Taking the Resumes to the Jails, Part 1

On Tuesday I sat down with six young men and one older gentleman at Jail North and talked about how to create a working resume. These men were close to being released and wanted to know how to create and utilize a resume. Many of the guys had little to no job experience and were wondering how that would affect their job prospects. Then there is the problem of having been incarcerated, but I wanted to take it one issue at a time. Here is what I told them about resumes and job hunting via a Power Point presentation at the beginning of class:

1). A resume is not geared to get you a job per se, but is trying to get you an interview. As you create and submit resumes, don’t worry about getting the job so much as getting that face time with a potential employer during an interview. An interview is when you start worrying about landing the job.

2). Send out as many resumes to as many jobs as you can find. Job hunting truly becomes a numbers game and eventually you will get an interview, you just have to keep sending out applications.

3). Be honest on your resume. Even people who have not been incarcerated are tempted to lie on resumes, and that is an excellent way to not get hired, or worse, get hired and then fired when they find out you are not qualified or you lied about your past.

Then we started the the task of creating a useable resume. I was saddened by the lack of computer skills, but impressed by their efforts. Although many couldn’t type, they knew how to handle Microsoft Word and the resume templates helped. The class was supposed to be 90 minutes, but it ended up being 2 hours as we got more into editing the resumes and making them look professional. I ended the class with my standard plug for the library for resources of resume books and computers. Of all the classes I have taught at the jail so far, these guys seemed the most intrigued by the resources of the library. I hope they come visit a branch after they are released.

I have the same class again next week for Resume Writing Round 2, where we will look at examples of finished resumes and polish up their resume. I am concerned about the lack of computer skills and have talked with the arts coordinator about potentially having an introductory computer class at the jail

PLCMC is nothing if not full service.