Writing Your International Resume!

How to write your resume

Make it clear and to the point. Keep it at one or two pages. List your strengths throughout the document. Put your objectives, personal information, and education first. Then list classes taken, activities, and awards. References last (list names with titles, or say "upon request").

Be especially careful when you write letters of application for jobs or Internships. Do not make it seem like you would only be using this job to "get experience""for yourself before you find out what you "really want to do in life in a year or so". Most people do not want to hire someone and serve as a training place to give people experiences. In fact, they prefer to hire someone with experience!

When you write a letter or resume be very positive! Tell people why they need to hire you to help them do the job at hand. Make them feel that YOU are the right person to do this job -actually, convince them that you are the only person that can do the job - don't oversell yourself but give them a sense that you will hit the ground running with your sleeves pulled up!

Many of my students write on their CV

Objectives: "to live abroad, learn a foreign language, get some experience, and strengthen my resume before going to graduate school".

I always ask them - "Put yourself in the position of the Human Resources (HR) person or Director of an NGO or organization that has a bunch of complex projects to complete and not enough staff. Do they want to hire you so you can have a personal opportunity to learn a language and improve yourself?"

"NO!"

"That's what colleges or internships are for. They want someone who will work hard and passionately for their organization and stay for several years at least so they can recover the training time and investment they will have made in you."

Remember, they are not there to do you a favor or, like your college professor or counselors help YOU succeed. All of a sudden you are plunged into a place where you have to serve the organization not (as in college) the other way around!