Of life after College and such.

Frog

First, thanks for any advice anyone can provide.

So here is my deal. I am going to be finishing two degrees (American and Women's Studies) in December and I have two options available to me. The first is to get a job, preferably one that does not involve flipping burgers. The second is to attend graduate school (not my favorite option unless it is mostly funded by someone other than myself). On to the actual question(s).

Under the spoiler is my resume (with somewhat poor formatting due to copy + paste). What areas, if any, can use improvement? I plan on posting my resume online at various places, and then tailoring some of the material for specific places, such as Microsoft, Adobe, and Google, for work in their Human Resources departments or wherever they want me. Should I attempt to get a internship instead of a job?

Location. Location. Location. I would ideally like a job in either the Seattle or Portland area. Since I am not going to be available for work I figure that the jobs currently listed are not going to be a good fit for me. Would it be better for me to just flip burgers for a few months where I currently live (Pullman, WA) and wait for the job market to improve?

Any suggestions for a college grad with my background (as somewhat displayed in the resume)?

Objective
Seeking employment following my graduation in mid-Dec. 2009 as a valuable member of a team that utilizes my education, energy, achievements, and skills to promote diversity.
Education
B.A. Bachelor of Arts in Women’s and American Studies (Double Major) (Expected) Dec. 2009
4.0 G.P.A.
A.A. Associate in Arts from Green River Community College June 2008
3.5 G.P.A
Employment History
• Student Affairs: Equity and Diversity. Intern Pullman, WA Spring 2009
Focused on understanding conflict management and resolution within an organization and professional skills
• Extended Stay Deluxe. Guest Service Representative Renton, WA 2006-2008
Resolved hotel guest issues, balanced hotel accounts, and processed check-ins/outs and reservations
• Taco Time. Supervisor Milton, WA 2005-2006
Managed up to 20 crew members, reconciled monetary intake, oversaw product inventories, and back office support
• Overall Laundry Services. Warehouse Manager Bellingham, WA 2003-2004
Oversaw and assisted in daily loading of delivery trucks, increased efficiency of operations, cultivated an efficient organizational system, and managed warehouse inventory/organization
Publications/Presentations
Women’s Studies Zine. “Bears” and “Queer Survival Guide” Jun. 2009
Inqueery – Research Series. “Amber Flame’s Perverse Poetics” Apr. 2009
Conflict Resources Presentation . Increased knowledge address campus conflicts Apr. 2009
Memberships and Honors
• President of History Club Pullman, WA Mar. 2009-Current
• Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Allies Association Pullman, WA Aug. 2008-Current
• Dean’s List - Washington State University Pullman, WA Dec. 2008-Current
Interests and Service
• Conflict management, facilitation, and mediation. Intermediate understanding of how conflict can be a positive force within an organization to promote change and growth.
• Non-Discrimination. Equality regardless of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, etc.
• Volunteer Service. Women’s Transit. 2008-Current. Provides free transportation to women who would otherwise walk alone at night.
• Activism. April 2009. MC at rally protesting proposed budget cuts to higher education in Washington State. October 2008. Participated in organization and implementation of protests against hate crimes committed on Washington State University campus.

In short:
1) What areas, if any, can use improvement?
2) Should I attempt to get a internship instead of a job?
3) What are the chances of me getting a decent job in the Seattle or Portland in Jan. 2010?
4) Is it worth considering going to grad school for a Phd if I can get it mostly funded?
5) Any suggestions for a college grad with my background (as somewhat displayed in the resume)?

Serpent

What's the point of your objective?

It seems to me that what it says is obvious already by the fact you have a resume. I would recommend eliminating it completely, or changing it to something non-obvious.

Frog

Serpent,

I am not sure why I have an objective other than that seems to be the format for all the resume guidelines I have looked at. It did seem odd to me, but it makes sense for a resume posting and without a cover letter as a way to state something of a purpose (such as needing a job for when I graduate). So for specific applications to buisnesses I will be taking out the objective and moving my contact information from the header to where the objective currently is.

Thanks for the quick response and I completely agree with the questionable nature of the objective statement. It was something I struggled with and am still not satisfied with.

Dehumanized

I'd try to keep the objective, but rewrite it to tailor it to fit the job you're applying for. Right now it's generic. Try using it as a quick guide to get the reader to pick up a few reasons why you're the right pick for the job. It'll probably be really hard to come up with something good, but it'll be worth your time.

and hi5 on the GRCC associates' degree -- I went there a few years ago!

Docken

1) Your work experience should be in chronological order, starting at the top from most recent.
2) Stuff like magazine work/club participation/other indirect work type stuff should be split out into its own heading "Other activities and education" or something like that
3) Your interests and Service info is... well lets just say its not immediately applicable to employment. I would move the Volunter Service line into the "other activities and education" area and delete the other stuff. The 'Conflict management' line is probably going to do more harm than good and your activism - while laudible in a social context - probably doesn't add anything to your resume (I have never included my protest experience in my resume), unless of course you got down to brass tacks and did some heavy lifting in terms of coordinating stuff. In that case, focus on the project management type stuff you had to do (numbers of people, types of organisation you did, any expenditure plus money raising), rather than the actual theme of the protest.

VisionOfClarity

You little to no real work experience and you haven't done any real internships either. There's a good chance that in this market you're going to need to do at least one internship before people want to hire you. I'd start looking ASAP for an internship to do during the last few months remaining in school at least.

Also you haven't quantified anything. If you incresed efficiency how much did you increase it by? Right now that 'increased efficiency' doesn't really mean a lot.

Dean's list honors should be mentioned under the education section. Conflict management as a skill is great if that's what you want to do and you can show where you got the skills (such as a course or seminar) otherwise it doesn't mean much.

You should clarify what the Conflict Resources Presentation is. Was it a conference, who ran it, what was it that was presented, etc? This is something that really be the anchor of your resume.

You really don't have the background a strong Ph.D. program looks for in a candidate, especially one they want to fully fund. I definitely would not do a Master's in your field either right now. You're already 90% education and 10% experience, a higher degree will not help you until you have more real world experience to apply it to.

A Bear

Docken wrote: »

The 'Conflict management' line is probably going to do more harm than good and your activism - while laudible in a social context - probably doesn't add anything to your resume

I'm going to second this just out of its importance. I had a conversation with some of the career services people at a local university about resumes and getting hired in this economy and one thing they made sure of was to mention to "whitewash" and political or cultural leanings that might rub potential employers the wrong way. Unless you happen to know exactly the sort of political outlook everyone involved in hiring you has, it can be risky showing political activism on something like this, even if your activism seems very noble and laudable.

Docken

A Bear wrote: »

Docken wrote: »

The 'Conflict management' line is probably going to do more harm than good and your activism - while laudible in a social context - probably doesn't add anything to your resume

I'm going to second this just out of its importance. I had a conversation with some of the career services people at a local university about resumes and getting hired in this economy and one thing they made sure of was to mention to "whitewash" and political or cultural leanings that might rub potential employers the wrong way. Unless you happen to know exactly the sort of political outlook everyone involved in hiring you has, it can be risky showing political activism on something like this, even if your activism seems very noble and laudable.

You know, I thought about mentioning this, but to be honest, looking at Frog's resume its apparent that Frog is a very politically active person. As such, i'm not sure if whitewashing would be appropriate in this instance - don't get me wrong, normally I would agree 100% with what you said, but Frog is so obviously a political person (not that there is anything wrong with that at all) I almost feel that it would lead to trouble down the line culturally if Frog didn't get a job where they at least were aware of Frog's leanings.

Of course, in this economy you may want to do that and just suck it up, but its an unfortunate thing to have to contemplate.

EDIT: Yeesh, I really need to re-read my posts and check for spelling errors next time...

Frog

Thank you all for the helpful responses. I thought I would expand on some of my experiences for a better reference point.

It would be hard to "whitewash" my resume since most of my activities at college have been political in some nature. I would have liked to have more of a variety, but as of right now I have not had the time. I will be finishing my BA in about a year and a half all told (transfer student and summer courses) so there is not much more time for me to add "non-political" stuff. One thing that I am doing that is not political is leading the History Club, which I am hoping will be a great asset to my job prospects. I plan on implementing variety revisions to Club documents (Constitution, applications and forms used for organizing activities) and organizing several events. I will probably end up with one resume as whitewashed as possible with another geared towards non-profit and/or social work which might sympathize with activism.

I would love to do another internship, but the prospects in Pullman/Moscow are very slim given the economy, population, and taking 18 semester credits + other school obligations. I figure that if I do not get hired before the end of the year I will stick around in Pullman (due to cost of living) flipping burgers and seeing if I can intern as an aid to one of the local mayors.

Here is some more explanation on some of the items found on my resume:

My Conflict Resources Presentation was the final project for my Internship, which was meant to (and succeeded somewhat) in educating me with how conflict works on a campus environment. It ended up being an independent study course due to the campus having a huge financial crisis. The meetings were, for the most part, off limits for me and thus restricted my exposure to real situations involving conflict.

Now for my work experience... I have only been out of a job a year, and worked for 10 years previous to that. I would say that I have decent work experience and have shown a commitment to my various employers by staying with them for 2+ years each. However, most of the experience was geared towards organizing either people or items, and the responsibility was not goal oriented, so much as day-to-day management/maintenance with an emphasis on customer service. I am not sure how else to market those jobs outside of what I have done (though I will quantify what I can in the revision). The key part of going to college for me was to earn an education and develop skills that would allow me to move on into better positions.

My educational, which focused on Women's Studies and American Studies, was due to wanting to have a degree I could use no matter what. I am going to be leaving college with a very good grounding in peoples subject positioning (where they come from and why their diversity adds to the culture of other people. I know that it does not have a direct relationship to any specific job, but at least it was very interesting and I excelled in my studies (and will continue to do so for my last semester). I could put off graduating for another semester and add History, English, Cultural Ethnic Studies, or Anthropology as a third major, but I do not see the point in going more in debt for it unless it drastically increased the likelihood of decent employment.

I will be revising the resume with all of your advice in mind, and again, I really do appreciate the help. You have been far more helpful than the writing center on campus.

I had one more question. How do you format a resume to work with copy and pasting into an online resume submission form? I took out the tables and stuff but the formatting still came out weird when I posted it on here.

Jasconius

I wouldn't concede to just "flipping burgers", you've got very little hard office experience. Try to get in as a secretary or some sort of pencil pusher at any variety of offices... lawyers, doctors, etc so that when you sit down with someone from Microsoft, you can at least attempt to back up the statement that you'd be ready for an office environment through which billions of dollars of revenue flows... instead of walking in with that deer in the headlights look.