How To Write A Resume For A Part
Creating a standard resume may be easy for some, but making one to secure a part-time, secondary job is much different. There are certain things the resume notifies hiring managers about an individual’s position in what they want and why they want it. In this article, we discuss how these special resumes differ from standard ones, how to write them and provide an example.
Showcase Your Relevant Skills
Lastly, on your part time job resume, you should showcase your relevant hard and soft skills for the hiring manager to see.
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, an increasing number of part time jobs have become remote positions. Because of this, hard skills, such as having the technical skills to use a variety of software and computer programs, have become very desirable to employers.
However, your soft skills are still very relevant as well. Employers love part time employees with great leadership skills and communication skills, especially if youre working in the service industry.
Typically, listing between five to ten skills on your part-time job resume is acceptable. Ensure that you include a mix of hard and soft skills to show the hiring manager youre both technically capable of performing your job and that you have the right personality traits to be a good culture fit.
Consider also including a cover letter for a part time job to provide more insight about your experiences, personality, and reasons for applying to a job. Writing a cover letter shows employers youre self-motivated and serious about the position.
Why Bother Writing It
Its super important. We hate to use the word important, but
Your work experience section is the most important part of your resume. In fact, when you think resume, the work experience section is probably the first thing that comes to your mind. And youre not alone. Based on this section employers determine whether or not you have what it takes for the job.
It provides an overview of your past experience. A well-written work experience section is a crucial element because it shows that you have the necessary qualifications.
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Be Ready For An Interview
When you apply for a job in person, you may be asked to interview on the spot, or you could be invited to come back at a scheduled time in the future.
Because you dont know when youll be interviewing, its always a good idea to take the time to prepare in advance. You should also review the most frequently asked job interview questions employers ask teen job seekers.
Describe Your Skills And Qualifications
In the second and third paragraphs, describe your qualifications and how they match up with the required skills for the position. These paragraphs are a great place to include specific examples of how you have used these skills in previous jobs or even in school. Include skills that apply directly to the position and values that align with the company’s. This helps an employer understand how you can contribute and assures them that you can easily assimilate into the company culture. You can use a bulleted list to describe your skills and always provide contextual examples to display how you use those skills.
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Display Your Educational Background
If youre a student thats preparing a resume for a part time job, your education section is especially important.
Employers still prefer a well-educated candidate, so if youre lacking in work experience, your resumes education section can provide you an opportunity to set yourself apart from other qualified job applicants.
Similar to your work experience, when listing academic experience on your part time job resume, you should focus on your achievements. Academic achievements can include any of the following:
Relative Coursework: Calculus, Linear Algebra, Statistics, Computer Science, & Physics
Extracurricular activities:
- Deans list 4 consecutive semesters in a row
- Big Brother Big Sister Foundation: Volunteer twice a week. Help mentor, teach, and encourage two assigned younger brothers
- University softball team captain
If youre still in high school, college, or a recent graduate without much work experience, consider listing your education before your work experience so that the hiring manager notices it first.
Always Highlight Your Achievements
All too often, job hunters fill their CVs with lists of duties and responsibilities, forgetting that this doesnt really tell the reader if you were actually any good at those tasks. We therefore strongly recommend that, in addition to your key responsibilities, you list your most impressive achievements.
Think about it like this: no one will be particularly impressed if you list something like organised stock in your responsibilities. On the other hand, including an achievement like won employee of the month award or was commended for strong organisational skills will show potential employers that you can really bring value to their company.
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Optional Parts To Include On Your Resume
There may be additional information you wish to include on your resume that doesn’t fit in other sections. For example, your community service experience may directly relate to the position you are applying for. Before including additional information, however, be sure to ask yourself whether including this makes you a more appealing candidate to the potential employer. If the answer is no, you shouldn’t include this extra information.
The following are common optional sections you could include at the end of your resume:
Awards/achievements
If you have additional awards that you were not able to incorporate into the experience section of your resume, consider doing so here. For example, you could include international recognition, publications, honors and testimonials that are relevant to the job you are applying for.
Languages
If you speak fluently in more than one language, you may wish to include this in a section after your skills.
Community service
Some companies prefer candidates who have a passion or experience in community service. If this is true for the position you are interested in, be sure to include any community service commitments or experience you have as it relates to the job.
Hobbies
More and more companies are interested in understanding their candidates on a personal level. While you don’t need to include a long list of your hobbies, you could consider listing two or three things that you enjoy doing in your free time that speak to your personality.
Why You Do Not Need An Objective On A Resume
If you applied for an employers job, then they know your objective is to obtain an interview and potentially earn a job offer. Rather than including a resume objective, utilize the space below your header and contact info to write one or two brief paragraphs about your career accomplishments and who you are as a professional.
You can find 10 examples of this HERE.
Many modern employers will also view a resume objective as being out-dated and old-fashioned, which could actually hurt your chances of getting hired.
If you do put a resume objective, a hiring manager will likely skip it anyway and look for information thats more helpful as they decide whether to interview you for example, your employment history section.
If you insist on standing out and expressing your unique interest in a certain position, thats what a cover letter is for.
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Give A Few Quick Examples
Think of some examples where you used the skills required for the position in another situation. Try to include two good examples that you can summarize easily. Examples should show exactly how you apply your specific skills and qualifications to real-life situations and the outcome of those situations. Focus on positive outcomes to display your skills and credentials to create a professional image of yourself.
How Is A Part
When applying for a secondary, part-time position to supplement their main job, professionals often make the mistake of using their main resume.
This may lower your chances of getting the role for two main reasons:
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Overqualification.Being overqualified is typically a good thing when it comes to landing a job.
However, this is not at all the case with part-time positions, which tend to be in high turnover industries such as retail, hospitality, and service.
In these industries, many hiring managers are wary of hiring overqualified individuals, as on average they tend to leave their positions more quickly.
Any benefit gained from hiring a team member with such qualifications is offset by the higher training costs and business disruptions involved with quick employee turnover.
When applying for a part-time job, you want to use a resume that displays you as a competent and perfectly qualified candidate, but you dont want to come off as too overqualified.
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Specialization.Chances are that the part-time position you get isnt going to perfectly match the qualifications and skills required by your main job.
The resume you use to advance your accounting or software development career, for example, isnt suited for applying to a position in retail.
Creating a new resume tailored specifically to the part-time job will improve your chances of getting that interview.
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Choose A Functional Format
Although a chronological resume is the most common resume type, consider using the functional resume format when writing your first resume. Whereas chronological resumes focus on your work experience, functional resumes highlight your core resume skills:
Specifically, the skills section of a functional resume replaces the work history section of a chronological resume. To fill this section pick at least three skills relevant to the position, and then add two or three bullet points that showcase those skills in action:
Skills on a Resume for a First Job
Editing skills
- Edited average of 47 newspaper articles a day as chief copy editor of The Brown Daily Herald
- Reduced incidence of typos in The Brown Daily Herald by 17% compared with previous year
Effective Leadership And Management
Even if you’re not applying for a management position, you’ll still need to demonstrate to employers that you have the potential to motivate and lead others in order to achieve common objectives. It’s also important to evidence the skill of self-management – demonstrating a situation where you’ve managed your own time successfully.
On application forms, detail situations where you’ve had the opportunity to plan and coordinate tasks during your degree or in extra-curricular activities such as university clubs and societies. The ability to solve problems and conflicts is always highly valued by recruiters.
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Do You Need A Resume For A Part
The purpose of your resume is to convince the recruiter that you’re a qualified candidate for the job. It doesn’t matter whether you apply for a part-time or full-time job, your resume purpose doesn’t change. You’re providing the recruiter or hiring manager with a snapshot of your skills and qualifications that you believe match the company’s staffing needs.
Recent Graduates With No Experience
If you dont have much work experience, the relevancy of your experience holds more weight than how long ago it took place. Therefore, if you have relevant skills you learned from high school, you can include them along with any skills you might have picked up in college.
Spearman, who has 10 years of experience as a resume writer, advises, If youre just starting out, youre going to want to focus on a functional resume. Youre going to highlight more of your skill sets.
If you are struggling to fill your resume, consider setting aside time to take online courses to improve your skills or even learn completely new ones.
These certifications prove to employers that you hold the proper skills and the motivation to do well in a career.
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Omitting Jobs From Your Resume
Your resume is not a legal document and you are under no obligationto list every job youve ever had. The purpose of your resume is to sell you to potential employers and this is the most important thing to keep in mind.
You can include the parts that highlight your strengths, and leave jobs off your resume if you feel that dont add any weight to it.
At the same time, you want to maximize your chances of getting through to the interview stage and beyond. Omitting a job from your resume could raise questions in the employers mind.
Not only could it leave an unexplained gap on your resume, but the hirer may discover that you omitted a job during a pre-employment screening. You need to be able to explain gaps, and why you decided to not include a job on your resume.
The most important thing to focus on is crafting your resume to highlight your strengths and to present yourself as a credible candidate. Use an expert guide on how to write a resume to help you.
What Should You Put On Your Resume
Now that weve answered the question of, Do you need an objective on a resume?, lets look at some helpful tips and resources when deciding what should go on your resume.
I mentioned earlier that its better to put a brief career summary paragraph. Heres an example of how that might look:
Manufacturing Engineering with 10 years of bio-pharmaceutical experience, proficient in injection molding, medical device design, research & development, and product commercialization.
This is showing employers the value you bring to their company, rather than wasting space talking about an objective.
This small intro paragraph is also a great way to include more keywords in your resume so you can pass any automated systems an employer is using before a human sees your resume!
A career summary like the example above is a much better choice to begin your resume because it has no meaningless filler-content, unlike most of the career objectives that appear on resumes.
You could also skip the intro paragraph entirely and begin with a Skills section, an Education section if you just graduated, or your Employment History.
Those are all better options than putting an objective on your resume in todays job market.
If you want more help with all the sections that should go on your resume and how to decide the order, read this article.
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The Purpose Of A Resume
Many job seekers assume that the purpose of a resume is to provide a full overview of their professional history.
Instead, the goal of your resume is to convince employers youre worth interviewing. To that end, your resume is a valuable tool you can use to highlight your experience to prospective employers.
If your resume provides a concise summary of your relevant qualifications and skills in a format that makes your ability to handle the work as clear as possible, you will get more interviews.
Craft A Great Part Time Job Resume Objective
When youre writing a resume for a part time job as a student or simply for a second job, starting off your resume with a great resume introduction is essential if you want to grab the hiring managers attention and show them why youre the right person for the job.
A resume objective is a great choice for your resume introduction because it gives you the opportunity to talk about your passions and career goals, as well as your relevant experience and skills.
Begin your resume objective by stating how much work experience you have, followed by an example of some of your career or academic achievements. Finally, end with a statement explaining why youre interested in working for the company.
Heres an example of a resume objective for a mother looking for part time work as a personal trainer:
Dedicated personal trainer and nutrition coach with 7+ years of experience dieting and training student athletes. Successfully prepared 2 students for weightlifting competitions, each earning 2nd place in bench press and leg press respectively. Great time management, people, and organizational skills. Looking to leverage my experience and skills to fill the part-time personal coach position at Muscles Gym.
Additionally, heres a resume objective example of a college student applying for a part-time math tutoring position:
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Make A Reverse Chronological List
If you have sufficient part-time job experience, you might want to list them just like you would list full-time job experience.
To do so, you need to use the Reverse Chronological Resume Format.
Keep in mind that this method would serve in your favor only if the part-time positions complement your full-time ones.
Make sure you indicate which roles were part-time and which ones were full-time, so that the hiring manager would understand your experience with ease.
Proofread Your Resume For Part
Lastly, always review and proofread your resume for part-time job. Even though it is not as formal as applying for a full-time position, it is always the right move to keep your professionalism secured.
Sometimes, it is hard to catch and fix our own grammatical mistakes or poor writing style as we may be biased towards our own creation. Get your friends and family members to review if you need to.
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Mentioning Your Motives For Going Part
Your personal statement is a paragraph, somewhere in the region of 100 words, at the top of your CV briefly outlining who you are, what your background is and summing up your experience and skills. In some cases, you may want to use the personal statement to explain your motives for looking for part-time work.
A common case will be for students looking for part-time jobs. You may well want to mention in the opening line of your statement that you are currently studying.
Try something like:
- I am a friendly second-year student at Sometown University who is looking for part-time work to fit around my studies
This kind of introduction will immediately help employers understand your situation and how you will fit into their rotas.
Sometimes youll be looking for part-time work for personal reasons such as an illness or the need to care for someone. Its completely up to whether you mention this or not, but in many cases it will not be relevant. Instead, focus on your abilities and skills that match with those required for the job.