How to Write a Professional Resume with Little or no Work Experience

Finding a job with little or no work experience is a challenge that can discourage most. But, a professionally written resume can turn the tide in your favor. You can write an entirely impressive resume, even if you don’t have existing skills or experience and get hired too. 

How to Write a Professional Resume with Little or no Work Experience: eAskme

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Crafting a convincing resume

An excellently written resume can turn your disadvantage of having little or no work experience into a job opportunity. Here are some smart resume tips for you:

#1 Summary statement, a must

Mentioning your objective to describe, what career goals you want to achieve is passé. Your endeavor should be to focus on what you can do for the employer. By including a resume summary, you get to display your professional side on the first page itself. 

It may only consist of one or two sentences but will give a positive impression to the recruiter and prompt them to go through the whole resume.

#2 Chronological versus functional resume format

There are two types of resumes – chronological and practical – that you can opt for. Chronological resume requires listing your work experience in reverse chronological order. It may not serve your purpose if you have little or no experience. A functional resume is more suitable, as it focuses on your skills and achievements, rather than work experience.

#3 Perfectly written

There is nothing more off-putting for a recruiter than to find a resume with typos and grammatical mistakes. Be sure that you revise your resume several times to weed out any punctuation, grammatical and spelling mistakes. Also, ensure that your resume is factually correct and gives a professional look.

#4 Mention all achievements and activities

Since you don’t have any work experience to write about, it is essential that you mention in your resume all that you have done. The first step is to make a list of all your achievements and then picking out the relevant ones, applicable to the kind of job you have applied for.

#5 Mention education and skills

Mentioning your knowledge and skills is an excellent way of circumventing citing work experience. Expand your education, the school and college you have attended, the subjects you have studied and the skills you have acquired along the way, which makes you ideal for the job applied for. Higher education will have a more significant impact on the recruiter.

#6 Mention taking up internships

Having done a course is an excellent substitute for work experience. Mentioning this in your resume will straightaway convey to the recruiter that you have some real-world work experience.

It also carries that you have built a network of people, who could be tapped by the company hiring you. If you have not done any internship, it is essential that you apply for one just to get it on your resume. 

#7 Mention extracurricular activities or volunteer work, if any

Don’t underestimate the significance of extracurricular activities and volunteer work. This is because employers give serious consideration to volunteer experience along with work experience.

In case you have done it and have learned a new skill or gained some expertise useful for the job applied, mention it in your resume.

#8 Things not to be included in resume

Irrelevant information, just to fill up the resume, is a big no-no, since it not only irritates but also discourages the recruiter to read through it. Such things may even show you in a negative light.

Things that are not to be given in a resume are references, writing samples and your photos unless asked for. Mention a professional sounding email and not something funky. If you don’t have one, create a new one, just for your resume.

#9 Include keywords

Keywords have become a present-day requirement since recruiters scan and sort resumes using an applicant tracking system or ATS. This system is designed to pick up the keywords that gel with the demands of the job.

So, if you have not used them on your resume, ATS will merely overlook your resume, even if you have all the qualifications.

Conclusion:

Writing a professional resume with little or no experience is crucial. The onus of impressing the recruiter rests solely on how you draft it. The above points will help you not only write a perfect resume but also land that job.

What challenges do you face when writing a professional resume? Do you have any question? Feel free to share via comments.

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