From the course: Resume Makeover

Create a resume with little or no professional experience

From the course: Resume Makeover

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Create a resume with little or no professional experience

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- If you're a recent graduate or someone who, for whatever reason, has limited professional experience, you might be wondering, what the heck am I going to put on my resume? I mean, how are you supposed to convince a hiring manager to take a chance on you if your only jobs so far have been a summer internship and a part-time job at Burger King? Don't sweat it. Everyone has been there, and guess what? It's entirely possible to position yourself as a solid candidate without having a bunch of prior experience. Here's what to do. Grab a few job descriptions that really speak to you. If you've been following along with this course, you should already have a handful of target roles. If not, head over to one of the job boards, like LinkedIn or Indeed, and find some. Be realistic, of course. You're not likely going to land a vice president job if you're just starting your career. Now, highlight any and all transferable skills, things you're good at in general, even if you didn't gain that proficiency from a full-time job. Pay particular attention to skills that are called out across multiple job descriptions. You'll definitely want to lean into these on your resume and, where you can, demonstrate how you've successfully put these skills into action. And this can extend beyond career jobs. You may have acquired skills that'll come right in handy for your next job while you were in college or during an internship, doing volunteer work, or yes, even at Burger King. Here's an example. Let's say that the jobs you're eyeing call for strong problem-solving skills and a commitment to delivering great customer service. List that internship as a job, and call out any challenges that you successfully tackled. List your Burger King job in your experience section also, and highlight the things that you did to make customers happy. You can even put volunteer work right in your experience section if you need to fill that out a little bit. And again, highlight anything that you did that will likely be of interest to your future employer. Now, what do you put on your resume if you've not had any jobs? You can list relevant projects from college right within your education section. You might create a leadership section and list that you're an Eagle Scout or you were captain of the college debate team. No matter who you are and how much or little official experience you've had, I assure you you've got something great to offer. Package it up strategically and then put yourself out there for those jobs you're dying to land.

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