Analysis of example resume. (1)

 
     Please look at the example resume (of Huang Hong Mei, a few pages before), as we go through the steps of how to write your own resume.  This explanation will follow the steps of Personal Information – Professional Objectives – Education – Certifications – Work Experience – Awards / Scholarships – Interests – References.  Remember this : her resume is finished and written, at least for now, but your resume has not even started; in fact, you should be writing your resume before you do these things, and as you do them; this resume is an act of planning, followed by practical execution, and concluded by the adjustments of experience. 
 
     (a) Personal.  Here, you write down all your personal information.  You can follow this model, but there are many other, better ones to look at on the Internet.  Do your research, and choose the model you like, or which the companies are asking for. 
 
     (b) Professional objective.  You should brainstorm this sentence very carefully.  In fact, it is one of the most important sentences that you will write!  What does it mean?  It summarizes, in one sentence, what you are looking for–what job you want.  How you write this sentence will say a lot about you.  Therefore, you should “brainstorm” this sentence very carefully.  Write down the key words on separate, small slips of paper, then arrange the slips into an order, and then build the sentence.  Remember : this “job objective” should describe what you want to be doing, not what you think they want you to do.  You are in control!  The sentence should be complete, loaded with meaning (but not long), and eye-catching. 
 
     (c) Education.  When you write down your educational experiences (i.e., where and when you went to school), list the most recent first.  For your college experience, list the following : your “major” (“zhuan ye”) what school you went to, where it was, and any important courses you took.  For your high school / middle school, list these : Name of school, where, what diploma, dates. 
 
     (d) Certifications.  Here you are listing the exams you passed, and the certifications (“pieces of paper”) you acquired.  For each, write : Date, name of exam your score / level achieved. 
     If you are a freshman, and you know what you want to do after you leave college, then you are in a good position.  You can decide what exams to take, and which certifications you can acquire, and when.  Once again, you are in control.  So many students only take the bare minimum, or else they do “what everyone else is doing”; in effect, they have no idea, and no plan.  Do not be like this!  Instead, you should take those exams or certifications that you want, and that you need.  Again, make your resume a reflection of who you are.  Do not be like the crowd. 
     (e) Work Experience.  Again, you should write down the most recent first.  Include : Dates, what job, the work unit, where, your “job responsibilities” (i.e., what you did).  Perhaps, you should sub-divide what you write, according to categories.  (In my case, as an English teacher, I divide this section into two parts–“teaching”, and “other work”.) 
     Remember, the employers want to know what you did, what responsibilities you had, and what initiative you took.  These employers like to see a person who knows what they want, who have made a plan, and have carefully carried it out, over time.  Further, these employers are also looking for a rational pattern to your past activities.  They want to know : are you building and following a career, or are you just “floating” from job to job, without any real purpose or direction? 
     There should be a “common thread” to the jobs you have held, over the course of your whole life.  Mine is this : “Using language, and foreign language, in cross-cultural settings, in ‘lesser-developed’ parts of the world.”  If you look at my resume, you may wonder why I took this job, and went to such-and-such a place, and pursued various activities.  However, if you apply the above “common thread”, all those apparently different activities take on a certain unity.  This sentence has united most or all of my major jobs, over the past twenty years. 
     Here is another perspective.  Imagine you are old and retired, and are looking back over the past 40 years of your working life.  Do this “imaginary exercise now!  How would you like your “life, in reverse”, to look?  As some said, “Test-drive your rocking-chair... today!” 
     Again, why not plan what you want to be doing, rather than merely take whatever job you can get?  If you think this way during your freshman year at college, you can (try to) arrange your career path, to a certain degree. 
     There are many questions to ask yourself.  Do you want a part-time job during term-time, or during the holidays?  What jobs do you want?  Do you need to follow a “series” of smaller jobs, which when taken together point you in a certain direction, and prepare you for a certain job?  Therefore, make a plan, and try to follow it.  I feel that, where possible, the various “summer jobs” that you have chosen should together follow a general direction, they should not be chosen at random, and they should show signs of “life-planning” on your part.  (Of course, this is the ideal picture; reality is not always the same.) 
     The question arises : how can you best organize what you have done with your “work-life”, or what you want to do in the future?  At first, all the pieces of information seem disordered and disconnected.  In order to better organize yourself, perhaps you use small scraps of paper, with each job summary written on it; you can arrange these slips on the table, and move them around, until you find the pattern you like.  Or, you can use the classroom blackboard, to sketch out and organize your ideas.  Either way, you write down your “future job plan”.  Once you have a plan, then you can act it out, step by step, job by job.  Of course, “life’s realities” will alter and affect your plans.  It is therefore all right, if you have to make some changes.