Most beginners fear that without prior job experience they won’t get hired in any reputed company.
But, the fact is that if you have a well written resume, then you can land up in your first job without much ado.
As most beginners, doesn’t have much work experience, therefore, the resume is mainly of one page.
However, in this one pager resume, you will have to highlight your educational qualification and also include all the internship job experience.
You also need to highlight the skills that you have and feel that it is apt for the job position you are applying for.
Life experience is another important factor that will earn you some brownie points when you are trying to impress your prospective employer.
Beginners Resume – a general one!
While writing a resume for an entry level job position, you will find that it is more of a general one, than the ones that are targeted for a top level position.
In most cases, you won’t find any job experience to add up in the resume when you are writing it as a beginner. There are some who go for the summer jobs or have internship experience.
If you are one of those who have volunteer experience or internship experience, then you can definitely include that in your resume.
While doing so, you must remember one thing that the work experience that you are including must enhance your credibility and serve your purpose.
If you have lined up the carts in a mall or pushed the carts into the store, then it won’t help your cause. It doesn’t portray any quality of yours in front of your potential employer.
Therefore, these are certainly some pointers that you must not add in your beginner’s resume.
Things to avoid in your beginner’s resume:
While writing your resume, you must concentrate on things that will highlight your quality and is also suitable for the job position.
Moreover, there are some pointers that you must keep in mind while shaping up your resume, so that you don’t end up making a fool out of yourself in front of the hiring manager.
- Firstly, you must maintain a consistent font throughout your resume.
- If required, then you can use formatting like the italics or underlining or bold sparingly
- Update your mobile number cautiously, it must not miss out a single digit
- Create a professional email address
- Font style should be such that it is legible even when the font size is small. Don’t select the font style, which can barely be read even when the font size is large.
- Specify the industry type where you are trying to fit in
- Never put up everything in the center of your resume, instead it should be ‘left aligned’
- Update appropriate job description
- If you have to use the word ‘and’ in your resume, then you must write it down, rather than using the symbol ‘&’
- Use present tense while writing about your current job, other than that, all other job experience should be in past tense
- Avoid typo errors, it will kill the resume
- Organize the job experience from the most recent to the oldest
- Never use the abbreviation in your resume to make a long sentence short, rather try to re-frame the sentence in short
The main thing that you must keep in mind is that you must stay consistent while writing your resume. Otherwise, things will look a bit disorganized in your beginner’s resume and it will show you in a bad light.
Tailor made Resume Tips for Entry Level Job Seekers :
Go through the job description first before writing your resume; so that you can tailor make your resume for the entry level job position. It will help you in listing the experiences that you have to offer as the prospective employee.
1. Educational qualification:
When you do not have the work experience, then you can fall back on your educational qualification.
Your high school subjects and its score along with other course work that can be related to the job position you are applying for will be of great value.
If at present you are studying in a school, then include the certification name under the header ‘pending completion’. Always mention special achievements and also the score (provided it is a good one).
2. Professional email address:
In order to create a good first impression, it is necessary that you use a professional email address.
You can use your email address as your identity, so instead of using ‘cutiepie@yahoo.com’, you should create an email address like computerprogrammer@yahoo.com.
In case, you find that all your choices are taken, then you can add your zip code or town’s name to your email address like computerprogrammer_(zip code) @yahoo.com.
3. Add volunteer experience or community experience:
Even when you don’t get paid for your community services or voluntary services, it enriches you with experience.
So, don’t forget to include them in your resume. If you have worked in a leadership role, then you should highlight that.
Team experience will also count as it displays your potential of working well with team members.
These kinds of services will also help you grow network and there are chances that you might meet your future employer while working out there.
4. Emphasize on the contact details:
You can use bold formatting for your name and even the font size can be larger than the normal 10 point size.
When you are updating your contact details, include your LinkedIn profile address and the email address apart from your phone number.
If you are running short of space, then you can avoid the physical address if you feel that it is too long. The layout of the contact information should be symmetrical as that will help you in saving space at the top.
5. Optional summary:
It is like jotting down your qualities in two or three sentences. The resume summary must include your professional skills, work experience and the projects that you have worked upon.
If you feel that the summary won’t add value to your resume as you don’t have much work experience or skill to add on, then don’t waste the space of your resume.
If that doesn’t help your cause of shaping your candidacy, then it is better to leave it aside.
6. Skills:
You might be good at using some kind of software or you have some technical knowledge that will prove to be a great differentiator in your resume, then you must add them right away.
Make a table where you can include all the skills, including the relevant technical ones as well. Your knowledge of software will also come under that column.
7. Job title:
Effective job title will help you in improving the ability to unearth your resume amongst the hundreds. It will also grab the attention of the concerned person and help in focusing on your resume as well.
You should place your job title immediately below the contact information and will work as a header for the entire document. It will also help you to come up with skills and other details that are relevant to the job title.
8. Keywords are important:
Keywords are important, but if you overdo it, then it will kill your resume. Always make sure that you do not exceed the keyword density more than 4% of the total word count.
Keeping this in mind you should repeat the keywords all the way through the body of the resume, including the professional skills segment.
This will also enhance the chance of your resume getting discovered by the recruiters online.
When you do not possess work experience, then writing a resume might seem a daunting task, but if you keep these points in mind, then the blank page will soon begin to pile up and you will be present yourself as an entry level professional.
