For young graduates, you will find yourself competing with other candidates that have years of working experience once you begin the job hunt.
In a sense, this might feel like entering a battlefield. However, candidates with the most experience don’t always necessarily get the job as recruiters are looking for more than just experience.
Just because you don’t have existing skills or experience in a traditional work setting, that doesn’t mean you can’t craft an impressive and convincing resume.
In lieu of working experience, here are some things you can list down in your resume to show that you are the best candidate for the job:
Skills you’ve learned in school
For starters, list down skills that you’ve gained as a student that are relevant to the position you’re applying for.
Don’t hesitate to put down skills that you’ve yet to use in a professional setting, even if you’ve learned about them in your studies or if you’ve practised them during extracurricular activities.
Just make sure that you’re honest about them during the job interview afterwards.
Academic qualifications and achievements
To make up for your lack of experience, feature your academic qualifications and achievements. In some cases, these are areas that employers tend to focus on when searching for a potential employee.
List down any degree you have obtained or are currently pursuing, as well as the school or institution, location, field of study and the dates you attended.
Training and certificates
Apart from academic qualifications and skills, it’s best to add the training you’ve gone through as well as certificates you’ve obtained in your resume.
If you’ve completed some online courses, it’s also advisable to put it in your resume if it correlates with the position you’re applying for. This shows that you are multi-skilled and have a lifelong learning approach.
Volunteering and hobbies
Volunteering might also be considered as ‘work experience’.
This is especially helpful if any of the volunteer work you’ve done can highlight your talents or new skills you’ve gained. This can also demonstrate to your potential employer that you’re willing to commit yourself towards a deserving cause.
Apart from that, you might want to include your hobbies in your resume, particularly if they are relevant to the position and have equipped you with transferable skills that would be useful for the job.
Internship experience
Sometimes, you might not get paid for internship work, but that doesn’t make it less qualified to be considered as ‘work experience’.
Not only does internship give you some real-world work experience, it also allows you to establish your network that will benefit you in your career long term-wise.
Thus, when applying for a job, be sure to list any internships you completed. However, if you haven’t had one, you should consider applying before you make a full transition to the working life.
Photo by Ketut Subiyanto from Pexels.
