Including High School work experience in graduate Resume/CV?

Question

Back in year 10 of (UK) high-school I carried out "work experience" as part of my schools curriculum. I worked for my uncles electrical Services company as an electrician's assistant. This was back in 2008 when I was 15.

I'm now 22, in my 4th and final year of an electrical engineering masters course, and I'm applying for graduate schemes starting after my graduation in july 2015.

Is it is worth putting my high school work experience on my CV/Resume? It is (loosely) relevant for the jobs I am applying for, but it was only for a week, and it was 6 years ago.

The only other work experience I have is waiting on for 3 years at a hotel, labouring for a month with a civil engineering company, and a week long industrial project with a (big) truck company. The industrial project was part of my university curriculum. I'm also wondering, do I put this in my "Work Experience" section or my "Education" section?

Answer 1

If what you have is relevant to what you're going to be doing after you graduate, then absolutely include it.

The key is to ask yourself, "is this going to make me look better?" If an being an electrician's assistant is pertinent to your becoming an electrical engineer (I can't say, I write software), then I would certainly include it.

Another benefit is that it shows that this isn't something you just decided half way through university but something you've been interested in (and possibly had a passion) for a long time.

What I might not necessarily put (unless one simply wants to make their CV more full) are working at the hotel during high school and the like. Even so, a case can be easily be made to include even those (to demonstrate that the person actually wants to work and isn't a prima donna).

Were it me, I'd probably include both now that I think about it. It shows a good work ethic.

Answer 2

Your hotel experience demonstrates that you have experience with customer service/customer relations, and that you're likely to stick with a job rather than bouncing immediately to another company. You should come up with some stories to illustrate what you learned from that job about being a good worker, dealing with frustrated customers, and so on; having those ready when the interviewer asks will be helpful.

The others may be too brief to be worth mentioning, unless there's something specific that you say you learned from them which will make you a better employee. (As Christopher points out, the electrician's assistant is probably the most interesting of those.)

The more real experience and skill you have, the less anyone will care about your high school work experience (or grades) unless there's something about it which is relevant to them.

Answer 3

"Is it is worth putting my high school work experience on my CV/Resume? It is (loosely) relevant for the jobs I am applying for, but it was only for a week, and it was 6 years ago."

One week, six years ago? By all means,include it if you can remember anything at all that you did during that one week and if you think that a prospective employer will take seriously that one-week work experience of yours :) Personally, I'd include a one-week work experience only if I can claim that I saved the world in that one week. Or I was a lifeguard and I saved a child from drowning during that one week.

I'll just note that there are additions that could actually detract from the impressions that you are trying to give. There additions that convey that you are meticulous and detail oriented. And there are those additions that could create the impression that you are clueless. Less is more more often than than you think.

Answer 4

I'd tend to include it if you're a recent graduate, as its potentially evidence of teamwork, willingness to improve yourself etc

Remove it once you've got a couple of actual jobs under your belt, as it becomes superfluous detail and distracts attention from the more relevant experience.

You could also remove it if you've got some non-graduate jobs (bar/shop work etc?) which show the same teamwork etc, in which case you're probably starting to need the space anyway.