If your job objective says, in a few short words, that you will be able to solve one of the problems that exists in the organization, your chances are good for avoiding immediate rejection.
Education
If you are a recent graduate (of a university, college, career or business college, vocational school, community college, or any other substantial program), education probably belongs near the top of your resume.
This is especially true if the courses you studied have a direct relationship to the career you hope to enter.
But if you graduated years ago, or if your, educational background does not relate to your present goals, you may wish to list education items near the end of your resume.
Some of the examples that follow include more than the basics: they also include statements about courses taken, accomplishments and extracurricular activities. This can be a good idea unless you decide to list this information elsewhere in your resume.
Playing The Grade Game
What if you didn't do well in school? Must you put the information about education at the top? Must you admit to your low grades?
Of course not, the resume is a sales document, and if you use it correctly, it gets you in. It doesn't keep you out.
So you say those things that will make you look like a good candidate. If you have good grades, you list them. If not, omit them.
Or state that you "Received excellent grades in mathematics, drafting, and mechanics courses." Will the reader recognize that you are also omitting information about the poor grades you received in English Composition courses?
Possibly, but if your grades in significant courses were better than your overall average, you may prefer to use such a statement anyway.
If you have been out of school for many years, your grades are far less important than your performance in the jobs you have held.
If you want a dividing line to help you decide whether to include your grade point average (your GPA), choose 3.0 on a 4.0 system.
On the 4.0 system, the most common system used for grading in high schools and colleges in the United States, each 'A' grade is given a weight of 4 points; a B receives 3 points, a C is 2 points, and a D is 1 point.
Someone who has all B's would have a 3.0 grade average; a straight- 'A' - student would have a 4.0 average.
Winning the Grade Game
In my ten years as a college placement director, almost every student who graduated found a job he or she wanted after graduation. But the easiest way I could sell a student to an employer was to say that he or she "has a 3.8 grade average," or he or she "has a 3.3 in his or her major."
Good grades are an almost certain ticket to getting in the door for an interview. The lower your grades or the poorer your records, the more doors you may have to knock on to get a chance at the job you want.
And the harder you'll have to work to make an impression in the interview.
If students only knew how much good grades impress prospective employers, they would surely put more effort toward achieving better grades.
I've never heard a mediocre student say that he or she had "done my very best work all the time." Almost invariably, they say, instead, that "I know I could have done better if I had worked harder."
(If you are reading this in time to make a difference in your grades and make a change in your habits-do it now!)
Listing Your Educational Experience
Here are some tips before you begin.
List the names of all the schools from which you graduated, beginning with your high school. If you did not graduate, list the last school you attended and the year in which you would have graduated, such as "Class of 1989."
If you attended four high schools, list only the one from which you received your diploma. The same is true for colleges and universities. List the one from which you graduated or the school you attended most recently.
Most colleges and high schools include you as an alumnus (male) or alumna (female), even if you did not graduate. Employers are interested in just knowing that you did attend or that you did graduate.
They are not as interested in knowing each school you may have attended while moving from city to city, or while changing your mind about what subjects to study.
Here, as elsewhere in your resume, do not use abbreviations. Spell out the names of organizations-even streets and locations, and spell them correctly. Begin by completing the following form for your most recent educational experience.
