What a manager actually does with it
Most first-round screening takes twenty to thirty seconds. Your résumé is not your life story — it is a shortlist argument. Everything on page one should answer: can this person do the shift, turn up, and be trusted with customers?
- One page. Name, contact, then a three-line summary of what you offer.
- Reverse date order, most recent first, months and years only.
- No photo, no date of birth, no full address — just town and contact details.
- Save and send as a PDF named Firstname-Lastname-Resume.pdf.
You have more experience than you think
Unpaid experience counts when you describe it in workplace language. Look for anything with responsibility, a deadline, other people, money, or safety attached.
- Family caring → reliability, time management, working under pressure.
- Sports team or club → teamwork, coaching, commitment across a season.
- Selling online, fixing phones, cutting hair for friends → customer handling, pricing, quality.
- School projects → planning, presenting, meeting deadlines with others.
Write bullets that show a result
Use the shape: action verb + what you did + who it affected + the result. Numbers make it believable, even small ones.
- "Served up to 60 customers a shift at a busy market stall, handling cash and card sales totals of about $400 a day."
- "Trained two new volunteers on opening checks, reducing setup time by around 15 minutes."
- Avoid "hardworking team player" with nothing behind it — show it instead.
Tailor it in five minutes, not fifty
Keep one master résumé and make a copy for each application. Read the job posting, underline the words they repeat, and make sure those words appear honestly in your top third.
