Hello students!

I recently had a student contact me for advice on her resume as she begins applying to jobs and internships in the industry. I realized that most of the information I gave her would be useful to everyone, and decided to share it here.

First of all, when crafting a resume always put your professional experience first, and emphasize your events-related work. If you were a waiter or waitress at a restaurant that also occasionally hosted special events, and you helped with set-up/breakdown or worked at the events, list those responsibilities first even though they might represent less of your overall time.

Your resume should always be limited to one page, and shrinking the text to fit everything is not a good solution. Eliminate irrelevant experience or limit it significantly - i.e. you could have four lines of text describing your myriad responsibilities at the restaurant/venue you worked at, but only one or two lines about the bookstore where you cashiered the year before.

In some cases, you may only want to include experience to account for certain time periods - be careful with this. If the job detracts from your resume or is irrelevant, it is worth leaving it off and explaining the time gap in your interview. On the other hand, if it represents a significant period of time you should consider including the job or, if it is multiple jobs, creating an aggregate line. Here is an example:

Restaurant Server, January 2007 - May 2009
Worked in various server capacities at TGIFriday's, Houlihan's and Houston's Restaurants.
Responsibilities included customer service, managing staff schedules, busing tables, and occasional basic food prep.

No matter what, NEVER LIE on a resume. Don't even fudge a detail. You may be tempted to account for time gaps by lengthening the time you worked at a company by a month or two, or you might want to exaggerate your responsibilities. If you worked at a restaurant but only worked on one event, do not say you "worked on events" there. Honesty and personal integrity are so important, particularly in a job application.

As for cover letters, do not think that the new technological age means you get a free pass on this. If you are sending your resume electronically, as many of you will be, you must include some kind of letter introducing yourself and explaining your experience and interest in the position. Unlike a mailed resume, this does not need to be a separate attachment. I have done hiring in the past, and the best resumes we got come with the cover letter in the body of the email. In other words, the cover letter is the email, and the resume is attached.

Finally, if you are sending your resume electronically, send it as an Adobe .pdf and not a Word document. If you don't have this capability on your computer, inquire at a local business center that has computers (such as Kinko's) or internet cafe and see if they have the .pdf printing software.

I hope these basic pointers are useful to you as you embark on your careers!

All the best and GOOD LUCK!
Caroline