Crossroads residents invited to create, enhance resumes
The University of Houston-Victoria wants to help community members get their resumes ready for future employment opportunities.
UHV Career Services and Student Life & Services are teaming up to put on Resume Ready: A Community Resume Review. The free event will take place from 9 a.m. to noon April 8 in the UHV University North Multi-Purpose Room, 3007 N. Ben Wilson St.
The event is designed to help members of the community create and perfect their resumes. While UHV offers this service regularly to students and alumni, this is the first time the university has held a resume evaluation event for the public.
“We encourage student engagement, and we see this event as a way to have faculty and staff give back to the community,” said Amy Hatmaker, UHV Career Services manager. “Students are more apt to volunteer and be actively engaged if they see faculty and staff doing the same.”
Residents who already have a resume are asked to bring it. Trained UHV faculty and staff, along with representatives from a local employer, will review the resumes and give attendees feedback.
Hatmaker said one common resume misstep is typos.
“It’s really hard for people to catch their own mistakes,” Hatmaker said. “Just having a second set of eyes look at it can be beneficial.”
Hatmaker said sometimes people highlight the wrong information. For example, Hatmaker has seen nurses put their licensure information at the end of their resumes. It should be one of the first things employers see, she said.
“Sometimes the hierarchy of information in resumes could be better,” she said. “People may put down past tasks in the order they think of them and not necessarily in the order that will get them noticed. The initial resume read through is about 20 to 30 seconds. You only have a short amount of time to catch someone’s eye, so you want to make your resume as efficient as possible.”
If residents don’t have a resume, they can come to the event to create one. UHV will have computers and printers available, so residents can leave with a copy.
Hatmaker said the event also can benefit veterans fresh out of the military. They may need assistance with how to take their military experience and turn it into a resume for private sector employment, she said.
Additionally, employers can volunteer to be resume reviewers. If they do so, they will get a free table at the event. For more information, contact Hatmaker at hatmakera@uhv.edu or 361-570-4378.
The University of Houston-Victoria, located in the heart of the Coastal Bend region since 1973 in Victoria, Texas, offers courses leading to more than 80 academic programs in the schools of Arts & Sciences; Business Administration; and Education, Health Professions & Human Development. UHV provides face-to-face classes at its Victoria campus, as well as an instructional site in Katy, Texas, and online classes that students can take from anywhere. UHV supports the American Association of State Colleges and Universities Opportunities for All initiative to increase awareness about state colleges and universities and the important role they have in providing a high-quality and accessible education to an increasingly diverse student population, as well as contributing to regional and state economic development.
