Do they care that I made sandwiches for a year?

December 28, 2010 8:56 PM

Questions about what to put on the resume that I will be uploading as part of my grad school application to an MLIS program.

I'm a 22-year-old graduating with a BA at the end of this quarter. I'm applying to a well-respected Master of Library and Information Sciences program, hoping to attend starting Autumn 2011. I have a question about what I should include on the resume that the program requires. It asks for previous employment experience. Should I list EVERYTHING, including my first two jobs, which were at a Quiznos and a Payless (these were during high school)? Or should I stick to the more recent and relevant jobs, which were at my university and the hospital that I've worked at for the past couple years? Also, should I follow the same format I would if I were applying for a job (except that I am cherry-picking details and skills relevant to my program), or is there a significant difference in the format when one writes a resume for an academic program? The admissions web page does not address these questions. Thanks for any help you can provide me.

posted by wansac to Education (4 answers total)

Unless you had some supervisory or other more-responsible-then-normal experience at the high school jobs, I'd personally omit them. That said, it wouldn't likely count against you to include them, especially if you don't have a ton of work experience. To be honest, they may just skim it for library-related stuff and set it aside. Tons of people enter MLS/MLIS programs after years of library experience just to move to a better job.
posted by donnagirl at 9:31 PM on December 28, 2010

I'd leave off the high school food service/retail jobs and include the other stuff--though, I do think service jobs are great preparation for public services in libraries. But, yeah, it probably wouldn't hurt to include them.

Does your school have a counseling center? They can probably give you tips on grad school applications.

Here's another tip: in your statement of purpose, don't say that you want to become a librarian because you love books.
posted by bluedaisy at 10:05 PM on December 28, 2010

A resume is a resume--they just want the relevant stuff. Feel free to expand on those university/hospital jobs and list duties and projects that reflect your diligence and skill, but for the most part, this piece of the application is really a place to find out what your career has been like (i.e., in your case, not much). Also, in your education section, feel free to expand on your coursework, listing off significant/unusual projects you completed that might demonstrate some unusual skill or interest. You want this to amount to one page--there's no way you've done enough to warrant more--but you may as well use it to show some interesting things, not your stint at Quizno's.
posted by Monsieur Caution at 10:07 PM on December 28, 2010

A resume is an advertisement, the product is you. If you can use it to help sell the product, you put it down. If you can't, leave it off. If you can include some kind of cover letter along with the resume you can use those jobs to your advantage, pointing out how they show that from early on you've been driven to succeed, something along those lines.
posted by scalefree at 11:01 PM on December 28, 2010