At Central Kitsap High School, resumes are listed as a graduation requirement to ensure that students will be able to get a suitable career in the job that they are hoping for, or even in the ones not hoped for, depending on the requirements for that job.

They are also listed for the intent of guiding learning during high school as well as the career beyond that. For Washington State graduates in particular, their requirements consist of career interest research, a high school plan aligned with that research, a resume, a cover letter, and lastly, a post-high school plan.

As explained by Tyler Hunt, the Career Center adviser of Central Kitsap High School, “The overall intent of such requirements is mainly to guide learning during high school as well as the career afterwards.”

One of the most important details to consider in a resume is the structure, the contents, and the specificity of the details put into it. Each resume should also be specially tailored to whichever job one is applying for.

As contributed by an anonymous source, “The best things to include on your resume are leadership skills and practical experience with whatever it is you’re applying for. Talk about how you helped someone, not what you helped them with.”

Especially for large companies who have over hundreds of applicants, employers sometimes use software to sift through all of the resumes they receive, and the software searches for specific key words out of all of the resumes received.

Similarly to Central Kitsap High School, Chicago’s high schools are now being required to have a plan for a career after high school in order to obtain a diploma.

Even though there is a good chance that this will ensure the future success of graduating students, there are some who feel it unfair to suddenly add additional requirements in order for students to be able to get their diplomas.

For example, Chicago Republican Party Chairman Chris Cleveland, as referenced in an article by CNN, questions “How can they deny a high school kid a diploma he or she has earned? It’s all well and good that they’re asking kids to think about their futures, but denying a kid a diploma because they didn’t get into college or get a job is absurd.”

Although not all people agree that having such high school requirements is a good idea, it can hardly be denied that many students have been more successful because of the measures put into place to ensure that graduates were prepared for their future careers.

In fact, because having a good resume is absolutely essential to future careers, it makes sense to incorporate it into the graduation requirements. That’s why focusing on making it good as well as being able to make it appeal to possible employers is incredibly important.

“Don’t sluff on creating your resume,” Hunt recommends. “You have to be willing to grow with your resume, be willing to develop it even when it may be inconvenient, and you also have to know exactly what and what’s not relevant to the industry that you are applying for.”

For everything that a person needs on their resume, there are a dozen more they do not need. There are many resources out there for people to reference. According to a CNBC article, one thing to avoid is listing your hobbies. Dungeons and Dragons is a fun game, it’s not experience. Do not list it as such. It is better to put in the leadership or organizational skills you have learned from the event than the event itself.  

“You should not include irrelevant information or outdated information that may falsely inform the possible employer,” another anonymous source advises.

Another Do Not Do is the use of buzzwords. Jargon is still jargon, no matter how pretty it looks. Be concise as possible when it comes to your resume. It’s an overview of a person as a whole, not an entire essay.

Buzzwords can also distract from how a person is suited for the position. It can be extremely tempting to go on a spiel about leadership skills, even though the job is more about crunching numbers. Do not get trapped in that spiel. Concise and accurate.

A person needs to be hyper aware of the image they present to employers. Using an email created in middle school does not help that image. No one wants to hire [email protected]. Create a newer, more professional email for job applications if one does not already exist.

With all the effort placed into resumes, one often asks themself if it is worth it. In all honesty, the importance of a resume depends entirely on what kind of job you are applying for.  Some jobs will provide their own resume templates for you to fill out. The school requirements may or may not fall into line with the templates.

“The school mandates didn’t help at all. It’s not their fault, I just didn’t use it” stated Ryan Potter, who graduated from CK in 2017.

No matter what happens, an outline of a resume is a good thing to have.

Resumes will never die out, according to Forbes, the popular business magazine. They are a universal constant in the employment sector. A job may accept something different, yet they will still prefer a resume above all else. Again, to reiterate the point, people want resumes to be concise. They do not want to waste time going through a slideshow or whatever some such clever idea applicants come up with. The small inconveniences of resumes do not outweigh their usefulness in the work environment.

For the students of CK, the types of jobs they can apply for are limited by age and skills. Most will have to settle for entry level jobs, even if they have a solid resume.

McDonalds, often the first stepping stone for many careers, has a simple layout for finding available positions in locations in the area. Simply type in a zip code and it will show every opening within a specified radius.

Another website, Indeed.com lists all the open grocery bagging jobs. Although the work may seem boring, it is an excellent place to start. A job is a job, and there is nothing more valuable than practical experience or the references that can be gained.

Resumes are more important than simply being a graduation requirement. They are a part of every workers life, from the first job to the last.