UPDATE APRIL 24, 2018: Michelle Castanon was not initially identified in the original posted version of this story. The error has been corrected.
Delta College hosted a free resume writing workshop on Thursday, April 12.
It was sponsored by the Career Technical Education Workforce Development Center at Delta College, in collaboration with the San Joaquin County WorkNet center.
Belinda Petate-Chan, employment training supervisor at WorkNet, said this is the first time the organization has done this workshop in collaboration with Delta.
“It’s a great workshop for them, it helps them a lot especially when they are looking for work. A lot of people are not familiar on how to put a resume together, so this kind of workshop helps them get prepared and be job ready,” said Petate-Chan, in reference to clients in her 23-year experience.
There are WorkNet centers all over San Joaquin County. The organization works with clients in depth to assess specific needs, and with employers to find out what they’re looking for in job candidates.
During the workshop, Employment Training Specialist Linda Stirm of America’s Job Center of California in Lodi, spoke about tailoring a resume to a specific job and becoming an expert on each student’s own individual resume.
Stirm also gave out tips and tricks on what not to put, and the kind of word phrasing that should be used.
“For me it’s just sitting down and doing it, and you have to really think about yourself you know, sometimes you don’t want to think about yourself that much,” said student Ianthe Chase about the hardest part of resume building.
The process can be difficult, but not impossible.
“A lot of students that come in to us don’t really have a lot of experience, and they don’t know how to express the skills that they’ve had from the classroom or maybe some volunteer work,” said Michelle Castanon, program manager of the Career Technical Education and Workforce Development at Delta.
Castanon said by the time they are done helping students, they have a full professional page to submit to employers.
The program helps students find jobs in their fields before graduation.
“Our priority is definitely to get students a part time employment opportunity while they’re here in school and matching it to their field of study, you know it’s great that they may be working at a retail or fast food, but we really want to make sure that they’re getting the connection of what their career goals are,”said Castanon.
The students in attendance said there was benefit to the event.
“I learned about more of the resources and the programs that they offer for on campus, so I’m willing to check it out and I know the rooms that they have now so I could go and talk to them,” said student Marlene Cruz.