which jobs go on the resume? Forum

[slg123]

Basically my employment history looks like this:

age 15-19 grocery store 25-40hrs/wk
age 18-22 waitress at restaurant 1 18hrs/wk
age 19-20 tutor at community college 20hrs/wk
age 19-20 waitress at restaurant 2 20hrs/wk
age 21 summer at Bed Bath and Beyond 35+hrs/wk
age 22 teacher/counselor at summer treatment program FT+
age 22-23 library associate 20hrs/wk
age 23 home depot FT
age 24-26 preschool teacher (TfA) FT
age 25-26 employed at Teach for America

Do I include it all? Do I keep only the last 5 years? 3 years? Keep only jobs that look good (i.e. tutoring, teacher, teacher, TfA)?
Any advice is appreciated!

[whymeohgodno]

Everything but the one you held during highschool.

[slg123]

Everything but the one you held during highschool.

Thanks!
good to know, looks like my resume will be longer than a page!

[whymeohgodno]

Everything but the one you held during highschool.

Thanks!
good to know, looks like my resume will be longer than a page!

Oh.

In that case cut out some of the menial jobs.

[slg123]

Some of the schools say no more than two pages, so I thought it was okay for this purpose to go over one? Do you know the general consensus?

[AreJay711]

Some schools say it's OK to be more than one page but I only sent longer ones to those that requested specific things and said it could be 2 pages. One page is safer.

On a side note: How'd you like TFA? I'm getting ready for my interview now and going to either defer if I get into the law schools I want to and if not just withdraw my applications and apply again after with a better LSAT if I get a place in TFA. PM please!

[motiontodismiss]

Everything from the 6th one on down. I can't imagine putting retail on a resume for law school.

[soj]

Yeah, can you just say you worked 18+ hr/wk in retail/service through high school and college, and focus instead on your other experiences?

[slg123]

Everything from the 6th one on down. I can't imagine putting retail on a resume for law school.

I am torn because I have read other places that they don't care how long it is (well, to an extent), they want to see what you've done. I tend to agree with you though...

[MPeterson]

Some of the schools say no more than two pages, so I thought it was okay for this purpose to go over one? Do you know the general consensus?

It's always better to keep it short, I've heard. Highlight some of your more impressive jobs on your resume, and keep in mind that many applications will ask you for how much you worked while in school.

I put just my academic jobs on my resume and added some of the more menial ones on the application if they asked for it.

[jonc4]

Would you guys recommend listing jobs chronologically or in order of importance? Or does it not matter?

[094320]

..

[icecreamcicle]

Would you guys recommend listing jobs chronologically or in order of importance? Or does it not matter?

I'd say most recent to least recent, unless you have a really important one buried somewhere in the middle

[jonc4]

Thanks. What about the summary bullet points that often go on top of professional resumes? Seems kind of pointless for law admissions. Get rid of em?

[northwood]

get rid of summary and objective. Your objective is obvious- go to law school. Your summary is pointless- they have the entire application to make their own summary of you, and they may read your resume towards the end

as for the jobs- best to do it chronologically: if you have 2 categories ( say management and something totally not related) then go with your best category towards the top of the page, and do it chronologically

no need to list computer skills either

[JJDancer]

I would say keep it to one page if possible.
If you can put the jobs that you did during UG on your app (if there's a space for it) then leave them off your resume and keep the more recent things.

[capitalacq]

one page. chronologically. eliminate the most menial if it doesn't produce a huge time gap between jobs if you cant fit what you want to include. submit.