CAUTION: Construction Ahead:Resume Building in Progress!

Your resume lays the foundation for your ultimate building. The small odd jobs on your individual blueprint eventually lead to your all brick multi-million dollar mansion. Like anything else, planning is a must.

Big aspirations require a big resume. However, the resume must have many strong pillars to support it; weak ones won’t do you any good.

Here are some tips to follow when constructing your resume:

1. Keep a running resume starting as early as your Freshman year in high school. When reading this, if you are well beyond that point in your life, sort through the files in your memory and record to the best of your memory. Every couple of months (I would recommend every 3 months) update your resume, or at least take a look at it! Sometimes memory does not serve you as well as you had hoped.
2. Be sure to document every course you have taken and where you have taken it. It is unnecessary to record your final grades as your grades will be reflected in your GPA (which should be one of the first things on your resume)!
3. Begin our resume with an objective. For example: To acquire a summer marketing internship with TestSoup.
4. Continue your resume with a  summary such as: Your High School Graduate class of 2010. Achieved a class rank of 20/502, top 4% of graduating class. Member of National Honor Society and was awarded The Name of your Scholarship(s), etc.  Overall, this section is a short paragraph highlighting the most important parts of your resume.
5. When writing the body of your resume there are some basic recommendations of headings (using all roman numerals of course).
   • I. Education (courses taken)
   • II. Extra-Curricular Activities
   • III. Work Experience (ie. your summer lifeguarding job)
   • IV. Business Experience (ie. your internships)
   • V. Community Service (ie. volunteering at your local hospital)
   • VI. Awards/Achievements (ie. Scholarships, National Honor Society, etc).
   • VII. Contact information (ie. email, cell phone, etc.)

6. The presentation of your resume is just as important as the content. I would strongly recommend using a universal font like Times New Roman or Arial.  I would also BOLD each heading. Something else to consider and highly recommended, is resume paper. You can find it in any office supply store. To see what I am talking about check this out: Resume Paper.

It is never too early to track your accomplishments. In fact, I would say the earlier, the better! Best of luck!