How to Craft a Resume Without Experience
Whether you are just entering the job market or have very little variety of experience, a well-rounded resume is key to your job search success. Resume writing can be intimidating when you aren’t sure what to include or how to best showcase your skills, which is why we’ve come up with a list of tips to apply to your resume to demonstrate to employers you would be a great fit.
Employ a Summary Statement
A summary statement is used to succinctly illustrate who you are professionally and give the reader a great first impression. It should be two to four sentences at most and include keywords to describe your work ethic, educational background, relevant skills, and professional goals.
Formatting Matters
With little to no experience, it’s important your resume is visually appealing, so it grabs the reader’s attention and stands out among other candidates. Your resume format may vary depending on the industry and position you’re interested in. Look up current resume examples to see how they are organized and what kinds of elements are being used to make them stand out.
Remember the Technical Details
Grammar can make or break your resume. Be sure to look it over several times and have others look it over as well. You want to ensure it is organized, makes sense, and is free of grammatical errors or typos.
Highlight Your Education and Skills
Education and skills are extremely important pieces of your resume to highlight when looking for a job without much experience.
If your highest form of education is a high school diploma or you are currently enrolled in college, we recommend including your high school information. However, once you earn a degree or certification, your high school information can be removed. Furthermore, relevant coursework may be beneficial to include in your resume.
Hiring managers look for applicants demonstrating both hard skills and soft skills as they are equally important. Hard skills are teachable technical abilities such as: speaking a foreign language, Microsoft Office, computer programming, and more. On the other hand, soft skills such as: communication, leadership and teamwork are much more difficult to teach. When you are applying for jobs, be sure to include a good mix of both, especially if they are relevant to the industry you are seeking.
Include Any Relevant Experience
You may not have much in terms of job experience, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have relevant experience. Look at the job description and think about tasks you’ve completed that may align with it. For instance, maybe you’ve organized an event for a family member, helped your local community develop marketing materials, completed a training course online, volunteered for a non-profit, or created a website on your own time. Just because you weren’t employed when doing these things doesn’t mean it isn’t experience.
If you haven’t done anything relevant to the job you’re applying for, consider any job experiences such as dog walking, mowing lawns, babysitting, etc... including these still shows effort and responsibility.
Write a Cover letter
Even with little to no experience, including a cover letter is always recommended. Cover letters are a great way to make a good impression and to illustrate to a possible employer why you’re a strong candidate. Cover letters allow you to showcase your personality and explain how you would be the right fit for the job position.
Don’t let the amount of experience you may or may not have ruin your chances at creating a great resume to help with your goal of landing an interview. Following these tips will better ensure you have a complete resume with a much higher chance of success.
For more helpful information on creating a resume, visit our free resume resources page full of tips guaranteed to answer all of your questions. If you’ve tried everything and are still struggling to get interviews, it might be time to try utilizing our resume writing services.