A group of seniors at Poughkeepsie High School received helpful tips on how not only to write a resume, but also to make it stand out during a workshop facilitated by Ethan Allen Staffing on March 10.

This workshop is part of a five-part employment workshop. Future sessions will focus on how to search for a job, job interview preparation, mock job interviews and more.

Amy Van Tassel, Ethan Allen’s industrial division manager, conducted this session where she and Kelly Semexant, PHS college readiness & workforce education counselor, assisted students with creating the perfect resume right in class.

According to Van Tassel, some of the most important aspects to writing a good resume is to keep it short and accurate, have bold lettering and use varied language when describing previous job duties.

“I don’t need an essay, I just need to know what your experience is,” Van Tassel said. “You always want to look at it from the perspective of the person that’s going to be looking at it.”

Additionally, Semexant encouraged students to include any volunteer work on their resume and to have a professional sounding email address when job hunting.

“Don’t use your Poughkeepsie email address because it expires July 1,” Semexant said.

The resumes students worked on will come in handy for the upcoming Career & Job Fair at the PHS gym scheduled for May 18, so they can give them to nearly 70 potential employers.

“I’ll make copies of their resume that they can hand it out and be proud of that,” Semexant explained. “The Career & Job Fair is going to be huge.”

Semexant was impressed to see that some students already had a resume prior to the workshop.

“I’m very pleasantly surprised with them having that already,” she said.

Jah-Zel Thomas was one of the students who already had a resume prior to the workshop, but found the tips he learned on how to enhance it beneficial.

“I’m updating it now,” Thomas said of his resume. “I think it was a good experience.”