You must have seen those job vacancies that you qualify for, but which requires over ten years of working experience that you don’t have. How do you land such a job?
More often than not, it is always impossible. However, much you try, it seems like you ever come in short. Well, it happens. Nonetheless, that doesn’t mean that it is impossible to do.
In the real sense, if you learn how best to make a great resume with no work experience, you can quickly jump this hurdle. Here is how you create such a resume.
Creating the Resume
There are many tips that you can follow if you intend to create a great resume without any work experience.
Make Sure You Include a Summary
A summary statement plays a crucial role in a resume with no work experience. This is because the objectives statements where you tell your potential recruiter your specific career goals or the goals that you intend to achieve has been watered down with time.
The summary statement will, therefore, make a better option. This is because it focuses on what you will do for the company rather than what they can do for you.
In addition to that, the resume statement must be short and precise. More importantly, it appears on top of the resume and will serve as the first impression that the recruiter gets on you.
It is the make or breaks a sentence that may entice the employer to keep reading or to shred that copy.
Choose the Right Format
There are formats that are dominant when it comes to resume writing or preparation. The arrangements can either be functional, chronological or hybrid. The hybrid form combines the two formats on one resume. However, it requires a certain level of experience.
While a chronological resume format will list your work experience, it does so in reverse but chronological order.
The functional resume style, on the other hand, focuses more on highlighting your skills and accomplishments. It does not focus so much on your working experience.
Whichever the resume format you choose to go with, ensure that your style of writing remains constant throughout your resume.
NOTE: The functional resume is, therefore, the best option for people who are fresh from college and who have little or no work experience at all. Even so, many employers love the chronological or hybrid format. That’s why a hybrid will suit you the most.
Keep an Eye on Technical Details
Technical details include spelling, punctuations, grammatical errors, omissions, and redundancy. These are some of the significant issues that will leave you without any work consideration, especially if they aren’t polished.
Make sure that you have ironed out these technical details and that your resume meets the following criteria.
- Easy to read through
- Simple to understand
- Free of technical words
- Free of any form of type
The trick to preparing a resume that’s free of any of these problems is to work on your resume and allowing someone else to read through. A loved one will make a great option.
Ensure the person reading it has an eye for details. More importantly, remember to vary your tone. Use more action verbs in the resume as it helps the person reading it to be engaged in the resume to the end.
Stock Up Your Achievements
Go with your achievements and activities. What you have achieved and what you have done before are the only things that amount to the type of experience that you have.
You can always make a list of everything that will be useful to the resume that you have done before. It should also be relevant to the type of job that you are applying for.
Remember, not everything will be relevant to a specific vacancy. So ensure that you tone it down to only what is appropriate.
NOTE: Make a list of things that you feel are relevant and then choose from them what is related to the application that you are making.
Capture Your Education and Skills
This is where the hybrid format comes in. Since you don’t have any experience, it is essential to understand that the closest that you’ve come to real-life action is through professional training – education.
That’s why you have to include your educational background here. The skills that you have acquired along the way that matches the job will also be critical. This should be easy to match if you are a college graduate with a specialized education.
Internships and Volunteer Work
The internships that you have gone for will also play a key role since they have exposed you to real job environments. Do not forget to include them. The same applies to the voluntary work that you have done.
Voluntary work, more importantly, suggests that you are working for passion and not necessarily the money.
Extracurricular Activities
Finally, the extracurricular activities that you are involved in are also an essential part of skill sharpening. They are best if you are in need of proving your competitive edge to your potential employee. They are also good at showing your fitness, primarily if the job was meant for manual works.
NOTE: Do not include your hobbies to this resume unless you feel that they will be relevant. Hobbies may reflect passion but might not necessarily be useful to your job description.
Additional Tips
There are a few other things that you should include in a resume if you don’t have any work experience.
- Choose relevant keywords as per the job advertisement
- Customize your resume for every application you make
- Make sure to add a cover letter
Conclusion
Let’s say you are fresh from college with no work background, how do you get that dream job that you are looking for? The answer is simple. First, learn how to make a great resume.
Whether you look at it from the job application, interview, or landing your dream job, there is bound to be a resume in between somewhere.
It is, therefore, essential that you actually understand to coin an even better resume without any job experience. These tips that we have seen here are the ones that will help you to break even.
You can combine all of them or incorporate some of them depending on your position at the moment.
