Today, it’s not that easy to get a new job, especially if you lack work experience. Competition among candidates is pretty intense, and it’s essential for an applicant to make their resume stand out from the crowd.
What you should add to your CV if you don’t have experience? For instance, how you can become a digital marketer at a big company if you have never had a similar job before?
Include volunteer work
If you used to be a volunteer, you should include this information in your resume. For example, if you want to get a managerial job at the pet shop, highlight that you were a volunteer coordinator at the animal care center for two years. It will let the hiring manager understand that you sincerely love pets and know how to behave with them.
Some applicants wrongly believe that volunteering experience doesn’t count as real work experience. If you were not paid for work performed, it doesn’t mean that you didn’t acquire new skills.
For instance, if you designed an effective strategy for animal care center fundraising, it’s likely that you have excellent event marketing and community management skills. Don’t forget to add these skills to your resume to impress your potential employer.
Add training, courses, and certifications
Most people suppose that it’s enough to list the highest level of education only. But in fact, whether you graduated college a week ago or 20 years ago, you should keep your professional development continuous. If you attend training or classes related to your niche, you should include this information in your CV to get a better job.
When a recruiter is looking for a perfect candidate, they expect to find a person, who has up-to-date knowledge. For this reason, an applicant, who has recently completed a course and received a certificate, has more chances to land a job. Companies are interested in hiring employees, who watch the market trends and know where the industry is headed.
If you want to get a job, which requires a language degree or professional qualifications from an accredited body, you should get a certificate before applying. For instance, if you state that you speak Spanish fluently, you should prove this fact by providing DELE diploma.
List your personal achievements
If you have never worked as a technical support team leader before, it doesn’t mean that you lack skills to apply for this job. Try to analyze your life experience and define what skills and qualities you have. Your task is to focus on the greatest achievements of your life that are also relevant to the positions you are pursuing.
If you’ve tackled the challenge of running a marathon, you’ve developed self-discipline, and the ability to set goals and see them through. If you’ve worked abroad, you’ve likely gained the ability to integrate into different cultures and work well with people from a variety of backgrounds. This is worthy to mention, even if the jobs you held were largely entry level.
Use appropriate keywords
Emerging technologies are reshaping the way companies recruit employees. Today, hiring managers have access to lots of resumes, but they have no time to review them all. So, they use software to scan resumes for specific keywords.
For this reason, you should be very careful with wording when working on your CV optimization. You should focus on the keywords, which are the most relevant to the job title you want to get, and skills you have. For instance, if you aim to land a leadership role, use words such as motivated, uplifted, advocated, and coached.
Why is it this crucial for applicants who have no experience? An optimized resume will appear in search results more often and, as a result, a higher chance of catching a manager’s attention.
Pay attention to formatting
Writing a resume, you should pay attention to formatting. Your CV should have a clear structure and should look professional.
You should break information into the sections and use appropriate headings:
- Contact information
- Resume summary
- Major skills
- Additional skills
- Professional experience
- Education
People who lack working experience, should choose the resume format wisely. If a resume is structured appropriately, it shifts the attention from the employment gap to the relevant skills and achievements.
Proofread attentively
If an employer finds a grammar mistake in the resume of an applicant, what will they do? If an applicant has extensive working experience, it’s likely that an employer will turn a blind eye. But if a candidate has no experience, an employer will send the resume to the trash.
For this reason, you should not forget to check the text for spelling errors and typos. You should proofread your resume at least twice before sending it to the potential employer. If you want to avoid any problems, you should get professional help from top editing services.
You can make your resume look attractive and professional, even if you don’t have 10 years of experience. When writing your CV, try to be creative. Highlight relevant skills, which characterise you as an ideal candidate.
You should always pay attention to the small details. Even one wrongly used word or one typo may spoil your image in front of the recruiter.
Stay patient, and you will get a dream job with the help of your excellently written resume.
About the author
Daniela McVicker is a career coach and blogger for RatedByStudents. She’s also a business communication coach, assisting future job applicants in writing business emails to help them achieve success on their career paths.