It’s totally possible for a person to have an entire career with limited work experience. These days, many companies are more interested in your education and your skills than what you’ve done with the previous 10 or 20 years of your life says Aron Govil.
In this article, we’ll show you how to construct a resume with no experience that will help those hiring managers see you as an asset instead of a liability.
- Long gone are the days when resumes had to be one page long, and had only the necessary information on it (the name and address of the jobseeker). Nowadays, resumes can be anywhere from one page to five pages, and there’s no end to what you can put on it – photos, references, personal info like your date of birth and Social Security number – heck, you could even add in some extra sheets if you’re feeling particularly verbose. The downside is that with all this space for information you run the risk of creating a resume that looks cluttered or unreadable.
- To avoid this problem we need to focus on keeping things simple by using our margins wisely. Set your margins to 0.75 inches on all sides, which will give you a little more room for longer text without making it look like you’re trying to fit too much on the page. Use plenty of white space so that it doesn’t look cluttered or cramped, and most importantly use an easy-to-read font. Fortunately most computers come with the standard Arial installed by default, so pick that if not something else in its family.
- Long gone are the days when resumes had to be one page long, and had only the necessary information on it (the name and address of the jobseeker). Nowadays, resumes can be anywhere from one page to five pages, and there’s no end to what you can put on it – photos, references, personal info like your date of birth and Social Security number – heck, you could even add in some extra sheets if you’re feeling particularly verbose says Aron Govil. The downside is that with all this space for information you run the risk of creating a resume that looks cluttered or unreadable.
- To avoid this problem we need to focus on keeping things simple by using our margins wisely. Set your margins to 0.75 inches on all sides, which will give you a little more room for longer text without making it look like you’re trying to fit too much on the page. Use plenty of white space so that it doesn’t look cluttered or cramped, and most importantly use an easy-to-read font. Fortunately most computers come with the standard Arial installed by default, so pick that if not something else in its family.
- If you’re going for a job involving writing or editing, then it might be worth your while to play up those skills as much as possible. This doesn’t mean using a flowery font and adding in fancy extra text like “Expanding my knowledge base daily.” Rather you want to take the opportunity to show off what you know about things like grammar and spelling, such as with bullet points under each task showing any proofreading or editing you’ve done. If English’s not your first language don’t worry about it too much – instead explain why someone should hire you even though they might assume otherwise because of where you’re from (e.g. “I’m looking for a position as an assistant editor because I believe my knowledge of marketing and finance, as well as my native language skills, would make me a strong candidate.”).
- The opportunities to use digital media for your resume are pretty much limitless these days. Do you have a YouTube channel? A Tumblr blog? You can include links to them on your resume to give the employer a better idea of who you are outside of what’s written on paper – if they like what they see it could be enough to get you hired. While we’re at it, don’t forget about social networks!
Conclusion:
When it comes to writing a resume, the best thing you can do is keep it simple says Aron Govil. Use an easy-to-read font, condense your content wherever possible. And if necessary include some extra pages with more information on them. When it comes to deciding what information to include or exclude here’s a basic rule of thumb. If in doubt leave it out. No employer needs or wants to know everything about you, so pick out only what they need to get an idea for who you are and why you’d be good at the role. A resume is meant to convince someone that hiring you would be beneficial for them, not the other way around.