When applying for food handling and customer service is it relevant to put down professional awards in your resume?

Is your journalism experience going to be on your resume? If so, I’d list the awards right along with that experience.

I think it’s always relevant to put any professional awards on your resume. They don’t just speak to that specific industry, but often can reflect your drive, character and professionalism which will translate into other fields.

@augustlan Well since I’m applying for just Cafe positions nothing like PR department or HQ or HR I figure I shouldn’t put down my journalism experience since I don’t think the employer will find it relevant? Please correct me if I’m wrong. But I do feel at the same time the awards display my strong work ethic.

@whitecarnations I would still list the job(s) you had that aren’t relevant to your current search, and include the award(s) along with that.

Well, if you do it, it’s back at the end where the rest of the irrelevant stuff goes. You want your relevant skills and talents and experience to be right up front where the employer sees them first. Don’t waste their time showing them irrelevant stuff. That’s a good way to get them to toss the resume. Make it easy for them to see why they should hire you and you’ll get the job.

If your concern is that you’ll be perceived as overquaified, it is a relevant concern. I wasn’t sure what the current wisdom on this is since the job market is full of people now (at least in the US) who are applying for postions they are overqualified for for lack of anything better. I found this resume advice on Monster and it seems quite good concerning how to handle the resume and possible interview questions that might crop up. It’s interesting that they say it’s as important to include your recent experience so as not to misrepresent yourself. Yet they also do advise to put certain things at the bottom and highlight your applicable skills. A functional resume seems like an excellent idea to me.