In our mini blog series – the Hired Youth Job Guide – our team wants to help you prepare for future opportunities. Our first post is focuses on creating your resume!

Even if you don't have formal job experience, you have skills that can be useful in a traditional job setting. Youth Program Employment Counselors from Hired can help you reframe your experiences, and help translate those experiences in a resume.

Let’s walk through some IDEAS.

1. Family responsibilities

Everyone has experience to share! It’s about how you share it. You can structure your responsibilities of household care-taking or babysitting to look like a real job listing.

Here are two examples:

Family caregiver

Responsible for 3 children between ages 4-10 every day.
Assisted children with daily routines, including meal preparation, homework support, and bedtime routines.
Demonstrated problem-solving and conflict-resolution skills between children in the household.

Tutor

Worked with children ages 10-13 on assignments (math, English, science, and history).
Taught time management and study techniques to improve student success.
·Reported progress to parents.

2. Volunteer Work

You could explore large-scale volunteering efforts such as Second Harvest Heartland, or at-home projects such as making tie blankets to donate. There are many ideas for supporting a cause that you care about while gaining valuable experience!

Here are some VOLUNTEERING ideas that you can do

Hospital volunteer – Many hospitals have volunteer programs for youth 16+. You can wheel patients to their rooms, deliver flowers, or sit at the information desk to give directions.
Church meals – Many churches look for Sunday morning breakfast volunteers to help with set-up, serving, and clean-up efforts.
Mutual aid cooking – If you look on social media, there are groups of volunteers who make meals for people who are unhoused in the metro area. They are always looking for volunteers to help cook, pack, and drive meals to sites. Open Arms Minnesota also has a volunteer program for community meal prep.
Trash and litter pickup – Get outside in the sunshine and pick up some litter! With Earth Day coming up, there will be gatherings to get outside and interact with your neighbors.
Community fairs and festivals – There will be many spring and summer fairs who will be looking for volunteers. Many festivals will have many volunteer signups with flexible, short-term shifts.

3. Classwork/ Extracurricular experience

As a young person, it is okay to mention your academic or extra-curricular experiences if they are applicable to what you are applying for. If you had a leadership position in the club or organization, make sure to mention that too!

Here are some ideas for what that can look like:

History Day Project Researcher

In a group of 3, created a research project on the impact of climate change on BIPOC communities in the Twin Cities.
Conducted over 30 interviews with community members.
Summarized findings and gave recommendations in a 15-minute presentation and 25-page report.

President of the Robotics Club

Attended regular meetings.
Practiced the basics of electronics, coding, and manufacturing assembly to make robotics.
Practiced skills of collaboration, critical-thinking, and problem-solving.

There are many ways that you can re-frame your past experience to help you towards your goals.

Once you develop a strong base resume, ask a trusted adult, teacher, or coach to review it. When it comes time to apply for jobs, make additional edits depending on the type of job you are applying for.