So I feel like a total failure when typing up my resume?
 

My friend and I were typing up our resumes to give to the women writing our recs for recruitment. I didn't think much of it until we printed off 1 copy each so my parents could proof read them and catch any possible mistakes. I look at hers and she's like the next Miss America. I look at mine and I'm like asdfghjkl *emotional breakdown*
I guess I shouldn't be surprised cause she comes from a strong Greek background from the south and she's going to TCU so she's basically been prepared her whole life I guess.

Me? oh no, I felt like a jerk. I feel slightly embarrassed to give the resumes to the rec writers lol I know these ladies personally from school LOL (fail) and church and my friends mom introduced me to a few alumna for recs. Is it best to explain my situation to them when I meet 1 on 1 to give them photos, resume & transcript? I assume playing ignorant won't benefit me

in my next life I'm going to be a little more well rounded geesh

EDIT: I'm not sure if this is good or not but I'm thinking terrible. The school I'm going to does deferred recruitment. Should I simply wait almost until the end of 1st semester before having recs sent? That way I could be more involved for a semester
-_-

Texas-

First, remember that you are NOT a failure and you should not project yourself as such.

It is easy to make the comparison between your achievements and those of others. It is possible that your friend had the benefit of a paid college prep person - one that assists college applicants to present themselves in the best possible light.

Perhaps your classmates were able to volunteer and/or be involved to what appears to be a greater extent because their families paid for the many "services" that you performed at home. For example, in my current neighborhood, many neighbors with children pay to have their homes cleaned, their yards taken care of and other duties that other families routinely take care of themselves.

You could meet with your high school counselor (or someone in a position like that) to assist you in discussing and modifying your resume.

For example, there are likely activities that you have been involved in that you did not even consider adding to the resume.

I look back to my middle school and high school days and even college days and realize that some of the things I had been doing were things that I could have named and claimed as activities worthy of a resume - had I acknowledged them as such.

For example, I volunteered at an animal shelter, assisted the "official" coaches in my various sports teams to mentor little children interested in those sports and volunteered after school with a drama group for elementary school children. I made sandwiches for fund raisers for the band, volunteered at the concession booth for high school football games, took the suburban neighborhood kids berry picking in the fields not far from our house and showed them things I had learned on my grandfather's farm. Some of these things sound trivial but in a way provided meaningful experiences not only for me but for the others involved.

Think beyond the confines of your school - think of your involvement with the community - beyond the usual clearly defined memberships. Consider your involvement in places of worship, neighborhood projects e.g. playground improvement, clean-up days, etc. Ask others - family members, friends and teachers/school counselors help you to recall these involvements.

As you suggested, get involved NOW- while you still have time in high school and over the summer!

And most of all, keep in mind that you are NOT a failure.

^^^ This is very good advice!

I would advise you to figure out what your unique talents and treasures are and play those up. Then present yourself confidently on those terms. If your mom's friend is willing to introduce you to other potential rec writers, she must see things in you that you may not! If you've known some of the other women for a long time, then they know your personality and they should be able to tailor a positive rec. that describes who you are, not a cookie-cutter description that doesn't fit you.

I remember that one of my rec letters for one of the sororities I ended up preffing said something like, "Sciencewoman is able to make a positive influence through her reserved strength." The alumna gave me a copy, so I knew how she had "packaged" me in her rec. It was worded better than that, but it sent the message that I may seem a bit quiet or shy during recruitment, but that I was still a leader. She didn't try to present me as Miss America, or the head cheerleader with loads of charisma. She had known me all my life, and she presented me as I was, in the best possible light.

I do think that getting involved and meeting current sorority members during the fall is a great idea for everyone facing deferred recruitment, no matter how much or how little you were involved in high school extracurriculars.

I'm a little out of my lane here, not having gone to a TX school, but for deferred recruitment, I believe resumes (and recs? don't quote me on that one) are less important, as the members will have a whole semester to get to know YOU, as opposed to only getting a resume/red before the school year/rush starts.

That being said, when you get to school, get involved. That way you will have things on your resume for the next time you write one (summer internships/jobs), and it will be a good way to get out there and meet new people (especially those sorority members!).

I was going to suggest this too. Your resume is not limited to just what you do while school is in session. Include community and faith based activities. Teach Sunday School? Include that. Volunteer at the local animal shelter every Saturday? Good stuff. Involved with community choir/theatre/sports? Just as relevant. Organize soccer clinics for area youth? Perfect.

Also, as a rec writer, I am just as impressed (sometimes more impressed) with a PNM who has had significant leadership and involvement in just a handful of activities over the PNM who joined every club in high school but never served in a leadership type position. While it may be too late to obtain leadership/organizing experience with your high school activities, it is not too late to do something community based or thru your place of worship. Bulk those areas up. What will you be doing this summer? Start laying the groundwork for things that can help your resume. Get to campus this fall and choose a few activities that you can get involved with. Volunteer for some leadership opportunities within those groups. Don't get over-involved, as you need to have enough time to make excellent grades.

Finally, bear in mind that a resume IS important, and definitely can help your rec writers introduce you to the chapter. However, work, work, work on your conversations skills. You mentioned that your school does deferred recruitment. Be friendly, outgoing, and sociable during the fall. Meet lots of sorority women and present yourself well at every opportunity. This means watch yourself and your behavior in social settings. Don't be "that girl." To prepare for recruitment, practice talking to people that you don't know well. Specifically, practice moving from generic conversations (where are you from?) to a more specific, interesting, and engaging conversation ("oh, really? Nashville? I love the music vibe there and had a blast going to the Blue Bird Cafe last summer. Music has always been one of my passions....")

For Baylor and SMU recs remain very important. Not to say that the first semester impression isn't important (it is!), but there will be scores upon scores of PNMs sending in very strong recs. Having a rec to each and every chapter is also a must.

Regarding resumes at any level, including yours as a high school student, seek help from a professional. Your guidance counselor is a good start. If any of your rec writers are professional women who may have experience with resumes or sales, I would seek their input as well.

Several years ago I decided I wanted a complete career change and my search was going NOWHERE. I finally had a placement/temp agency recruiter completely rewrite my resume. Nothing she said was a lie but my experiences were highlighted in a way I'd have never done it. I had a job within the week. Seek and use the help you are offered!

Secondly, it's not too late to pad your resume. If your "issue" is you are not a well rounded enough individual, start seeking out opportunities in new areas. Yes, it would be nice if you'd had years in cheerleading, chess team and theatre, but spending a month or two in a new activity or hobby is at least something. If nothing else you'll have interesting topics to discuss come rush next fall!

Third, regarding your sense of inadequacy. Rush is a huge bummer for just this reason. It can reduce girls with all kinds of potential and grace to rubble. You have to find a way to appreciate your own worth or you're going to come off in a light that is only going to hurt you. During rush, every girl will seem ever so much MORE than you, and it simply isn't true. And you can take the time you have now to find the right way to spin the virtues you have. Spent the last 4 years doing 1 thing? You can tell them you are really looking forward to expanding your horizons and experiencing new things. Or you were really driven to succeed in one area. It meant your social life suffered a little, but you're really proud of your accomplish in this area. Spend some time thinking about why you made the choices you did and find ways to make them both interesting and appealing. You'll figure it out!

Make sure you are listing everything you do in your activities.

During junior year of high school, my best friend and I applied to National Honor Society. She showed me her resume and it listed one thing: swim team. She was all bummed out because she only had "one thing" to put on the resume.

I was on swim team with her, so I knew there was a lot more to it than that.

I took it away from her and redid it so that it listed everything that she did for swim team: lane leader for summer team, lane leader for winter team, all of the state meets that she was in and which ones she placed in, all of the national meets she was in and which one she placed in, her ranking as third best junior woman in the nation in the women's 100 butterfly (I could not believe she left that off), and the volunteer work she did with swim team in a program that teaches underprivileged kids to swim.

It wasn't just "one thing." That "one thing" was a huge commitment.

Later, when I was writing sorority resumes, I didn't just list National Honor Society. I listed all of the stuff our NHS did, as separate entries. We volunteered as babysitters for a teen mom support group. We raised money for the National Heart Association. We raised money for the United Way. We raised money for Thanksgiving food baskets for needy families. We raised money to put ceiling fans in the classrooms over the cafeteria at our school.

Where is the LIKE Button??? Perfectly said!!

This is great advice. I used to be involved in hiring interns (sophomores and juniors in college). One guy that I hired worked at Random Chain Restaurant for two years in HS, then got a transfer to the Champaign location when he started college, and had been there for three more years, with increasing responsibility along the way. Something like that shows long-term commitment, good time management skills, and obvious value to his management.

This! I remember helping my brother make his resume when he was applying to schools. He left off some major things that are big parts of his life just because they weren't official school activities. For example, he gives guitar lessons but didn't think to include it. It's definitely something that he puts time and work into, so of course it should have been on there!

Oh ok. This is helping me a bit because there are a couple of organizations that I once belonged to for years, but I dropped out yet I remained very dedicated to helping out and volunteering because I still loved to be apart of it. Its basically all coming to me, the little things. There are a few other ventures my friends and I hope to do together volunteer wise. They're simple, one time things but it involves a charity I'm really passionate about.

Thank you! Y'all are making it come together a bit more. There are some things I'm overlooking because I'm looking at the big picture.

Rule #1 of participation AND resumé writing...learn to use "apart" and "a part". :p

My resume is a little different for job applications vs. my recruitment application and rec writing resume. That one had all of my activities, the years, and a brief description of each activity underneath it. It helped me figure out how to explain bigger commitments in a small space.

Example:
Activity--Position--Years
Description
(of course, I formatted it using tabs and all)

I also included awards (EVERYTHING), my GPA and SAT scores (I broke it down--in addition to listing the totals--because I got an 800 on the writing section!) and some other academic accomplishments (Principal's Honor Roll, 8 semesters, for example).

In retrospect, I could have included interests as well, but I think that a) my resume made my main interests super-clear (based on the activities) and b) 2 pages was enough (the descriptions made it longer).

And the easy way to remember that is the "a part" you're looking for doesn't require the "a." Make a habit of saying you want to be part of something instead of a part of something and you won't make the mistake again.

As is always true, MelindaWarren is right. And your resume will change over time. As a 46 year old woman, if I put that I am a sorority member, worked at a summer camp in college and walked in The 3 Day on my resume it would be 82 pages long. You can start now by having a resume that has all that little stuff on it - it's important now - and then whittle that stuff back as it becomes less important in the big picture. And do yourself a favor. Date your resumes and don't overwrite them over and over again. Some day you'll want the information you had on a resume from a hundred years ago and won't remember. Same thing goes with boss'es phone numbers and addresses for the places you worked.

All great advice above.

Don't forget what you do for your family and friends, too. Anyone can join clubs. In the end, they can easily turn into a meaningless laundry list.

My god daughter, who had a great recruitment in an SEC school had a typical high achiever resume: clubs, sports, grades, but the most impressive item on her resume was the fact that she read the newspaper and the mail every day, day in and day out, since she was 10 or 11 to her father, who is legally blind. That spoke volumes about her character, her loyalty and her ability to be a fantastic sister.

Think about who you are and how you interact with people. Your life is more rich and unique than you realize.

Oh wow, that's amazing on her part. That's really sweet on her part.

Thanks for the tip haha. I guess I've never paid attention to apart versus a part.

This is a great thread!!!

In actively preparing for SEC Recruitment for FALL 2013, we have been searching GC and other sites for examples of sorority recruitment resume FORMATS with little success.

We have seen only one, and wonder if there is flexibility in formatting such things such as ORDER (chronological, topical, etc...) and how to capture the details of each EA such as events, elected offices held, fundraising results, and the like.

Steering directions to good examples would be very much appreciated!!!

Contact your local alumnae Panhellenic. They will have examples. Or do a google search. I found a few easily this way. Or just take your HS resume that you probably made for your college admissions and tweak it.

ETA: I used to belong to HAPA, and here is an example of the social resume they provide http://www.houston-panhellenic.org/r...e_03032010.pdf

Resume Formats
 

Thank you. I did find several examples by searching major counties near SEC schools and then searching through their Panhellenic Council sites.

DD will take a stab at adapting her high school "activity log" into a social resume format and then we will ask our Panhellenic Council contact if she would be kind enough to review it. I am confident that we will find helpful and supportive assistance there.

Thanks again. Watching the news videos of Bid Days this year has both DD and me quite enthused about next year's recruitment!

Yes, and the way you begin selling yourself is by starting on a level playing field if recs are a norm at the campus. Recs don't guarantee a bid, but failure to get them in will almost certainly result in being cut at those campuses. I wish your PNM the best with her college experience.

I have used this great little program to build my resume. This free software make creating a resume very easy.

The name is ... you guessed it, "Resume Builder". You can download it free at CNet. Just type in Resume Builder in the search box.

Hope this helps!

__________________________________________
Over 50 Dating

Even if you weren’t a National Merit Scholar or SGA President, you probably have a lot of activities and projects that you have participated in over the years that would be suitable to “flesh out” your resume. Your presentation may help maximize the impression your resume makes on those who write your recommendations, especially if they are not alums who have known you personally for years.

Follows is the recruitment resume layout by a PNM from the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. Her mother is a friend, and an active alum in her chapter there. I would regard her as competitive recruitment-savvy, so I thought this might be an example of a layout and potential categories to help spark some ideas for you (follows – pardon the layout and wording necessary to remove identifying info).

The packet I received to write her daughter’s letter of support was very similar to those I usually receive from girls requesting recommendations in my area for a competitive recruitment – just thought I would pass along how this “packet” is usually assembled (pardon my redundancy if this has been covered previously). I’m sure there are many other ways that this can be done – and I know PNMs with far less polished resumes who fare very well -- but I’m just sharing what I usually receive (I have only received a few via email). Where I am from, these resumes eventually find their way to the membership chairs along with the rec forms.

Usually in this order – paper-clipped with a large clip, top to bottom:

1. Hand-written thank-you note (on decent stationery) personalized to alum writing the rec
2. One or two pictures – preferably waist-up – preferably not prom pics – and write your name and city on the back of the pictures!
3. Resume – also on decent resume-quality paper (unlike that hanging out of my printer)
4. Transcript
5. 9x12 approx white envelope, pre-addressed to membership chair at chapter, with appropriate pre-paid postage (weigh packet at PO). Many alums will turn completed recs with packets into their respective hometown alum clubs for eventual delivery to the chapter, but some may send directly to the membership chair.
6. Paperclip all and place all in a slightly larger manila envelope to mail or deliver to alum.

Regarding the layout of the resume – try to keep it to two pages, if possible, and make sure your name appears at the top of page 2. This PNM listed the club, activity, etc. on left and then included a short phrase of explanation to the right (used a tab stop, which looked very polished). There were some activities listed more than once, though spun a little differently, depending on the category. Hope it helps a little.











__________________________________________________ ___________
Education_________________________________________ ______

School
GPA
Class Rank
Class size
SAT score
Advanced Placement Courses (2 listed)
Freshman at *** – Honors College
__________________________________________________ ____
Awards and Honors_______________________________________

Honor Roll
Participation award for a sport
An Association outside of High School
Spirit Award
Name of High School Athletic Conference (listed events where she or her team placed – even honorable mentions)
Most Improved Award
__________________________________________________ _____________
Leadership________________________________________ ______________

Editor of a yearbook section senior year
Served as tour guide for HS
Organization name that mentored freshman at HS
Cheer position
Asst coach – volunteered to teach sport skills to younger students
__________________________________________________ ______________
Athletics_________________________________________ ________________

Varsity sport
Varsity Cheer
Another Varsity sport
__________________________________________________ ____
Community and Volunteer_________________________________

Name of project – donated goods to shelters
Sport Asst Coach – listed earlier
Assisted in a day care
Name of charity event for health-related awareness
Name of elementary school – tutored students
Name of community event – served beverages
Name of charity – donated baked goods
__________________________________________________ ____
Church and Mission_______________________________________

Name of Church – listed grades and indicated membership
Name of weekly church meeting involving study
Name of mission project
Another name of mission project
__________________________________________________ ____
Work Experience________________________________________

Listed job
Leader at a camp
__________________________________________________ __________
Extracurricular___________________________________ _____________

Listed two activities outside of school and church – these could also be listed as “Interests” or “Hobbies” – a good place to list something unique about yourself that stands out
__________________________________________________ _____
Greek Affiliations______________________________________ ___

Listed the university and Greek affiliation of any parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins (just omit this section if you don't have any to list)

Be sure to list your paid jobs.
And for some reason, lots of the girls in this area think it's a bad thing to list a high school sorority.
Yes, there are lots of differences between high school and college sororities. But if you belong to one, then you know how an organization works (or doesn't), how to work with a team, and how to plan and execute a project.
If you've been an officer, you know even more.
I see that as excellent experience and I want to know about it.

Yes, absolutely -- probably under "Work Experience."


Are high school sororities common in your area? I'm really surprised.

In my area, the last high school sororities I know of were disbanded years ago.

I don't think that the benefits you listed are unique to high school sororities -- there are many clubs, community service projects, team activities, and school events available to provide those experiences (without the headaches associated with high school social sororities).

Yes, in my area - north Alabama - they are still common.
Of course the benefits are not unique to sororities, even high school sororities.
Those are just reasons to list high school sororities.