I have been asked to lead a one hour session on resume writing for a group of fifteen 12-16 year olds next Monday evening.
They have had a previous session on the topic in house (local Boys and Girls Club).
The bulk of my experience is working with university students on this topic.
Any advice for things I should keep in my mind while modifying my message for this group?
What on earth would a 12 year-old need a resume for? :)
Anyhow, you've probably thought of these things, but here are a few:
Excellent advise. Thank you, Michelle.
advice
Tell them to have someone else proofread their résumé, as another set of eyes is more likely to catch our errors than our own.
Hee. :) True! Hey al-Q, I had a real blooper of a spelling mistake in an In Cahoots headline the other day. Luckily I caught it about 10 seconds after it went live.
I still wonder why kids at the younger end of that age group would need resumes. When I was that age, I got babysitting jobs, or jobs in stores, and they didn't require resumes - they just had you fill out an application form.
Any advice for things I should keep in my mind while modifying my message for this group?
Try this for a cover letter:
You remember Jam Yesterday and Jam Tomorrow but No Soup For You?
What do you want me to do?
What do you expect me to do?
Are those last two above the same thing?
Do you want me to do what you expect me to do?
And, lastly, do you know what that is?
Tell them to have someone else proofread their résumé, as another set of eyes is more likely to catch our errors than our own.
True Story.
I still wonder why kids at the younger end of that age group would need resumes. When I was that age, I got babysitting jobs, or jobs in stores, and they didn't require resumes - they just had you fill out an application form.
I don't think it hurts to give them the ground work for proper prosfessional correspondence early on. I know people in their early twenties that had trouble putting together a proper resume. Better they get practice too soon than too late.
I still wonder why kids at the younger end of that age group would need resumes.
I suppose it's to instill a sense of their being members of the capitalist economy and to see themselves as worker drones early in life.
Sigh!!! I'm sure resumes won't exist after the Revolution.
Well, hopefully not for 12 year-olds, anyhow. ;)
I'm curious - what kind of jobs are 12 and 13 year-olds applying for that require resumes? Or is this just an educational life skills thing for when they get older? We learned how to write resumes in high school English class, which was very useful.
I was asked to do this by our local Boys and Girls Club. Somehow they got my number and asked if there was anyone around who could speak to this group of students. If we think the session goes well, I'll be doing another one on interview skills. They offered to pay me and I declined feeling this is the sort of outreach employees at post-secondary institutions should be carrying out.
Boys and Girls Clubs tend to draw children from lower socio-economic backgrounds. I believe this is part of a life skills curriculum. The act of creating a resume can be very empowering and good for your self-esteem and confidence.
That sounds like Grad School.
In BC it is a very good idea since 12 years are not only allowed to work but with the poverty rates it is a necessity for many families. If we had a revolution I would hope they stop using child labour.
Parent or guardian written consent
An employer must receive the written permission of a young person's parent or guardian before employing a person under the age of 15. The parent or guardian is responsible for their children and must determine that the employment situation meets the best interests of the child and will not adversely affect the child's social, physical or educational needs.
The employer must have written consent on record to indicate the young person's date of birth and that the parent or guardian knows where the young person is working, the hours of work and the type of work.
Employment conditions
An employer must follow these conditions of employment set under the Employment Standards Regulation for young people aged 12 to less than 15 years of age:
- A young person must not be employed at the same time he or she is scheduled to attend school.
- A young person can work up to four hours on a school day and no more than 20 hours in a week that has five school days.
- A young person must not work more than seven hours a day on a non-school day unless the director has provided written approval.
- A young person may work up to 35 hours a week in any week containing less than five school days.
- A young person must be under the direct and immediate supervision of a person aged 19 or older at all times while working.
Employment of young people under 12 years of age
An employer must have the written permission of the Director of Employment Standards before employing a young person under 12 years of age.
Follow this link to apply for a permit to employ a young person under 12.
Isn't it nice that if your parents are poor they don't need any special permission for kids to work unless they want to their children under the age of 12 to get a job to put food on the table.
This 12 year olds need to work and its a wonderful thing for our charitable organizations to be involved with. Far better than a campaign by the Boys and Girls Club to end child labour, but that would be way too radical for the 21st century in BC. Those outdated notions like child labour are just holding our children back from becoming productive cogs in the machine.
That sounds like Grad School.
Ha! A joke about child labour. Nicely done.
Ha! A joke about child labour. Nicely done.
The above is from the actual BC Employment Standards site. I don't think child labour is a joke but then I am so last century when it comes to the best interests of the child.
Actually it was a joke about the company titled you used. Gradgrind
I thought your resume was meant to be a joke, Al-Q. Sorry if it wasn't.
Now how did this thread become about child labour ?
Cassia those resumes are for the use of those CHILDREN now not some exercise for the future. I hope you get paid well for this community work because why would you want to aid and abet the companies that want to exploit 12 to 15 year olds for peanuts.
Sorry al-Qa didn't realize at first you were referring to the Grad comment.
Actually it was a joke about the company titled you used. Gradgrind
I thought your resume was meant to be a joke, Al-Q. Sorry if it wasn't.
Now how did this thread become about child labour ?
What do you think teaching 12 year olds from poor families to write resumes is about if not child labour. I think you are likely a very sincere and loving person so take off your rose coloured glasses and ask yourself are jobs for 12 year olds a priority.
First, try to spell my name correctly, kropotkin1951.
Second, this document discusses regulations around child labour in Canada. see the chart on NB for the jurisdiction I live in.
http://www.servicecanada.gc.ca/eng/lp/spila/clli/eslc/minage(e).pdf
Third, other than delivering newspapers very few children are employed under the age of 16.
Four, capitalism is by its very nature exploitive.
Five, are you suggesting that helping individuals with job search tools is wrong?
Why not instead give them a nice historic lecture on the fight in the 19th and 20th century to end child labour. You could end it with the BC Liberals rolling back the clock as the reason why they need to learn resume writing at such a tender age. Now that might empower some of those disadvantaged youth.
Resume writing in BC is required in high school so why do the Boys and Girls Club need to redo it unless it is too help poor kids get jobs to feed themselves and their families?
Did you miss the part about this being in New Brunswick.
Very few children are employed under the age of 16? I had my first job at 14 years old, working in a drug store part-time. It was legal.
Honestly, I don't really have a problem with teenagers having part-time jobs, if the hours really are part-time (I'm talking 10 hours or less per week) and don't interfere with school. But by "teenager", I mean 14+ (and I'd even make that 15, since 14 years old is grade 9 and kids are just getting used to high school then).
Not 12. Unless it's just a bit of babysitting on a Saturday night or walking someone's kids home after school or something.
Now how did this thread become about child labour ?
It started as a thread about child labour.
Actually it was a joke about the company titled you used. Gradgrind
You do know how the name "Gradgrind" refers to education, and by extension, labour, don't you?
I thought your resume was meant to be a joke, Al-Q.
I don't know what's funny about sitting for 18 hours, alone and in the dark, or dying from falling down a chimney or breathing cotton dust 12 hours a day.
Sigh!!! I'm sure resumes won't exist after the Revolution.
WORK EXPERIENCE
Trapper Gradgrind Coal Company 2002
Hurrier/Filler Gradgrind Coal Company 2003
Chimney Sweep Vohles' Heating and Refrigeration 2004-2007
Piecer Bounderby's Shirts n' More 2008-present
Thanks again, Michelle for the advice for my session.
First, try to spell my name correctly, kropotkin1951.
Second, this document discusses regulations around child labour in Canada. see the chart on NB for the jurisdiction I live in.
http://www.servicecanada.gc.ca/eng/lp/spila/clli/eslc/minage(e).pdf
Third, other than delivering newspapers very few children are employed under the age of 16.
Four, capitalism is by its very nature exploitive.
Five, are you suggesting that helping individuals with job search tools is wrong?
!. Flaming Spells are lame.
2. I think the regulations should be enhanced not destroyed like in BC.
3. This is not true!!! In BC the story below about what workplaces child labourers are getting injured in BC tells the true story.
4. Agreed that capitalism is exploitive. I just don't feel that is reason enough for people of good will to help them.
5. I am suggesting that children should not work until they are at least 16 and therefore they don't need resumes at 12.
Are you suggesting that it is a good thing for children under the age of 15 to work. If so how about under the age of 12. Should there be any restrictions after all it will help the family, right?
There’s been a tenfold increase in work-related injuries reported by children aged 12 to 14 in the past five years — a period that coincides with the Liberal government having turned British Columbia into the laxest child-labour jurisdiction in North America.
It’s not just the youngest workers whose injury rates are climbing. Statistics for all child labourers 15 years old and younger have been trending upward.
Since 2004, children have been legally able to work up to 20 hours a week during the school year and up to 35 hours a week when school is out. Children under 12 can work as well, but they need to have a permit from the B.C. Employment Standards Branch.
Employers can pay them less than older workers. It’s called a training wage.
And while the majority of injured kids work in the service industry, some of the injuries are in industries that you might not think could employ children — construction, oil and gas processing, wood and paper mills, and plastics production.
What the government did in 2004 was allow any child aged 12 to 14, with the consent of one parent, to work anywhere except underground mines and bars, doing almost anything except serving liquor and setting off explosives.
Just how many children 15 and younger are working is difficult to determine. Statistics Canada doesn’t collect data on them since B.C. is the only province with no restrictions on children under 16 working.
So First Call, a coalition of child and youth advocates, looked at injury statistics collected by WorkSafe BC.
That data showed that 42 children aged 12 to 14 were injured badly enough in 2008 that WorkSafe accepted their claims. In 2005, there were only four claims.
Of the injured, 56 per cent worked in the hospitality industry.
But eight per cent of the children worked in construction, eight per cent in agriculture, and four per cent in manufacturing including wood and paper products.
The picture changes slightly for injured 15-year-olds. Hospitality industry employees filed 46 per cent of the claims, while retail workers accounted for a third.
But 14 per cent of the claims were for kids working in construction or in the manufacture of everything from food and beverages to metals, minerals, paper, petroleum and plastics.
Although First Call was unable to conclusively determine whether the tenfold increase for the youngest workers also meant a tenfold increase in the total number of workers, the report’s author, Helesia Luke, noted the correlation between increased numbers of workers and increased injuries has been well documented by WorkSafe BC.
So, it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that there are now 10 times as many kids working in B.C. as there were just five years ago.
However, Luke says the statistics could also mean that there are simply more injuries, which suggests that there may not be sufficient supervision of these young workers to keep them safe.
A 2005 survey of child labourers published by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, for example, noted that nearly a quarter of the 12- to 14-year-olds said they were not supervised while working even though the regulations require the presence of adult supervision.
It’s troubling that B.C. children are being injured and even suffering possible lifelong disability or impairment when they are so young.
The B.C. government ignored the International Labor Organization’s minimum age standard that has been agreed to by 153 countries (Canada is not one of them) that children shouldn’t work until at least 15 or until after they have completed compulsory schooling.
http://iwocac.ning.com/forum/topics/bc-child-labour-law-among
SPECIAL SKILLS AND ABILITIES
So Caissa you keep saying that your in NB. If there is no child labour in NB why should 12 year olds learn to write resumes? So to reiterate Michelle's question.
What on earth would a 12 year-old need a resume for?
You're welcome.
That's interesting, kropotkin, thanks for posting that. I guess maybe because I didn't have dangerous jobs as a teenager (basically, babysitting and retail), it didn't occur to me that allowing children to work at age 14 (or younger!) could really put them in harm's way in some jobs.
My son is 11 right now, so I don't have very long before I'm faced with this issue myself in my own life. So far he hasn't been talking about wanting part-time work, but you never know, he might if his friends start getting jobs (and many kids do get part-time jobs at 13 or older).
I guess that would be something for all us parents and step-parents to discuss, but I'd lean more towards him not getting any outside job, and instead doing work around the house to earn some spending money. But then, he has the privilege of parents who can afford to buy him the stuff he wants (within reasonable limits, of course), so it may be easier to convince him that he doesn't need a part-time job than it would be for parents who can't afford much in the way of clothes, shoes, and a bit of spending money for the kids.
It's a conundrum.
Anyhow...although I realize it was raised somewhat facetiously by kropotkin, Caissa, I wonder if that might actually be an interesting thing to cover in your talk, very briefly - something about child labour, or safety in the workplace, since young people are much easier for employers to convince that they HAVE to obey orders and do things that are unsafe at work if they're told to do it.
I realize that's not exactly what you were asked to do, but it could be very helpful information, and picking safe, non-exploitative workplaces could be considered an important aspect of job search.
In order to have the document which they can continually update so that when they do want a job and see one in which they are interested they don't have to buld one from scratch without time in which to reflect.
ETA: This is the Babblers helping Babblers forum, right?
Teenagers all think they are ten feet tall and bullet proof and that is the attitude that makes them very vulnerable in the workplace. Especially when the adults are encouraging them to prove how "adult" they are.
I was not trying to be facetious I was trying to be helpful for these kids. I don't get why a poor kid going to a charity that is supposed to be fun has to learn to write a resume at 12. Where's the fun in that. I have this weird idea that childhood should be a fun time for children.
Caissa, sorry, but you can't stop babblers from offering their opinion on this topic, even if they deviate a bit from what you said you wanted to hear. That's the way it is here.
I agree with kropotkin that no one at age 12 should have to work at jobs that are so "serious" that you need resumes to apply for them. That sort of work should be left to adults. Heck, even most part-time retail jobs that 14 and 15 year-olds get don't require a resume - you just fill out an application, or go in and talk to the store manager or something. At least that's how it was done in my day. Most people who hire a 13 year-old after school for a couple of hours aren't expecting them to have adult resume-writing skills.
Just pointing out the irony, Michelle.
The interesting thing is I don't think I've said once that the group I am speaking to currently need resumes to apply for jobs. Now if I did...
SPECIAL SKILLS AND ABILITIES (continued...)
Well, that's why I asked you in post #1 and post #4 why a child of 12 would need a resume. Instead of avoiding saying they need them to apply for jobs, why not answer a friendly question (and they were friendly) about why they do need them? It would probably help people figure out what advice to give, even.
Most people hear "resume" and think "job applications". Especially when you said in a subsequent post that you might be following up this session with one on "interview skills".
I agree with everything you say if the group was 16 to 18 or even 14 to 18. 12 year olds need a lot of skills resume building for when they are 16 is not one of them.
It's been hard to separate the friendly questions from the barbs, Michelle, so I apologize if I haven't been clear.
I think the process of reflection required to create a resume is a good one. I think taking stock of one's assets can be empowering especially for young teenagers.
I think it is important to have an up to date resume for when you are ready to apply for a job.
I think putting together a resume when you are desperate to find work leads to a sub-par resume being created.
Re. interview skills- Again, I think the skills required for an interview are ones that stand you in good stead in many other situations.
ETA: Just read #29, Michelle (We cross-posted.) I can certainly work in the topics you have mentioned.
Well, the group is for kids 12-16, so it's not really Caissa's fault that kids that young are included. It will be useful for the much younger ones to hear the info about workplace safety and child labour, and it'll be good for the older ones to learn more of the mechanics of resume writing.
It's amazing how a five year age range can be such a huge span, huh?
Well, the group is for kids 12-16, so it's not really Caissa's fault that kids that young are included.
That's true. Although the people organizing a resume-writing seminar for 12-year-olds should have their heads examined. That's about as useful as teaching 12-year-olds about the laws and regulations regarding driving a motor vehicle on highways.
Yeah, I kind of had the same reaction, which is why I asked at the beginning why on earth they'd have 12 year-olds at a resume-writing workshop.
My general advice to a young person about writing a resume would be: The skill of writing a good resume is over-rated.
No, not that writing a good resume is easy but that a person's focus should first be on the creation of the substance of a good resume: Work to get very good (if not excellent) grades, acquire relevant skills (which may be done though certain volunteer work, for example), concentrate on developing personal characteristics that are attractive to prospective employers, and so forth.
Without having first focused on creating the substance of a good resume, the slickest-written resume will be useless.
My daughter started working when she was 15 and needed a resume to get a job at MacDonald's (a year later she has quit and moved on to another job). I helped her with her resume and I think it follows the same rule as an adults resume. Fill a page with as much stuff that shows an ability to do a shifts work for the employers you are hitting up. For my daughter we put in her babysitting experience and babysitting course. Spoke about her school and in particular stuff she is good at. Any leadership and volunteer work is great to include. Sports, fine arts and hobbies fill in the inevitable gaps.
I don't remember the last time I saw a 12 year old working, though I think the bottle depot will offer shifts to practically anyone. When I was growing up it seemed that every second corner store was staffed by 12 year olds. Rarely do you see it now.
Just wanted to add that Kroptkin is right on about the BC Liberals. The BC standards are now among the lowest in North America. I believe a report last year indicated that the number of children maimed and killed at work jumped incredibly.
CCPA did a great report on this in 2004:
http://bing.search.sympatico.ca/?q=Child%20Labour%20BC&mkt=en-ca&setLang...
More follow-up thoughts:
For, say, a 15 or 16 year-old, there are two things they may want to consider about resumes:
[u]Short-Term[/u]: For the near term, the type of jobs for which they will be applying will likely not require an extensive resume. If, for example, a resume is requested as part of an application for a job at McDonald's, keep it simple and keep it relevant. Don't make the reader wade through a bunch of extraneous filler text. Just get to the point. Besides, an in-person impression on the hiring manager will likely have much more influence on the hiring decision than anything contained in a resume for a job like that.
[u]Long-Term[/u]: Again, the focus should probably be on building the substance of a good resume, not on how to write one. A beautifully-written resume is worthless without substance - while a reasonably well-written resume with a lot of substance is likely to have some value. I think it's important for kids (or anyone, for that matter) to be disabuse themselves of the belief that one only needs to craft a sparkling resume and they will then have "the key" to a job (way too much weight is put on resume writing). Of course, when a person is applying for a job and needs a resume right away, it's a little late to be working on building the substance for a good resume - but that's exactly my point. The people Caissa will be talking with are kids and now is the time for them to focus on building the substance of a good resume so that when they do need a serious resume in the future, then can, indeed, simply focus on the crafting of the language.
I think that the long tem point is great and gets kids thinking about what they should be doing now for their adult job. It can be very general. For example if they want to work with animals then volunteering at the animal shelter will probably be fun and show them what types of work is out there as well as being resume material.
So, Caissa, how is your presentation planning going?
It's done but since the schools are closed here today, I'm probably rescheduling for later this week or early next week. I'll let babblers know how the session went.
Ciassa,
Dont forget after presenting to lead them into a good direction on focusing on the types of opportunities they will most likely have the highest chances of attaining. Some may be underqualified or even their resumes may not have much meat but by providing a lead into the different possibilities and avenues one can explore, it will ensure they have a somewhat of a short term goal in mind in order to focus their resumes to.
Found some advice specific to teenagers here:Advice on temporary jobs For teenagers
Also if they would like a run through about 101 interview questions there is a pretty good listing availabel here for them:
A large 101 interview questions listing
In addition when informing them what avenues they should persue, they should also be reminded that only build several smaller goals is what will help them in attaining their larger goals. Many teenagers looking for work have really high hopes with huge goals which should be a long term goal. They should be reminded that their employments should be looked at as being a temporary stop or a learning objective in order to help them towards their larger and more long term goals.
Hope this helps.
Good luck
This thread was 3 years old. The session went badly. The person who invited me to give the presentation wasn't even on-site. I was left with a group of teenagers who had no interest whatsoever in the topic. I am never going to do another workshop for this non-profit.
You held it in for three years. Then it bubbled to the top. That is awesome.
