Six Resume Tools for Teens

One of the important skills that students need to have prior to graduating from high school is the ability to create a resume. Ideally, they will create a resume in high school and continue to update it beyond graduation. Creating a resume from scratch can be overwhelming, but these resources will help students understand what elements need to be included.

• Career Kids- This site does not require an account. Students simply input their information, and click a few boxes to generate a resume. The resume that is created is basic, but this site is very easy to use. 
• Google Docs resume templates- This is an easy and straightforward way to create a resume directly inside of Google Drive. Just select one of the resume templates to get started.
  
• Resume Generator- Designed to be used by high school students. It contains written and audio tips to help students through the process.
  
• MyFuture Resume Builder- In addition to a resume builder, this site has examples of resumes, checklists, and articles and advice about careers.
  
• About.me- While this is not a traditional resume, it is a good place for students to create a positive digital footprint. This site does collect personal information and is not intended to be used by students who are younger than 13.
  
• VisualCV for Students- This site allows students to create a digital resume to share online. This site has lots of examples and ideas that students will find useful.

Applications for Education

Students can use these sites to create a solid resume. These sites can also be used to create fictitious resumes of characters from books or of historical figures.  

Populr - Create Stylish PDFs from Elements of Your Digital Portfolio

Earlier this week I included Populr in my list of five good ways for students to showcase their best work. Populr is a service for creating simple webpages to showcase an example or two of your best work. On Populr you can quickly create a stylish webpage with pictures, text, and document uploads. Yesterday, I learned that Populr now offers of the option to export your webpage as a PDF while retaining all of the formatting that you see online. To use the PDF export option simply click the "PDF" icon while logged-in and viewing your Populr page.

Applications for Education
For students or teachers who want to be able to present a physical "highlight sheet" when someone asks for paper resume, Populr could be a good resource to have at their disposal. Populr offers the best of both worlds in terms of creating an online resume and a physical resume.

Visual CV is a similar resource that you might also want to try.

PortfolioGen - Create a Teacher Portfolio Page

PortfolioGen is a service that offers a platform on which teachers and pre-service teachers can build simple webpages to highlight their portfolios. Teachers can write "about me" pages, highlight their certifications, upload documents, and link to other examples of their work. PortfolioGen pages have contact forms for potential employers to use to get in touch with teachers. Click here for an example of a PortfolioGen page. One thing that PortfolioGen does offer yet is an option to embed videos.

Applications for Education
If you're an educator looking for a new job who doesn't have a digital portfolio yet, PortfolioGen provides an easy way to quickly create one. Even if you're applying for jobs that don't require digital portfolios, it is still a good idea to have an easily-accessible page that highlights your work.

Another digital resume service that you might want to try is Visual CV. Visual CV allows you to include videos in your digital resume too.

CNN Student News Offers Students Job Hunting Advice

This week's special summer edition of CNN Student News features interviews with a employee recruiter and professionals at CNN offering their best advice to students on the job hunt. The video is embedded below.

While the advice in the video is sound I would also add that students should be actively managing their digital footprints so when a potential employer does a Google search on that student nothing inappropriate is found. I would also encourage students to use a service like Visual CV to develop an online resume that links to examples of their work.

Gen Y Goes to Work With Digital Resumes

Rob Darrow writes an insightful blog called California Dreamin' about online learning and education. Today, he has a great blog post about hearing Jason Dorsey speak about Generation Y in general and specifically about the implications of Generation Y entering the workforce. Generation Y generally refers to those people born between 1980 and 1994 give or take a year on each end. This means that roughly half of Generation Y is old enough to be teaching (using 22 as the average age for completing a BA/BS) and most of the other half is still in school. These numbers have a few implications for education that educators and administrators need to consider when thinking about their current students and when searching for new teachers.

One of the items that stands out from Rob Darrow's list of things that Jason Dorsey shared about Generation Y is that most members of Generation Y "don't know quick answers to historical facts... but give them access to the Internet and they can prepare a presentation in two hours on any historical topic." This statement is great reminder that today's students can find information on almost any topic quickly, in fact today's students can probably find information faster than many of their teachers can find the same information. The role and value of a teacher then is changing from one of informant to facilitator. Teaching students what they can do with information they find is an important function of educators.

The second item from Rob Darrow's summary of Jason Dorsey's presentation is Generation Y is tech dependent. "They are tech dependent. Embedded into their being." When I look at job postings for teaching positions (I'm quite happy with my position, I just like to look) I still see many openings that specifically state "no email or electronic applications accepted." I realize that part of the reason for that stipulation is to streamline the process of sorting through applications, but I fear that part of the reason for the stipulation is that adminstrators might not be comfortable with something other than the standard one page resume and reference letters. While I don't think the requirement of a traditional paper resume dissuades anyone from applying for a position, I am concerned that this limits the ability of applicants to show their full complement of skills and creativity. If administrators wish to hire the best and brightest young candidates from Generation Y to fill vacant teaching positions and or retain their younger teachers, it would be in their best interests to be open to alternative forms of resumes and portfolios. Which leads me to the digital resource I'd like to share with you today, Visual CV.

Visual CV is your resume and more online. Visual CV is a free service on which you can host an electronic version of your resume. In addition to resumes users can post links to sample work they have done, post a video introduction, post graphs and charts, and post professional references. Much of this can be done in similar forms on other services, but Visual CV offers a very attractive layout and interface at a great price, free!

Visual CV represents the way that Generation Y prefers to communicate and they medium with which they will expect job applicants to present themselves when Generation Y does the hiring.

In case you're an administrator reading this and wondering how or why Web 2.0 and Generation Y fit into the future of work, take a look at this great presentation from Sacha Chua. (Sacha is Generation Y, she just turned 25).

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