The Camp Director

Retaining good staff not only involves running a good camp with a great culture but includes helping staff understand all the skills they are getting at camp that will apply to any job they have in years to come. I have found this understanding is crucial when staff are making decisions this time of the year. Do they take that internship or come back to camp? As a camp director, the more you can offer in terms of staff development can often tip the scales in your favor.

One service I provide staff is help with their resume. Here are my suggestions for what camp directors can do to help staff with resumes.

1. Get a few books for your camp library that staff can check out when they start this process.
2. Collect sample resumes of people that have worked at your camp so staff can see how to define what their job really entails. As we all know it is more than “just playing with kids all day.”
3. Writing a resume can be a daunting task. Help your staff by setting up small goals and then check in with them. For example, listing all previous jobs, dates of employment and supervisors can be a good first step and easier than trying to write the resume all at once.
4. Know who on your staff are good editors. This is a talent not everyone has and those individuals are essential for finding typos, errors, or confusing wording.
5. Start this process with your counselors in training and make it a part of their employment. Often these students have had to do this for school and have a start of a resume.
6. I am a big fan of online sites like google docs. So may students are transitory and can’t track down that resume and employment history data years down the line. With a google account they can keep some data in one place regardless of how many times they change computers, schools, houses, etc.

RESOURCES

• How to edit your resume like a professional resume writer – article by Penelope Trunk – her blog is outstanding

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