Your resume is your calling card. It is a list of your educational attainments and accomplishments. It is, above all, a marketing document. Its only purpose is to promote YOU and get you a job in your chosen field.

As a cooking school graduate (or soon-to-be graduate), you may not have a lot of experience but you will have some, and you will have a lot of training under your belt. Your resume should refer to classes you have taken, certificates you have earned, and skills you have mastered.

Your resume should be clean, professional-looking, and error-free. It should be no more than two pages. Generally, unless you have had a great deal of experience prior to attending cooking school, it will one be one page long.

It is perfectly appropriate (even desirable) to include personal qualities, hobbies, and activities, so long as they reflect well on you as a person and as a potential employee. For example, if you are a marathon runner, this demonstrates an admirable commitment to your health, as well as a noteworthy level of dedication that likely carries over into every facet of your life. If you volunteer once a week at a soup kitchen, it demonstrates that you are public-spirited and that you wish to share your talents with those who are less fortunate.

Your resume should give a clear indication of what you direction you wish to take professionally. In fact, you should spell it out in a sentence or two about your goals and aspirations. You may not want to say, “I want to be my generation’s Wolfgang Puck.” But you could certainly say that you admire Chef Puck for combining business savvy with commitment to craft, and that this is a model you would like to follow in your own career.

If you speak more than one language, by all means put that on your resume. Kitchens are little global melting pots these days and many different languages may be spoken among the staff and in the dining room. If you are fluent in Spanish or have studied French or Chinese for several years, these will be valuable assets to your employer and may set you apart from the crowd of applicants.

If you have experience living or traveling overseas, this too may be an asset and should be included. This is especially true if you are applying for a job with a company that has a large global presence, such as a hotel or restaurant chain. They will be much more likely to interview and hire you if you demonstrate that you are an adventurous type, and that it is a goal of yours to live and work abroad.

Update your resume frequently as you gain experience. Your resume should always reflect the changes in your life and show how you are growing professionally and personally. Never lie on a resume, but always put your best self on display there.