Writing a resume without work experience

It is well known that the first thing employers look for in a candidate’s resume is their work experience, since it’s one of the easiest ways to predict their suitability for a job. So what do you write on a resume if you don’t have work experience? What to write if your work experience isn’t particularly impressive or relevant to the field in which you’re seeking employment?

 

These questions occupy quite a few new job seekers, such as high school students, freshly released soldiers, and students taking their first steps in the job market. The answer is that even without work experience, each of us has relative advantages over other applicants, and the goal is to highlight these advantages in our resume. But first you need to understand what your advantage is in regard to a particular job.

 

Here are three highlights for writing an impressive resume – with a bonus tip at the end!

If you have no employment experience at all, or if your experience is irrelevant to the field in which you’re looking for work, emphasize education. Of course that, if you have a little experience (even if irrelevant), it should be mentioned briefly, but your education should take center stage.

 

If you have a college education, vocational certificate, or high school diploma - you should definitely list them and highlight the key elements. Also note special academic achievements, or if you’ve graduated with honors. However, do not list primary education (before high school) and make sure to highlight the higher and/or most relevant education to the position you’re interested in.

 

On the page that deals with  how to write a resume, we discuss the preferred order of information on a resume. Here, therefore, is a classic case where we list education before work experience.

If you do not have relevant work experience, but during your military or national service you served in a position that provided you with relevant experience and skills, you should note this in the resume. When describing your military/national service, look for the similarities between your activities there and the activities of the job you’re applying to. Then highlight the professional added value that you’ve acquired and that you can use in the workplace you’re being screened for: knowledge, skills, practical experience, etc.

 

For example, take a candidate who served in the military as a soldier-teacher, and is currently looking for a youth training position. Since he worked regularly with high school students, he must be familiar with the work, and must have acquired the tools and skills required by an instructor. This “informal” experience can certainly constitute an advantage over other candidates.

 

Furthermore, if you’ve volunteered in a field similar to the one you’re interested in being hired for, you should also briefly mention the relevant experience and tools you acquired while volunteering.

Today, many employers understand the importance of so-called “soft” skills and capabilities and know that talented candidates can contribute a great deal to the success of the organization even if they lack relevant experience or education. The knowledge and experience that a position requires can be gained on the job, but to acquire them quickly and efficiently, skills such as self-directed learning, quick perception, flexibility, interpersonal skills, out-of-the-box thinking, and others are needed.

 

So, if you have any skills or capabilities that can help you do the job, note and highlight them. Mastery of foreign languages, coding, writing skills, aesthetic sensibility, or persuasiveness can be great additions to the resume of someone with relatively little work experience.

In our 10 tips for writing a good resume, we discussed the summary, saying that it is best suited for those with extensive work experience and education. However, a summary can serve inexperienced people just as well. The summary appears at the top of the resume, immediately following your personal details, and recaps all the key information in one convenient place using a few brief and concise bullet points.

 

Concentrate all of your benefits (education, military/volunteer experience, and skills and capabilities) in the summary, creating a twofold advantage: you’ll both make the recruiter’s job easier, and increase the chances of their noticing your strengths even if they haven’t read the whole resume.

Finding a job without work experience is not an impossible task.

 

True, experience in the job market is important to many employers. However, even if your experience is modest or irrelevant to the job you’re applying for, you can highlight your benefits in a way that allows employers to notice your potential.