3.04 Creating an OnLine Resume

So why do need a resume? After all, you haven't graduated from high school and you don't want to think about a job! READ ON! Hopefully you will change your mind and want to have a resume in high school.

• This is the perfect time to document all those great activities in high school and get ready to enter college.
  
• Having a resume at career fairs and college visits will show college recruiters you are serious about attending their college!
  
• You may even want apply for a part-time job to make some extra money this year.
  
• And you may want to give back to the community by volunteering at the local Boys and Girls Club.
  

Your resume will help you get those college interviews and show you are really organized. The recruiter will know you are truly interested in attending that college. Employers will see that you are serious about working for them. The Boys and Girls Club manager will know that you are ready to volunteer and have the skills to mentor younger students.

Other benefits of having a high school resume are to showcase your talents and also highlight "gaps" where you need to place more effort.

• Think about your grades, your experience, and your school activities.
  
• Are you in any clubs? Do you play sports, cheerlead, or play in the band?
  
• Do you give back to your community?
  

These are all things that college recruiters and employers like to see. If you have gaps in your information, maybe you should volunteer at the nursing home for a few weekends. This would look good on a resume if you want to major in nursing. What about joining the journalism club if you want to be an English teacher? Maybe you could be an intern with your school's technology department if you want to major in computers. So look over your skills and accomplishments. Did you find gaps in your resume? If you are still in high school, there is time to bridge those gaps: get involved with your school, your community, or your church.

SPECIAL NOTE: You must always have VERIFIABLE FACTS ABOUT YOU on your resume AND you want your resume to LOOK GOOD. (No making up information on a resume—it must be REAL.)

Here are some tips from ecampustours as to what should be on your high school resume. Use these tips in writing your own online resume in the next lesson.

Heading

Your name, address, telephone number, and e-mail address should all go at the top of your resume. Be sure to use a permanent address and telephone number. Also, remember to use an e-mail address that sounds professional. FirstnameLastname@ is the standard format for an e-mail address when using it on a resume. Do not use an e-mail address such as hotbody@soandso.com. It just doesn't sound professional.

Objective
An objective lets college recruiters or potential employers know your main goal. If your target is a college recruiter, tailor your objective to that specific school. For example, your objective may be, "To earn a degree in Psychology at Boston College." If you want to get a part-time job, you will need to modify your objective to that particular job, such as "To obtain a part-time sales position with Hollister."

Education/Academics
In the education section, list the schools you have attended. Be sure to include your GPA if it is a 3.0 or higher. You can also mention any academic honors, awards, and/or recognitions that you have received. These can include honor-roll recognitions, essay-writing awards, science competitions, etc.

Experience
The experience section should briefly give an overview of work experience that has taught you valuable skills. In this section, include: title of position, name of organization, location of work (town and state), dates of employment, and description of work responsibilities. Be sure to use action words to describe your job duties, such as sold, created, processed, etc. Since many high school students do not have a lot of work experience, you can also describe class projects in which you have learned important skills or even leave this section out all together and concentrate on the education/academics and additional information/extracurricular sections.

Additional Information/Extracurricular Activities
The section for additional information or extracurricular section should be used to place key elements of your background that don't fit in any other section. You may want to include: special skills, leadership roles, volunteer experiences, participation in sports, band, yearbook, etc. This section is where you can demonstrate your uniqueness.

References
Be sure to ask people if they would serve as your reference before you give their names out. You do not need to include your reference information on your resume. A statement at the bottom of your resume that says, "References available upon request," is sufficient.

These web sites that will also help you in developing a resume. Take notes as you read and study the web sites. Refer to your notes as you develop your online resume in the next lesson in our course.

• Your Guide to Resume Writing: Action Words. http://www.jobweb.com/Resume/help.aspx?id=280

This site helps you decide which words best describe your experience and skills. You should use action words to describe your experience and accomplishments. (I will check your online resume for these words.)

• Resume Checklist. http://www.jobweb.com/resumesample.aspx?id=2387.

  You will find a checklist to help you get everything in place on your resume.. Print this checklist so you can measure your own resume against it.

In summary, having a resume in high school is just good sense! You never know when a recruiter at a college fair or a potential employer might request one.

Checklist: KompoZer Tutorials – Adding Pictures and Links (3.01)

It' very important that you review your file structure and make sure you have your files in the right place BEFORE you go any further in the class. Here are a few tips to make sure things are done correctly. Please print these steps to keep in your notebook. Then check off the steps after you have things in place.

1. Print the Handout, Understanding Directory Structure from Lesson 3.0, Step 7. Highlight in one color the information on "relative path". Highlight the information on "absolute Paths" in a contrasting color.
   
2. Review the TOPIC "Links" in the KompoZer tutorials.
   

• URL is relative to page location: If checked, KompoZer converts the URL to be relative to the page's location. This is especially useful if you plan to publish your pages to a web server so that others can view them. Using relative URLs allows you to keep all your linked files in the same place relative to each other, regardless of their location on your hard disk or a web server.
  
• Deselecting this option causes KompoZer to convert the URL to a full (absolute) URL. You typically use absolute URLs when linking to pages on other web servers (not stored locally on your hard disk).
  
• If you have unsaved changes, you must first save the page in order to enable this checkbox.
  

1. Check the Directory Structure on the computer you are using. Make sure you have the following folders as shown below.
   

   
   

2. Open the samples folder – you should have only these files: (Check the names—they must be exact! You can rename them if needed. THEN delete any other files OR move them to another place on your computer.)
   

   1900_39.txt
   

   1940_69.txt
   

   1970_99.txt
   

3. Open the snapshots folder, then the html folder—you should have only these files: (Check the names—they must be exact! You can rename them if needed. THEN delete any other files OR move them to another place on your computer.)
   

   1900_39.html
   

   1940_69.html
   

   1970_99.html
   

   Index.html
   

Now that you have 'cleaned your files', you may continue with the fun stuff! Remember, "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing well." So stay positive and keep working every day! YOUR GRADES REFLECT YOUR EFFORT!

Fact or Fiction: Looking at Web Pages (3.02)

How do you know if the Web Page you are viewing is Fact or Fiction? With so much information available on the Web, sometimes it's hard to tell if the information has been "made up" or if it is something reliable. Here are some ways that you can "think for yourself" when answering this question.

Lesson 3.02 of Web Design 1 lists four methods to verify authenticity of a Web Site: Following is a brief summary of those methods. Be sure to read the lesson completely. Don’t rely just on this summary.

1. “Understand the purpose(s) of a Web site, and that those purpose(s) may not be entirely obvious.” In other words, try to determine if the Web Page is trying to sell you something, present information, or entertain you. And the Web Page may be doing several of these things at one.

Just because you find it on the web, the Web Page may not be providing objective information. Ask yourself several questions before actually using the data on your research.

· What do other searches reveal about this issue?

· What does the URL tell you about the information? (education, Government, personal web page, etc.)

· Do other sources give similar information?

2. “Establish the credibility of the author.” Research the author. Look for background information on that author. What makes him/her qualified to provide information. Do a Google search of the author. See how other people rate the author.

Although the lesson didn’t mention this tip, stay away from Author unknown sources! If the author is not proud enough to claim his/her work, it’s just not good enough for you to use! There are so many sources on the Web; make sure you use credible ones.

3. Use meta-information sources. Validate the information within the context of other web pages. Do a Google search of the topic. Don’t choose the first one that pops up. Refine your search and get the most credible ones. Use the link command from the lesson. (go to AltaVista at http://www.altavista.com/, enter data to get information about the author(s) you are considering using in your research.

4. Explore a variety of resources. Look beyond the Internet. Talk to you teachers, interview someone in your family or community. Read a book, look at a newspaper. There are SO MANY resources available to you. Use them to YOUR BENEFIT.

OTHER WAYS TO ESTABLISH WEB PAGE CREDIBILITY

1. Five Criteria for Evaluating Web Pages from Cornell University. http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/webcrit.html. Print this page and carefully read the criteria listed. See how it expands on the information from Lesson 3.02. A summary of the information follows:

Putting it all Together

· Accuracy. If your page lists the author and institution that published the page and provides a way of contacting him/her and . . .

· Authority. If your page lists the author credentials and its domain is preferred (.edu, .gov, .org, or .net), and, . .

· Objectivity. If your page provides accurate information with limited advertising and it is objective in presenting the information, and . . .

· Currency. If your page is current and updated regularly (as stated on the page) and the links (if any) are also up-to-date, and . . .

· Coverage. If you can view the information properly--not limited to fees, browser technology, or software requirement, then . . .

You may have a Web page that could be of value to your research!

2. Helpful Hints to help you evaluate the credibility of WWW resources by Virginia Montecino. http://mason.gmu.edu/~montecin/web-eval-sites.htm. Read this article—look for similarities with the other information we have read. What different information is provided? I found the main idea here is to “develop a critical eye” when exploring material on the internet. Don’t take everything as “Fact”. Is there any “Fiction” in the page? See if you can spot the ways this author provides to “deconstruct” a web site.

Also there are endings after web sites that should be mentioned. Learn these extensions.

· .edu - education sites

· .gov - government sites

· .org - organization sites

· .com - commercial sites

· .net - network infrastructures

· There are other extensions, such as the abbreviation of a country, ie. .jp for Japan

3. Evaluating Information Found on the Internet from Elizabeth Kirk of Johns Hopkins University. http://www.library.jhu.edu/researchhelp/general/evaluating/. The author list 8 criteria for evaluating information. Many of the points are in the other articles about this subject. Ms. Kirk clearly describes each of the criteria and how you as a student should evaluate it.

SO WHY SHOULD YOU LOOK AT ALL THIS INFORMATION?

It would be worth your time to carefully read this material and also print it for future reference. You can then be in a better position to determine whether something is “Fact or Fiction.” Your future research topics will be measured against the criteria presented above.