Expanding Your Resumé
By Cindy, age 17, Texas
One document seems to define our leadership roles, extracurricular activities, and community service.The resumé.
Even more than ever, the resumé decides whether colleges look at you in terms of admission or if you're accepted into a particular internship or job. After all, a resumé is supposed to cite experience and what you have been doing all along.
For some, it's the easiest task to create a resumé since they are busy bees every day. For others, it can be a dread, and especially if they don't have much on it.
Now, if you're one of those who need improvement in expanding your resumé, there are plenty of ways to do so.
A great thing to include is leadership roles - and you'll gain some real experience. Plus, it will give you qualifications and people will consider you a leader, whether for college or an internship. Participating in a leadership role doesn't necessarily mean you have to be class president, perhaps secretary or treasurer for an after-school club. Leadership may also include being an officer or representative of an organization or club, even at a place you volunteer. In this competitive world, leadership skills make a resumé pop out from the bunch.
Extracurricular activities are the next option, and that's even easier since you don't have to be voted or selected as you do in a leadership role. You can simply participate. Every school has a club and you can choose one based on your interests, such as drama or art club. You might even get to compete in your own club at different levels. Athletics is also another activity you can join, but you'll probably have to try out. These types of activities will start filling up your resumé in no time and you'll learn something new from each one.
Finally, a resumé looks even better when you add community service. Any volunteering activity will demonstrate your social impact in the community and your willingness to help. Nowadays, community service is highly recommended and you'll be meeting new and interesting people all the time. You don't necessarily have to volunteer at only one place and be committed to a certain number of hours since you can participate in a variety of activities during the year. You just have to go out and take initiative.
The key to expanding your resumé is to become involved and gain experience through leadership roles, extracurricular activities, and community service. These three things make you stand out as an individual and demonstrate the skills and experience you have been gaining. After all, a resumé is an important component that defines you and your involvement.