A couple of Resume questions... Forum

[sgtgrumbles]

Would you guys PM me your resumes, too? I have a professional one, I'm just wondering how much I ought to change it for LS apps.

[Pleasye]

Would you guys PM me your resumes, too? I have a professional one, I'm just wondering how much I ought to change it for LS apps.

I'm sure someone will send you one! (I'm the clueless OP and not done with mine yet or I would offer mine)

[Pleasye]

Activities and Achievements header

- nice title for your study
1-3 tight sentences. Situation, behavior, outcome.

- other activities and achievements (same format as study)

So far I have an "experience" header and an "Activities" header. I know you said to separate activities from community service but I don't have specific community service to put in a header (my service was through activities)...so should I put the study under education along with a scholarship and dean's list? would it fit there?

One last thing is, I'd like to put that I'm fluent in spanish somewhereee in here but I can't figure out where (Obv a skills section would make sense but I can't think of anything else to put in it)

[xqhp82]

One last thing is, I'd like to put that I'm fluent in spanish somewhereee in here but I can't figure out where (Obv a skills section would make sense but I can't think of anything else to put in it)

i'd put it under skills section. it makes sense.

a kind of related question....i have learned german for about half a year as a leisure class, so far I know A LOT of vocabulary, I can read and write VERY simple phrases, but I really suck at speaking it. so is it considered cheating if I put german as one of my languages (elementary) on my resume and elsewhere on my app forms?

[GettingReady2010]

One last thing is, I'd like to put that I'm fluent in spanish somewhereee in here but I can't figure out where (Obv a skills section would make sense but I can't think of anything else to put in it)

i'd put it under skills section. it makes sense.

a kind of related question....i have learned german for about half a year as a leisure class, so far I know A LOT of vocabulary, I can read and write VERY simple phrases, but I really suck at speaking it. so is it considered cheating if I put german as one of my languages (elementary) on my resume and elsewhere on my app forms?

I would say so. Otherwise almost every liberal arts student could put that they are fluent on their apps. I think almost every lib arts major has to do three semester or so of a language.

[Pleasye]

One last thing is, I'd like to put that I'm fluent in spanish somewhereee in here but I can't figure out where (Obv a skills section would make sense but I can't think of anything else to put in it)

i'd put it under skills section. it makes sense.

a kind of related question....i have learned german for about half a year as a leisure class, so far I know A LOT of vocabulary, I can read and write VERY simple phrases, but I really suck at speaking it. so is it considered cheating if I put german as one of my languages (elementary) on my resume and elsewhere on my app forms?

You'd put it in a skills section even though I have nothing else to put in that section? (so i'd be creating a section just for that)

and yeah, you would definitely be misrepresenting the situation if you put German on there. Maybe if you had an "interests" section or something you could put learning German. But you can't really speak it so I wouldn't put it on there.

[xqhp82]

One last thing is, I'd like to put that I'm fluent in spanish somewhereee in here but I can't figure out where (Obv a skills section would make sense but I can't think of anything else to put in it)

i'd put it under skills section. it makes sense.

a kind of related question....i have learned german for about half a year as a leisure class, so far I know A LOT of vocabulary, I can read and write VERY simple phrases, but I really suck at speaking it. so is it considered cheating if I put german as one of my languages (elementary) on my resume and elsewhere on my app forms?

You'd put it in a skills section even though I have nothing else to put in that section? (so i'd be creating a section just for that)

and yeah, you would definitely be misrepresenting the situation if you put German on there. Maybe if you had an "interests" section or something you could put learning German. But you can't really speak it so I wouldn't put it on there.

thanks for the suggestion, i think that's a good idea to put it under interests. i am actually making a section titled 'skills and personal interests' so you can put more things under a column to make it look less pathetic haha. but at the same time its not completely out of the scope...a lot of skills do show your personal interests to a degree.

[d34d9823]

So far I have an "experience" header and an "Activities" header. I know you said to separate activities from community service but I don't have specific community service to put in a header (my service was through activities)...so should I put the study under education along with a scholarship and dean's list? would it fit there?

One last thing is, I'd like to put that I'm fluent in spanish somewhereee in here but I can't figure out where (Obv a skills section would make sense but I can't think of anything else to put in it)

I would put any educational achievements under "activities and achievements". Education is traditionally used to list your degrees, so that might not be the best place to put them.

Put community service activities and Spanish fluency in this section as well.

To whoever mentioned partial mastery of a language: what I've heard is fluency or it never happened.

[Pleasye]

So far I have an "experience" header and an "Activities" header. I know you said to separate activities from community service but I don't have specific community service to put in a header (my service was through activities)...so should I put the study under education along with a scholarship and dean's list? would it fit there?

One last thing is, I'd like to put that I'm fluent in spanish somewhereee in here but I can't figure out where (Obv a skills section would make sense but I can't think of anything else to put in it)

I would put any educational achievements under "activities and achievements". Education is traditionally used to list your degrees, so that might not be the best place to put them.

Put community service activities and Spanish fluency in this section as well.

Thanks! so at the end of all my activities/service just throw in a "Fluent in Spanish" ?

[firemed]

Great....

I was going to take the night off after busting through 80 pages of the LG Bible.

After reading this thread my "type A" kicked in and now I have to go type my resume.

If anyone wants a copy of mine when I am done for reference, IM me. One proviso, however, is that I am non-trad with (sigh) 17 years of work experience now if you count my first jobs in fast food in high school. So it might not work for everyone.

[Dany]

Thanks! so at the end of all my activities/service just throw in a "Fluent in Spanish" ?

Did you ever study abroad in a Spanish-speaking location? That'd be a great place to put it.

[firemed]

edit.

reason: I can be an idiot sometimes.

[Dany]

No worries.

[firemed]

I just figured that out... LOL! I was coming to delete my question when I saw you had responded....

Thanks Eskimo!

[Helicio]

This one on the Harvard Law website, I thought, looked extremely professional and is a good example of being concise and clear.

http://www.law.harvard.edu/prospective/ ... esume4.pdf

[Dany]

I like some things about that resume on the Harvard site, but it should be one page and the Awards section with the multiple columns and random bolded words looks bad, in my opinion.

[d34d9823]

I like some things about that resume on the Harvard site, but it should be one page and the Awards section with the multiple columns and random bolded words looks bad, in my opinion.

Yeah, bold is not like hot peppers on pizza: it should not be randomly sprinkled on your resume.

His honors section is like a dartboard - wherever your eyes land, read that honor - but they're definitely not all getting read.

Also, serif fonts on tightly spaced documents are bad and bullets should have a proper hierarchy.

[d34d9823]

Thanks! so at the end of all my activities/service just throw in a "Fluent in Spanish" ?

Here's the thing: there's basically two mandatory headings: education (degrees) and work experience. After that, you can make whatever headings you want. So, list all the things that you think speak well of you, then look at the list and figure out what headings they naturally split up into.

"Fluent in Spanish" would fit well in either achievements or skills (slightly different write-up depending - if in achievements you need short (1 sentence) backstory). You need to evaluate everything on your resume and fit the puzzle pieces together into coherent, logical headings.

[Hannibal]

This one on the Harvard Law website, I thought, looked extremely professional and is a good example of being concise and clear.

http://www.law.harvard.edu/prospective/ ... esume4.pdf

I like the general layout. I agree the awards section is weird. But it's also a crazy impressive resume that scares the hell out of me. I hope it's fake.

Edit: Or rather, I hope it's not typical.

[d34d9823]

I like the general layout. I agree the awards section is weird. But it's also a crazy impressive resume that scares the hell out of me. I hope it's fake.

Edit: Or rather, I hope it's not typical.

I've met people like this who kick major ass at everything. I'm pretty damn sure they're the exception, not the rule, even for Harvard admissions.

[Pleasye]

I didn't

Thanks! so at the end of all my activities/service just throw in a "Fluent in Spanish" ?

Did you ever study abroad in a Spanish-speaking location? That'd be a great place to put it.

I've never studied abroad...spanish was my first language

"Fluent in Spanish" would fit well in either achievements or skills (slightly different write-up depending - if in achievements you need short (1 sentence) backstory). You need to evaluate everything on your resume and fit the puzzle pieces together into coherent, logical headings.

I put it into activities at first, but I didn't have any bullet points to put under it. I didn't "learn" spanish, I've just always spoken it at home (& taken classes in it but didn't end up minoring). It just looked funny under the other activities

right now I just have a skills section with fluent in spanish in it...but can't think of anything else to put in it ha

[Dany]

Maybe this is stupid, maybe it's not, but if you wanted to flesh out Skills, you could say your native language is Rioplatense Spanish and then say you're also skilled in the other dialects you've taken classes in.

[Pleasye]

Maybe this is stupid, maybe it's not, but if you wanted to flesh out Skills, you could say your native language is Rioplatense Spanish and then say you're also skilled in the other dialects you've taken classes in.

I think this might actually make it look more interesting (and would solve my no bullet point problem!)

[Hannibal]

Does anyone know if the "nothing from high school" thing applies to skills? I played violin for five years and stopped playing in college for the most part.

[GettingReady2010]

Does anyone know if the "nothing from high school" thing applies to skills? I played violin for five years and stopped playing in college for the most part.

Interesting thought, but I have to think if you went from a 3.0 to 4.0, it would look a little funny. I think adcomms would think either you magically changed your work ethic or your new school is easier.