By Yvonne LaRose

It's that time of year. The time for new graduates and young workers to not only start thinking about vying for the first or summer job but actualizing the endeavor. Unfortunately one perplexing issue rears its ugly head and leaves many stumped. How should one get started? What should go into a resume when there is little or no work history? In this first of a series of new worker discussions, we'll talk about getting started, first with the candidate's calling card and point of first impression -- the resume.

The right way to prepare a resume is an interesting proposition. There are two basic types -- the functional and the chronological -- and so many variations of those two that it can be confounding trying to come up with which one is best and whether to do a new one for each opportunity for which you want to be considered.

Use one basic form; use a cover letter to highlight the not so obvious. But I'm getting ahead of myself. You want to know how to get started.

Most people write their own resume. Some use a resume writing service. To the extent that you do either, it's good to have some basics in mind. Dane Donato, expert resume writer for Bakos Group, points out that there are quite a number of resume and cover letter writing books on the market that he emphasizes will help with the resume layout. His caveat is, however, that a resume has a 15-second life. "You want your resume to be as unique as you are," he counsels, "and if yours looks just like everyone else's, then you can be perceived in just that way." In other words, there's nothing special about you that will say you can do the job better than the other 500 candidates who've applied. So avoid being a template. According to Donato, "How you portray yourself is as important as what you put down. Be assertive, think boldly, and rush in where angels fear to tread!"

According to Donato, when using a resume writing service, "The best way to prepare for the process of developing a resume is to keep in mind that this is primarily your responsibility as the client to provide as much information as possible. The more data you can pull together for the resume writing professional (or yourself as you develop it), the better the final document will be." So it's important to do your own thinking about what you want to go into your resume before seeking the assistance of a professional writer. Do your homework first.

To that end, there are some basics about the content of the resume that should be there and those are the facets that make you unique and special for the opportunity. Says Donato, put down "[w]hat ... you bring to a job that makes you stand out from the others ... what you can offer a potential employer." Write out an outline of what you've done, how you did it, where, for whom and what the quantifiable results were.

Matters to take into consideration for inclusion then, according to Donato, are the skills and abilities you have to offer that are both industry specific and, more importantly, skills that can be utilized in any workplace environment. Some of those skills are communication, self knowledge regarding whether your style is team or solo worker, tact and diplomacy, a guru in a particular area or extremely patient and analytical. These are all talents with abundant value. Not all of them are right for each and every opportunity and not every person has all of them at the same degree. Play up what your top skills are through understatement and how you present yourself in the resume.

You may want to use an industry term to describe what you know or come up with a more sophisticated or current terminology. Donato recommends peeking at the Dictionary of Occupational Titles, a two-volume reference that lists thousands of jobs and describes the skill sets for each. Peek at those as you would a Thesaurus. Make certain you know what the term means. There's nothing more embarrassing nor a situation that will stop an interview immediately than having a person who cannot discuss the things they present on their resume.

Okay, Bold One. Pencil or mouse in hand. Begin making a list, then an outline, then refine it to do the first step in getting your career started!