How to Get Hired as a Fresh Graduate with No Experience
How do you get hired in a competitive market when you are a fresh graduate with no experience? It is not an impossible task – in fact, it is not too difficult when you know just what to do to make yourself shine. Check out these tips for crafting the perfect resume.
Make Your Resume Shine
In a world of black-and-white ready-made documents, an eye-catching, thoughtful resume design can make you stand out in the crowd. For that reason, it is important to choose a good resume template for your first job.
What makes a good resume template? Many are available online that have been designed by professionals. The best templates employ the right amount of color without appearing over the top. They include bold, easy-to-read fonts. Each resume section is clearly labeled, and there is enough empty space between sections so that the document does not appear crowded.
Good templates also walk you through exactly what to include on your resume. The basics are your contact information, skills, educational background, and work experience. But what if you do not yet have any work experience? Don’t worry – just keep reading. We’ll address that in the sections below.
Filling the Gaps
Work experience makes up the bulk of most people’s resumes. But if you have not yet entered the workforce, you may feel like your resume is empty and desolate. Don’t worry! You can use one or more optional resume sections to take up that space and demonstrate your amazing potential.
According to Purdue University, these optional sections can include:
- Certifications
- Community service
- Computer skills
- Foreign travel
- Hobbies and interests
- Honors and awards
- Languages
- Professional, academic, or other memberships
- Volunteer experience
Let’s talk about each of these in turn.
Certifications
Have you been certified? This may be a certification in your field or a general skill like OSHA safety, first aid, or CPR. You may even have hobby certifications like scuba diving or drone operation. You might not include these on a later resume, but for your first job, they make the statement that you are willing to stick to something long enough to get certified.
Community Service/Volunteer Experience
Serving your community and volunteering for the benefit of others displays good soft skills such as compassion and empathy. Depending on the type of work you did while volunteering, you might also be able to include specific technical skills.
Computer Skills
On later resumes, you may choose to have just one section for skills and competencies. But if you have computer skills, consider listing them separately on your first resume to further highlight them and take up space.
We live in an increasingly tech-centric world, and the fact that you already know your way around a computer can go a long way towards getting the job. Be sure to include skills like specific programs, program categories (such as video conferencing or cloud computing), and programming languages.
Foreign Travel
It is often assumed that people who have traveled are more open-minded and culturally intelligent. This is especially important for businesses that maintain offices, vendors, or customers in multiple countries, as employees may be required to navigate cultural differences with respect.
Hobbies and Interests
When choosing which hobbies to include, think about those that demonstrate transferable skills or those specific to your field. For example, if you like making YouTube videos, you have likely become skilled in videography, video editing, and social media marketing.
Honors and Awards
Did you have a high grade point average? Did you win awards for writing, sports, or something else? Did multiple universities offer you scholarships? A list of these accomplishments will prove that you work hard with efficiency and accuracy.
Languages
Do you speak more than one language? This can give you a leg up over other, similarly qualified candidates.
Memberships
Include academic organizations, competitive teams, Greek life, and other groups or clubs with which you have participated.
Your Elevator Pitch
Another optional resume section is the resume objective. The resume objective has been defined as ‘a statement of career intent.’
This is also known as an elevator pitch – a brief answer to the question “What do you do?” that you could relate during the few seconds between floors.
At this point in your career, your elevator pitch should relate your career status (a recent graduate), highlight your most important qualification (such as your course of study or degree), and confidently state what you want, such as a position in a particular field, with a certain company, or an opportunity to expand your skills working with a specific project.
Key Takeaways
When you’ve freshly graduated and you are looking for your first job, it is important to put your best foot forward with a solid resume. You can do this by using a professional resume template, filling your resume by highlighting the experience you do have and grabbing your hiring manager’s attention with a compelling resume objective.