Trying to find a job

[shwnbob]

Hey everyone,
So for the past week and a half I've been trying to find a job and failing at it. Honestly, I think it has a lot to do with my resume and lack of job references on it. Sure, I've got 5 years of working with children as a summer camp counselor on there, three years of working with special needs children and a full year of working at a children's museum learning different leadership/team building skills but, I guess, the people who review my application papers, (if anybody reads them at all,) don't consider these things as "jobs". They say it takes job experience to land a job but how the hell am I supposed to get job experience if I can't get a job to begin with?
I've must have applied to twenty different jobs and haven't heard a thing back from anyone. So please, anybody who reads this, how do I get my resume to stand out from the thousands of other resumes these different places must get each day? And also, how do I deal with this ever present feeling of rejection every time another day passes and none of these jobs call me back?

 

[Jonluw]

I haven't managed to land a job myself, so I don't know if my advice is worth much, but I'm told the most important part is to make your resumé stand out.
Are you including a picture where you look happy and pleasant in your resumé?
Is the layout on your resumé easily understood?
You're free to use a layout that uses some colour (tastefully, of course).

Other than that, I guess you just have to present your experience in a way that does it justice. i.e. in a way that makes it seem like actual jobs.
"Work experience:
Summer camp counselor (200X - 200X+5)
Special needs assistant (or whatever an appropriate job title may be) (200X - 200X+3)
Museum something (I don't know what you did at the museum) (200X - 200X+1)

It's also important that the applications are well-written and make you look like someone people will enjoy working with.

 

[the doom cannon]

I am probably too young to post on this topic, being near the end of college, but I feel compelled to offer my two cents. Agreeing with Jonluw, make sure your resume is easy to read and highlights what you want it to highlight. Also, it seems like you've done a lot of work with children, so might I suggest looking specifically in that area? You may have already done so, but just in case you didn't.

Here are a few tips I learned from my professional communication course, in which we focused a good bit solely on resumes and making yourself stand out. These are not in order of importance.

Know your audience: no one resume is perfect for all audiences aka employers. This doesn't mean you need to write a brand new resume for each job application, but it does mean that you need to tailor your resume to best sell yourself to each individual employer.

Go to the employer's websites and often you can find things they value. Make sure to somehow incorporate these things into your resume.

I was taught that adding a picture could add an unnecessary item for which your potential employers could judge you, so use pictures with caution.

Your resume should either be one full page or two full pages, not half a page, 3/4 of a page, or 1 and 1/2 pages. Don't ask me why, but that's what I was taught.

It should be easy on the eyes and easy to SKIM. Your potential employer may not want to read your whole resume word for word, so they will quickly skim your resume for things that pop out. These "things" could be anything, and good organization is imperative.

Make sure you add a section on what you personally bring to the table.

Use white space. This means that packing your page full to the brim is not a good idea, and you should utilize white space on the page to make your resume visually pleasing.

From the experience you listed, I would suggest adding a "Purpose" to your resume. This generally goes at the top, and is usually one sentence describing the job you are looking for. This may seem silly, but let's take an extreme example using education. You double major in both art history and engineering, and you list both of them on your resume. You submit an application for a job in both fields. How do these employers know which set of skills you are trying to promote. I know it sounds silly (it still does to me), but it removes any possible misunderstandings.

As for format, your resume should be in one of the following configurations:
Title block - purpose - education - experience - skills - recognition/awards
Title block - purpose - experience - education - skills - recognition/awards
Title block - purpose - experience - skills - recognition/awards

Let's go over what should be in each section

Title block
NAME (never forget to put your name on your resume), address, phone number(s), email

Purpose was outlined above

Education
should be your highest level of education (high school/ged, some college, bachelor's degree, master's degree, etc). If you do not have your high school diploma or ged, then getting your ged is probably more important and more feasible than getting a job. (I say this out of lack of information, not because you come across uneducated or anything like that, which you don't)

Experience
any even remotely relevant jobs you have had go here. Time frames worked is necessary. This is also where your professional certifications would go.

Skills
anything from computer software to teaching (this includes basic software like Word and PowerPoint). Make sure to give yourself an accurate, easy to understand rating of your current aptitude for each skill as well.

Recognition/Awards
any recognition you have received, such as employee of the month or something along those lines.

Sorry this turned into my idea of a crash course on resume writing, but I hope it helps even if just a little. Once you have completed your resume, proofread it for errors by reading it out loud. Reading out loud will help you spot mistakes that you would otherwise overlook.