Shricareer Tue, 07/05/2022 - 14:28

Creating your first resume means the commencement of your professional career. And hence you will need to create a resume that will showcase your worth and abilities, impress the hiring team, and convince them that you can be an ideal employee in their company.

A lot of employers value the work experience section in resumes. But since you are fresher, you will have to create a resume without work experience which can be daunting. You might get confused about which section to prioritize the most that will impress the recruiters and you’ll be selected for the next round.

Well, worry not. We have got you covered. Through this blog, we’ll guide you on how to create the best quality resume which will focus on the skills that will help you develop your professional career, share your greatest strengths and highlight your education.

Formatting your Resume.

The layout of the resume is called the resume format. There are three types of resume formats;

• Reverse-Chronological Resume
• Functional Resume
• Chronological Resume  

Out of these three types, the reverse-chronological format is ideal for those who have less or no experience at all. Recruiters mostly prefer this format and it is also the most popular among the applicants.

The layout of your reverse-chronological resume will be

• Header: Name, Contact Information, and Resume Statement
• Qualifications
• Miscellaneous (Projects, internships, extracurricular activities, volunteer work, etc.)
• Skills

1. Resume Header

Start With Your Resume Header with your name, contact information, your social media accounts link, and your resume statement (objective). Just after your name, add your personal and contact information to the header. Mention the following things in your contact information;

• First and Last Name
• Phone Number
• E-mail Address (use an email that sounds professional)
• Social Media Accounts (e.g., LinkedIn)
• Resume Objective

Note: Make sure that all your contact information is properly working. It would be the worst if you are selected and the recruiter can’t contact you.

Create a compelling objective within 3-4 sentences or less. After all the recruiters will view your resume for a few seconds. So, this is the chance to impress the recruiters in this section.

Include the following things in your resume objective:

• your field of study
• your skills and experiences
• your motive for applying for this position and/or this company

2. Education

Since you have no experience so you’ll have to emphasize your education section. In this way, you’ll attract the recruiter’s attention to your education which is one of the important aspects of your resume. Mention all the qualifications that you have.

Include the following things in your resume:

• Name of the degree
• Name of the institution
• Years attended
• Location of the institution (optional)
• GPA (optional)
• Honors (optional)
• Relevant coursework (optional)
• Exchange programs (optional)

Note: If you have attended a reputed university, then just add the name of the institution before the degree, so as to catch the attention of the recruiter.

3. Miscellaneous

This is the best section to replace your work experience section with. After you’ve listed your education, now you should fill the void of the work experience in your resume. If you are still worried about your lack of experience mention it in your resume section, then worry not. Here are a few things that you can mention instead;

1. 1. Internships

If you have done any internships that are relevant to the job position you are applying for, then mention it.

Tips on how to mention your internships in your resume:

• Mention the internship section right after the education section, titling it: Internships
• Write your internship title and job role. E.g.; if you did your internship in marketing, then mention “Marketing Intern”.
• Write all the company information like name, location, and duration of the internship.
• Mention all the responsibilities that you had as an intern in bullets.
• You can also mention any achievements (if any) during your internships.
  2. Extracurricular activities

If you still feel like there are a lot of empty spaces then add your extracurricular activities to your resume. Irrespective of whether they are related to your job role or not, just show your recruiters that you’re hard-working and motivated.

Eg. If you won a basketball championship during your high school then mention it.

How to list extracurricular activities on your resume:

• Title the section as- Extracurricular Activities
• Mention the name and your role in the organization/or team.
• Note down all the awards or achievements
  3. Volunteering Experience

Your volunteering experience shows your dedication and passion to apply for the job role. And recruiters love dedicated people. You can mention all the volunteering tasks you’ve done. For example; distributing food during a pandemic, helping street dogs, collecting trash from the sea, etc., you can mention it all.

Listing your volunteering experiences

• Title that section as- Volunteering experience
• Mention the name and location of the organization that you were working for.
• Write the duration of the volunteering work.
• Note all the tasks and achievements during the volunteering work (in bullet points)

1. 4. Projects

Here you can mention any relevant projects you were part of during your time in school/college or during an internship. For example- your capstone project, graduation thesis, research project, or any project that you have worked on during your school time, you can mention it all.

How to include projects in your resume;

• Title of the section as- Projects
• Mention your project name and then your project type.
• Write the name of the organization for whom you have done the project.
• Duration of the project.
• Your roles, responsibilities, and achievements in the project.

4. Skills

You will need to include your skills section because you have no work experience resume and this will be the easiest way of communicating your capabilities. There are two types of skills that you can mention on your resume:

• Soft skills
• Hard skills

Difference between soft skills and hard skills.

Soft skills are the skills that describe how you work, not exactly related to a job but will show how well you will adapt to the workplace. Example- responsibility, leadership, teamwork, creativity, etc.  On the other hand, hard skills refer to the technical knowledge, specific tools, training, and other work-specific skill that you are a master at. Example- Technical writing, C++, financial accounting, etc.

As a fresher, you should more focus on hard skills more than soft skills. You should include the skills that are relevant to the job position and as mentioned in the job description.  

For example;

If you’ve applied for an entry-level creative internship and the job description required the following things;

• Photo editing experience (Photoshop)
• Video editing experience (Premiere, After Effects)
• UI design experience
• Photography experience
• Knowledge of Adobe Illustrator

In that case, you will need to mention skills like

• Photoshop - Expert
• UI Design - Intermediate
• Premiere & After Effects - Expert
• Adobe Illustrator - Intermediate
• Photography - Intermediate

These sections were the most important sections that will grab the attention of hiring managers. Apart from that if you’ve still some space left in your resume, then you might consider including some other things that describe how capable you are.

Hobbies and Interests. To showcase your sincere enthusiasm and interest in your resume, you can add flair to your resume.

Languages. Do you speak more than two-three languages? Then that will be awesome. Since most businesses, today are rather global and hence they value an extra language skill or two.

Awards & Certifications. Do you possess any paper/document that communicates how smart you’re or showcases your awards or certification? If there is a certification then you must definitely include it.