Chris Perry, of Career Rocketeer, shares some ways to build your resume:
1. Summer Internships: Summer employment is essential to most Gen Yers. We need the money, and it gives us a little structure to our vacation. However, an internship may be much more valuable to you and your career than a traditional hourly gig. Summer internships often have full-time hours, last multiple weeks and/or months and provide you real accomplishments, professional contacts, references and opportunities for full-time employment. If your financial situation allows it, do consider unpaid internship opportunities, for there may be more of them in this job market than usual. No one will ever ask you if your internship was paid or unpaid, and unpaid internships can offer just as valuable experience and can also lead to full-time paid opportunities.
To find internships of interest to you in this tough economy, I recommend using job aggregators, like Indeed,SimplyHired and LinkUp. Indeed and SimplyHired collect listings from across hundreds of job boards online, including Monsterand CareerBuilder, and LinkUp uniquely collects listings directly from company websites, often revealing opportunities that weren’t externally advertised. Craigslist is also a great place to search local opportunities, so check out the internship listings under each city or area of interest or proximity to where you live or go to school. Lastly, never forget the power of the almighty Google. Try Googling specific companies or types of internships. You might be surprised by how much you find.
2. School-Year Internships: Companies and organizations are always in need of interns even after the end of the summer, so if your academic schedule allows some flexibility, consider using the search tips listed above and also checking with your career center for opportunities. This again gives you some valuable experience, references and contacts — and potentially can count for academic credit if unpaid. Also, an unpaid internship may be more acceptable during the school year for students who wouldn’t have enough time to hold a traditional part-time job otherwise.
3. Volunteer Work & Mission Trips: Community service of all types, including domestic and international service trips through church and school groups, offers you a way to give back. It also provides you leadership opportunities and looks really good to employers, especially as more companies develop their corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives and efforts. You find these opportunities by asking friends how they get involved, calling up and volunteering for a local animal shelter, serving as a tutor for local students, or joining service fraternities, charitable organizations and churches in your area. You can also search online. Idealist is the global directory of volunteer opportunities and other resources and is a great place to start.
4. Extracurricular Clubs & Activities: Whether you’re in college, grad school or just launching your career, get involved with as many extracurricular groups, organizations and activities of personal interest or relevance to your career as is manageable for your lifestyle. These are often more fun than work, but also help you build up your resume and provide you valuable leadership experience. Invest yourself in your clubs and activities, and pursue more responsibility and leadership positions when opportunities arise.
5. Entrepreneurial Ventures: If you are creative, entrepreneurially-minded and have launched or will launch a business of any size, don’t forget to play up your efforts and accomplishments on your resume. Employers really value entrepreneurs as employees, for they not only find new innovative ways to grow their businesses, but also tend to have strong general business skills.
6. Social Media & Blogging: As more companies and organizations get more involved in social media channels, employers are increasingly seeking social-media-inclined employees. Become an expert on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and any other social media networks in which you are interested, especially from the business perspective. If you have the interest or the ability to blog on career-relevant topics, this is also a great way to really establish your personal brand and expertise and use it to sell yourself in your career search. Google’s Bloggerand Wordpress are two great platforms to help you get started and launch your own blog.
