A yelp-style review of writing!winning!resumes!
I look everything up on Yelp. Looking for a hair salon near Flushing? I can refer you to Sub-Image for a $40 haircut, or BeBe Beauty Salon for 15. Keen on finding the most stylish of thrift stores? AuH2O in East Village sounds like a safe bet, with a rating of 4.5/5 and over 30 reviews. There are even a whopping total of six reviews of the high school I went to. And of course, what would a Yelp search be if it didn’t include food? Chinese hole-in-the-walls, Indian buffet bars, sandwich shops, dollar pizza—whatever restaurant you’re looking for, Yelp can help you find the perfect fit.
But when it came to that mandatory workshop we had to attend for Freshman Seminar, I was left to my own devices with a myriad of choices in front of me and not a clue as to where to begin. I ended up diving in headfirst with no expectations. As I scanned the STARR Career Development website, I realized that all the other workshops—how to ace an interview (or even just to land one, for that matter), job search tips, and even dining etiquette—would never be useful to me if I didn’t have a good resume. Despite the tacky title, I decided that I might as well sign up for Writing Winning Resumes.
The workshop itself was located in a conference room on the second floor, which I’d never been to. After checking in, I began looking through the packet they gave us to accompany the lecture. The speaker was very helpful and walked us through the packet, which presented detailed guides on formatting our resume, what information to include, how to sell our experience and skills in a couple of bullet points, and writing cover letters. We took part in a group exercise that allowed us to make judgment calls on example resumes as if we were the employer. It was refreshing to look at resumewriting from a different perspective, and I found it helpful in critiquing my own resume in the future. Though I did not have my own resume prepared, it is not necessary to bring one, as the workshop is catered towards those who are looking at the basics of resume writing.
Overall, Writing Winning Resumes is informative to those who have no idea where to begin, but for those who have a barebones-idea of resume writing, the workshop gives specific pointers on how to improve their own. Although it was frustrating to follow the powerpoint, as it included a lot of information not found in the packet, I would recommend this workshop to anyone who feels they need to brush up on their resume writing skills.
