In speaking with job seekers, I’m frequently asked, “should I include in [fill-in-the-blank] in my resume?” The blank in question may be a high school job from summer, a GPA, or even a mailing address.
This confusion often comes from a belief that a resume is a list of all of our job experiences and responsibilities in reverse chronological order. In other words, a catalog of our work life. We may have learned that idea as far back as elementary or middle school, when our own resumes were far off in the future.
But that’s not actually what a resume is or does.
In reality, your resume is often your first chance to make a good impression on a potential employer. That may be a manager who is hiring for a specific position, a team member sitting at a career fair table, or someone considering your request for an informational interview. To make a good impression, your resume should reflect the story you want to tell about who you are as a potential employee and contributor.
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The movie trailer approach
When creating a movie trailer, an editor doesn’t show the audience each plot point or character in great detail. She or he instead asks what parts of the movie will capture a potential viewer’s attention, and get them interested in learning more. She then selects highlights from different parts of the movie, weaving them together to build a mini-story, often by introducing the movie’s basic premise and characters, establishing a key conflict , and showing enough through images and sound toto engage a potential viewer’s interest, emotions, and imagination. And ultimately, to turn that potential viewer into a paying customer.
Your career story so far probably doesn’t have the special effects budget of Michael Bay or the sweeping musical vistas of John Williams. But your resume is tasked with a similar goal: to establish you as a credible, interesting candidate, worthy of further engagement and a paying job.
With that goal in mind, your resume shouldn’t be a shapeless list of each of the jobs you have had back to high school. Each position you include is an element of the story, and the way you write the bullets should bring those plot point to life.
Deciding what to include
When it comes to the question of whether something should be included, ask yourself a simple question:
Does this help make my case?
On a basic level, the positions listed on your resume should help establish your credibility as a future employee. You may have had a string of entry-level jobs going back to high school. Or you may not have worked for pay until a college internship. Even at this early point in your career, you should include at least 3 different positions in your resume’s Experience section. Depending on your experience, these could include:
- Paid jobs
- Unpaid internships
- Volunteer or extra-curricular positions.
Each position that you choose to include should help tell a part of who you would be as an employee. Are you dependable? Are you a problem solver? A team player? Did you make and implement recommendations to improve processing speed, customer service, or profits? If so, make sure the bullets you include for that position help to tell that story.
Example: Should I include a retail job from high school?
It depends.
For many people, this might be a good one to leave off. However, you might want to include it if:
- You have a small number of other positions to include in experience (say, less than 3)
- All of your other experiences listed are volunteer positions, and you want to show evidence of successfully working in a business setting.
- You went above and beyond (e.g., you led a project that improved the business, or you earned customer service awards).
If you decide to include the experience, keep that movie trailer in mind while you write your bullets. When hiring, I have reviewed many resumes that included retail (or restaurant, or landscaping) jobs. There’s a big difference between an experience bullet that says something like:
- Performed cashier duties, making sales, providing change, and bagging groceries.
And one that says:
- Provided friendly, customer service in a busy local grocery store averaging 400 customers per hour. Greeted all customers and ensured accurate and efficient transactions in the checkout line. - Recommended and implemented changes to checkout procedures to increase customer comfort with COVID-19 protocols. Recognized for these efforts with employee of the month award.
The first version lists what you did. The second tells your story in a way that a future employer (or mentor) can imagine how you will approach your next professional project.
Further Resources for Resumes
There are a ton of great resources out there for resumes. Here are some that have recently caught my eye.
- Your college’s career center or alumni network likely offers several resources that could otherwise cost hundreds of dollars. Most career centers offer resume reviews, and many alumni networks have volunteers that will provide similar services.
- The Muse shares 43 Resume Tips That Will Help You Get Hired, and tackles many specifics on order, format, and other frequent questions.
- Novoresume’s Best Resume Formats for 2021 covers the strengths and weakness of different resume formats, and offers a few free templates.
- Indeed shares 10 resume writing tips, including how to tailor your resume to a particular job or field.
