Must Do Mondays – Go Abroad Now! Write Your Resume

Posted by Olga at Going Global on January 26, 2010

The time has officially come. It’s resume time. Writing a resume is often correlated to a painful and dreadful experience. You know you have to but it takes so much time! Well not to fear. It doesn’t have to be that way. Your resume is the single most important document that you will ever write in your career. That being said, it doesn’t have to be perfect the first time. You will go through many, many iterations of your resume.

The goal for this week is to start and complete your first resume. If you already have a resume, spend this week polishing it up. Remember to include any relevant experience that has to do with international topics. That encompasses language abilities, international clubs, international volunteering, gap year travel, etc. Your resume is your international calling card and must convey your international aptitudes.

Generally in our Must Do Monday posts, we give a 5-day breakdown of how to achieve the goal for the week. This week we are going to tweak that slightly.

Day 1: Spend 30 minutes watching the online resume writing workshop hosted by The University of Pennsylvania Career Service department. Take notes, make action items or whatever it takes to help you get yourself organized for the resume writing process.

Day 2: Spend 20 minutes finding examples of resumes in your industry, regardless of how much experience the resume person may have. The reason for this is to learn specific jargon for your industry and how to better sell yourself within your industry. Another good place to find examples and resources is Quintcareers.com.

Days 3-5: Spend 1 hour a day writing down your strengths, work experiences, club affiliations, language abilities and anything that has distinguished you in your career. These are the building blocks for your resume. By Day 5, you will have everything necessary to write your resume. Focus on dividing your resume into sections like objective, education, professional experience, skills, community involvement, etc. Each day tackle only 1 of those sections. Don’t get overwhelmed by trying to write them all in one day. Writing and selling yourself is an art. And when you take your resume like a day-by-day challenge, at the end you can celebrate with a beautiful demonstration of who you are on paper!

What are your tips for resume writing?