[nabs-l] Dealing With Gaps In Resumes and Having Little to No Work Experience

Tue Sep 24 17:35:40 UTC 2013

Hi Mary,
Thanks for all of the good ideas. I will try looking on campus also.
Thank you,
Misty

-----Original Message----- 
From: Mary Fernandez
Sent: Tuesday, September 24, 2013 1:21 PM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Dealing With Gaps In Resumes and Having Little to No 
Work Experience

Hello Misty and all,
Misty, you are going to get a lot of different opinions about this, as
everyone has a different preference. Resumes are lists of your
achievements as well as highlighting your strengths. In that vein, you
can simply list your job positions, for whatever the time period you'd
like to encompass. Most jobs require a cover letter, or give you the
option of including one. . The point of a cover letter, is to
emphasize why you are the best candidate for a specific job. It gives
the potential employer a sample of your writing skills, but also an
insight that extends beyond bulletted points. All that is to say, that
accounting for your resume gaps would probably be best done in your
cover letters. Resumes should include experiences which have been
supervised by others, or which are part of a larger goal, hence, while
being a single parent has undoubtedly strengthened you and your
ability to accomplish objectives, it won't be appropriate for most job
resumes. If your college has a career center, or any type of career
advisors, you should consult them in regards to resumes and cover
letters.
As far as actual jobs... It is an unfortunate fact that jobs which do
not require the highest types of qualifications, tend to be very
visual in nature. But, there are certainly clarical jobs, and customer
service jobs you could get into. Also, have you thought of tutoring?
Does your campus participate in programs like Jump Start?  Have you
tried to look for on-campus jobs? Have you tried contacting your
department faculty on potential research assistance opportunities?
It's a matter of being imaginative, and selling yourself to the point
where employers realize what an asset you'll be and are willing to
work with you to accomplish your job duties. When you are in the
interview process, it might be a good idea to  bring up potential
concerns the employer might have as to how you would accomplish a
specific duty, and a potential solution. I wish you the very best of
luck. Feel free to contact me off list if you think I can be of any
further help.
Mary F

On 9/24/13, Elizabeth Mohnke <lizmohnke at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Hello Misty,
>
> I applaud you for being a successful single parent. I think this job
> requires a lot of hard work and patience. I would definitely encourage you
> to list the stills you have learned as a single parent on your resume.
>
> I think there are two different ways you could go about doing this. First,
> you could list your role as a single parent on your resume in the form of
> being a childcare provider. You could then highlight some of your
> achievements in this area.
>
> Alternatively, you could choose to use a functional resume instead of a
> chronological resume. When using this format, you list three or four key
> skill sets that are relevant for the job you are seeking, and then list
> specific examples of how you have demonstrated these skills through your
> work and volunteer experience. I have heard this type of resume works best
> for those who do not have much experience.
>
> Since you have experience as a single parent, and you are looking to go 
> into
> elementary teaching, perhaps you may wish to find a job as a childcare
> provider. I would think daycare centers as well as private childcare
> services would serve as potential employment opportunities. You could try
> looking in either your school newspaper or local newspaper for these kinds
> of employment opportunities. In addition, I think you could advertise that
> you are seeking this kind of position as well.
>
> Also, you may wish to investigate what kinds of financial services your
> school offers to single parents. I know my school offers financial
> assistance to single parents in the form of helping out with tuition and
> childcare. Therefore, you may wish to see if your school offers a similar
> kind of program.
>
> I hope some of these ideas help you when creating your resume and seeking
> employment opportunities.
>
> Best of luck,
> Elizabeth
>
>
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------
> From: "Misty Dawn Bradley" <mistydbradley at gmail.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, September 24, 2013 11:04 AM
> To: "Jobs for the Blind" <jobs at nfbnet.org>; "NABS List" 
> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
> Subject: [nabs-l] Dealing With Gaps In Resumes and Having Little to No
> WorkExperience
>
>> Hi all,
>> I am wondering how people deal with having gaps in their resumes? I have
>> heard that many employers judge by whether the applicant has had a steady
>> work history. Due to the fact that I had to stay home with my daughter as
>> a single mother, I have a gap of about 4 or 5 years in my resume, 
>> although
>>
>> I have some volunteer work that I did toward the end of it with 
>> AmeriCorps
>>
>> which I did put on my resume. I am also now in school and have been since
>> 2012 working toward my associates in elementary education in order to
>> transfer to a university to complete my bachelor degree in education. I 
>> am
>>
>> trying to apply for jobs to make ends meet while in school, and I am
>> trying to figure out how to deal with and account for the gaps in my
>> resume since graduating from high school in 2006.
>> I am also running into the problem that most of the jobs advertised for
>> and geared toward college students are highly visual jobs that require 
>> you
>>
>> to either drive or do a lot of visual things, such as dealing with
>> inventory, organizing it by product number and size/color, and inputting
>> data on shipments, etc. Otherwise, all other jobs require a lot of
>> experience that I don’t have. How did you list members get around all of
>> this, and what types of work did you do to make a living and support
>> yourself while attending college? How did you obtain jobs if you had
>> little or no experience in low-level jobs such as customer service, 
>> office
>>
>> administration, retail, and other jobs of this nature? My classes are all
>> online, so potentially, I could do part-time or full-time work. I have
>> heard of people doing volunteer work to get experience, which I have done
>> in the fields of education/tutoring with AmeriCorps, but right now I need
>> a job to pay rent, bills, food, and other monthly expenses, so, although
>> volunteer work is good, I need something that I can live on as well as
>> support my daughter.
>> Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
>> Thank you in advance,
>> Misty
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>
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-- 
Mary Fernandez
"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will
forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them
feel."
—
Maya Angelou

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