Resume & LinkedIn: Everyday Playbook

Key takeaways

• When someone wants your CV tonight, ask for the job advert first and spend your limited time on the summary and your latest job.
• Explain a career break in one honest line with dates and a reason, then turn the reader's attention to what you can do now.
• Help a teenager with a first resume by scrolling through the year's photos together, then letting them write every line in their own words.
• Never pay to apply and never send ID or bank details before a checked written offer, and teach every teenager at home the same rule.
• If ten applications bring silence, change one thing in the document or the target before sending more, and let your children see you adjust calmly.

Inside this bit

1. The CV someone wants by this evening

   It is five o'clock and a friend messages: there is an opening at her office, send your CV by eight. First, a word on terms.

2. The gap you are worried about explaining

   A career break is time away from paid work, for raising children, caring for a parent, health or study. Many parents feel they must hide it.

3. The teenager who says they have done nothing

   When a sixteen-year-old wants a weekend or holiday job, the first resume often stalls at one sentence: I have no experience. Questions alone often draw a blank, because recent months blur together.

4. The profile that has not moved in years

   LinkedIn is a professional networking site where people keep a public version of their work history, connect with colleagues and get found by recruiters, the people who find and screen candidates for employers. If your profile still shows a job you left years ago, it works against you, because people do look you up.

5. The message that seems too good to be true

   Job scams reach parents and teenagers alike, often through messaging apps and fake recruiter profiles. They follow a pattern: high pay for simple home-based work, an interview held only by chat, pressure to decide quickly, and a request for money or documents.

6. The rejection email, or no email at all

   Most applications get no reply, and many that do are polite rejections. Neither is personal.