By Karen Overdeck
The Lantern (Ohio State U.)
10/25/2002
(U-WIRE) COLUMBUS, Ohio – Throughout their college years many students spend a great deal of time earning good grades, acquiring internships and joining clubs, all with hopes that when they leave the university prospective employers will be impressed with their accomplishments.
However, when graduating with over 6,000 other people, the competition of being the most qualified candidate for a career opportunity can be grueling.
The most effective way of impressing a potential company is by having an outstanding resume, yet many people don’t know how to correctly compose one.
The Five O’Clock Club, a national career-counseling firm, has dedicated itself to helping individuals in perfecting their resumes. Complete with tips and guidelines, the Club aims to help individual students stand out from the rest.
One recommendation is to begin a resume with something other than educational background.
“Starting your resume with education makes it identical to the resumes of hundreds of thousands of students and recent grads,” said Kate Wendelton, President and Founder of The Five O’Clock Club.
The firm suggests developing an accomplishments-based summary that focuses on the personal experiences that would be of interest to the target market.
The summary should then be followed by a work history, which is a listing of the jobs held and the dates. Finally, finish a resume by detailing education history.
Stephanie Miller, a senior in English, has just begun the often daunting task of writing a resume.
With just a year of experience in her job field, she said she is having a hard time listing her accomplishments in a way that will make possible employers take notice.
“I’m not sure if I should make my resume formal or if I should have some flexibility in the way I write it,” she said.
Although it can be difficult, The Five O’Clock Club believes that using creativity in resumes may help in landing a dream job.
“The average resume is looked at for only 10 seconds,” Wendelton said. Being original in presenting oneself to a company can help “distinguish [yourself] from all the other undergrads in [your] geographic area.”
The Five O’Clock Club is a “members-only” organization.
According to Jared Kreiner, spokesperson for The Five O’Clock Club, the Club has over 8,000 members nationwide.
Along with counsel on building a resume, career coaches from the Club also offer advice on targeting the ideal job, affordable outplacement, interviewing, salary negotiation and job-search strategy.
In addition to founding the Five O’Clock Club, Kate Wendelton is also the author of Kick Off Your Career, an informative book about getting a foothold in the job market.
For more information about writing a resume, The Five O’Clock Club or Kate Wendelton, log on to http//www.FiveOClockClub.com.