Traditionally, your resume is a short overview of your professional background. It’s an easy way to describe your experience, and they’re easy for recruiters to read. But a resume can feel like it betrays you when you’re either new to the job market or making a career change to a new industry.
Learning how to write a resume for the first time or with no job experience is simpler than you think. Here are our best tips based on years of hiring experience.
Research Jobs in Your Field
Every writing project begins with research, including resumes. In this case, your research includes scrolling through job advertisements and looking at the posts that interest you most. What do they have in common? Can you find soft or technical skills that every hiring manager seems to look for?
Answering these questions will give you a good idea of what you want to focus on in your resume.
Hint: You don’t need direct experience in the field to have a skill. If you have time management, customer service, or language skills, note them down and find ways to highlight them, such as in a summary or a skills section.
Choose the Right Format
The secret to a good resume is this: what’s on it matters less than how you present the information.
A few secrets for formatting a resume include:
- Using a professional template
- Making use of white space
- Keep it scannable
In other words, make your resume easy on the eyes. Your goal is to make your most important qualities stand off the page. To see if your format succeeds, give a copy to friends or coworkers and ask them to tell you the first thing they see.
Customize Your Resume for Different Jobs
When you don’t have direct experience, you need your resume to do more heavy lifting on your behalf. One of the best ways to do this is to go the extra mile and write a resume for each job.
You don’t need a brand new resume each time. However, you should update your skills and summary to reflect the advertisement directly. Sometimes, you may add or subtract less-relevant experience based on whether it relates to the role.
For example, if a job mentions the desire for safety experience, and you have some, you might add those skills to your resume specifically for that role (if you have them).
You Don’t Need the Experience to Write a Resume
Resumes are at the center of the hiring process, but you don’t need experience to write them. The way you share your history is as important as your experience and skills. So, if you are in the middle of a career transition or looking for your first job, focus on sharing your strengths as they apply to the role in a way that’s easy to read.
TekCom Resources Can Help You Find a Job
Are you on the hunt for your first job? Visit our careers page to learn more about technology and telecommunications roles in your area.
