (created, managed, coordinated), with a major focus on your accomplishments rather than on the duties. Further recommendations included to emphasize your name on the resume, to leave a 1-inch margin all around the document, and to keep the resume neat and possibly unfolded, even if you mail it.

The experts in the Career Center also recommended that people writing their resume should not use the word “I” because it is obvious that everything will be about themselves. They should also avoid fluff phrases such as “responsible for…, duties include…” and keep clear of using colors or photos; bold and italics are good, however underlining text is not recommended. 

Among the big DON’TS there is also mentioning salaries or wages or the reasons for leaving the previous job position, and the most important of all DO NOTS is, as always, DO NOT make grammar spelling mistakes or typos. Always double or triple check carefully for typos, because a single simple mistake could make the difference between getting your resume to the interview table or straight to the recycling bin.

After the 1-hour event, I stayed for an additional hour and received person help to make changes to my resume. The result was great! We got rid of excessive punctuation, underlining, and colors. We also got rid of my references section and separated different sections with more space. Finally, we moved all the dates to be in the same column on the right, and we changed the wording of a few sentences. Overall, it was a very helpful meeting and I am so glad I attended. 

I recommend the Career Center’s services to anyone interested in his or her future. Go check it out!

A presto, 

- Fede