Resumes for Children: A Book Review & A Giveaway!

Resumes for Children 17 Years Old and Under by Donna Kristine Manley

Do you have a resume for your child?  At what age do you think it’s appropriate for young people to start creating resumes? Eighteen? Sixteen?  How about thirteen or eight?  Think that’s too young?  Well, think again.

It’s no secret the job market is fast-paced and highly competitive.  I remember a few years ago the social media website LinkedIn decided to allow kids as young as 13 to create profiles on its career-minded networking site.  (Imagine being in competition for a job with a 13 year-old!)  Aside from LinkedIn, there are a number of new ways teenagers and pre-teens can start preparing for their careers and building life skills — even if they’re unsure what, exactly, they want to do when they grow up.  That’s where creating a resume for your child can come in handy.

Book Summary
Resumes for Children 17 – Years Old Under is a detailed guide of sample resumes that show how children’s talents, skills, abilities, and challenges can propel them to success. Inside the book you’ll meet a student pilot with a 3rd Class Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Medical Certificate, a child book reviewer, a Junior Open Water Diver and more. The sample cover letters are guides to show parents how to obtain other peoples’ money to assist in the growth and development of their children.  Resumes for Children 17 Years Old and Under was awarded a Best Parenting Book badge by radicalparenting.com and is a Mom’s Choice Awards Gold Recipient.

Reflection
I don’t quite remember my first resume, but I do recall listing every hobby I’d ever had to make my part-time job at the library look more substantial.  Where were books like Resumes for Children when I was growing up?

I think this book does a good job providing several samples to use for creating a child’s resume and cover letter.  There are sample resumes for entrepreneurs, volunteers, babysitters/pet care, hobbies, inventors, aspiring medical professionals and more!  I also like the space in the back of the book for recording your reflections, ideas and resources.  These will be useful for writing down your child’s interests, hobbies, volunteer opportunities, activities, or hands-on experiences as they evolve over time.

The author also talks about some reasons why children need a resume and offers some pearls of wisdom at the end of the book which I found to be helpful.

While I don’t plan on creating a resume for either of my children anytime soon, I think this book will definitely come in handy when I’m ready to take on this task.  I believe Resumes for Children is great tool to use to help you to chronicle your child’s academic and extracurricular history.

Creating a resume is an important initial step in the process of obtaining employment, volunteer opportunities or applying to private schools. In addition, a resume can help a student in future academic pursuits. Teaching your child to identify his/her skills, talents and achievements is key to putting together a winning resume.

Since this book was written almost ten years ago, one suggestion I would make for a potential book update would be to limit contact information on the resume samples.  Meaning do not list a physical address, phone number or school name.  Contact information for your child can always be sent directly the the hiring manager, volunteer coordinator, etc.  Maybe it’s just me, but I’m overly cautious about sharing any information about my children, especially online.  Electronic or hard copies of resumes and cover letters can end up anywhere therefore as a parent, I believe you must be very thoughtful about what personal information is on them.

Are you on the fence about creating a resume for your child or do you think this sounds absurd?  Think of it this way: the reality is that some scholarship, private, middle and high school applications give you spaces in which they expect you to write down your child’s extracurricular activities, community service and awards. It can be a painful process if you’ve got nothing to write about your child in those spaces.

Your turn:  Do you have a resume for your child already?  Are you thinking about creating one or not?  Feel free to share in the comments.

Want to win a FREE copy of this book?

I’m super excited to host my very first giveaway!  That’s right, I’m giving away 5 copies of the book Resumes for Children 17 Years Old and Under.  You can enter to win your very own copy by clicking the link below.  Five random winners will be chosen on Friday, July 31st.  All winners will be notified via e-mail and all books will be shipped in August.  Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

7/30/2015 Update: This giveaway has ended and all winners have been notified.  Thanks for participating!