Preparing for life after college is very important for your financial situation. You also will need to find a company that you really fit well with. This will help you motivate yourself to work harder and possibly get promoted. If you want to prepare yourself to receive a good paying job you will need to have a good résumé.
Most résumés just give a brief description that tells the employer where you worked and any other activities in which you have been involved. This is a problem because your potential future employer will not know how well you did those things.
The best way to build a résumé is to us the PAR method. PAR stands for problem, action and result. This type of résumé will show what difficulties you faced in your previous job, what you did about them, and what the results were. This will go smoothly with an interview especially if it is a behavioral interview. In these interviews they will ask you about “a time when…” and want you to explain the situation, what action you took to handle that situation, and finally what the end result was. If your résumé is already set up like this you will be one step ahead of the competition. PAR formatting for résumés give employers a good high-level look at you before you even meet. Here is a breakdown of each stage.
Problem
You will need to write about an obstacle or challenge you have previously faced in your life. Have enough context to paint a picture of the situation and even having goals that were planned for the situation will help. Some potential problems could be facing a really tight deadline, being down to half a team for the project, or handling an angry customer.
Action
This section will show the details of the actions you took in that specific challenge. You will want to list what you did to solve the problem or complete the goal. The more you can bring out your talents the better it will look. Make sure to use action words to make yourself stand out.
Result
In the result stage you will want to tell the employer the results of the situation. Use quantitative measurements if possible and include positive outcomes. It is okay to share negative outcomes, but be sure to describe how you will improve or do something different the next time.
Armani Williams
Peer Counselor I
Powercat Financial Counseling
www.k-state.edu/pfc
