Put Your Ged In Your Resumes Education Section
If youre adding your GED to your resume, place it in your resumes education section.
When you list your GED, write its full name followed by the acronym in parentheses to ensure the hiring manager or applicant tracking system sees relevant resume keywords like diploma or high school.
States use the GED or HiSET test, or both, so heres what you should usually write:
However, some states have their own GED requirements. For instance, if youre applying to work in California, the employer may request a California High School Equivalency Certificate, so youd need to list that instead.
If youre unsure what to list, check the job requirements or contact the employer for clarification.
Here are examples of how to put your GED, HiSET, or California High School Equivalency Certificate on your resume:
Education
California High School Equivalency Certificate
If youre putting your GED on your resume, you dont need to list your high school.
Research The Companys Culture
Take the time to go beyond the job description and do your research on the company. Schweikert suggests simply going on the companys career website to see what their values are. In addition to including your professional experience on your resume, think about including information relevant to that companys culture.
For example, if you see that a company participates in a significant amount of charitable work and you have volunteer experience, consider adding that to your resume, Schweikert says. And even if the company doesnt mention anything about volunteering, you may want to include it anyway about 80% of hiring influencers , indicated that they believe there is a relationship between volunteering and leadership ability, according to a 2016 Deloitte survey.
Make Your Resume Job Descriptions Relevant To The Opening
Recruiters dont care how successful youve been so far, in general.
They want to know if youre familiar with the duties and responsibilities that come with the advertised position.
If theres just one takeaway I want you to get out of reading this guide, its this:
Personalize every work experience entry on your resume to the position youre trying to land.
Remember Amelia, the candidate from our sample resume job description?
Shes eyeing the Head of Digital Marketing position. Her most recent job has been a managerial role in digital marketing, but
Before that, she worked as a Product Manager. So, what did she do? In her resume work history, she described responsibilities that were relevant to digital marketing.
- Product manager for a high-volume pharmaceutical company.
- Met over 110% of revenue goal all four years.
- Implemented Agile ideation plan, boosting idea implementation by 34%.
- Developed quarterly reports requiring a high level of qualitative and quantitative data analysis.
Dont get me wrong. The bad example isnt badas such. Its just not right for this particular post.
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Key Skills Youve Learned In School And Other Experiences
After your professional summary, list your skills that are relevant to the position you are applying for. To get a good idea of the skills required for a job, simply browse job descriptions for that specific job title. Typically, within the requirements or qualifications section, there will be many skills listed that you can copy.
Dont be afraid to list skills that you havent used in a professional setting. If you have learned about them in school or if you have practiced these skills during an extracurricular activity, list them! Just make sure you are honest during an interview about your level of competency.
Example of how to list less than 10 key skills in a resume:
- Time Management
Example of how to list more than 10 key skills in a resume:
- Leadership: Team Management, Resource Planning, Budgeting
- Math: Data Entry, Data Analytics, Statistics
- Professionalism: Active Listening, Office Etiquette, Professional Communication, Time Management
- Languages: English , Spanish
Add It To The Location Section
Previous Employment entries on a resume typically include the employers location as part of the standard information. However, you can slightly shift the setup to make it known that you performed the work remotely.
Lavie Margolin, the author of Mastering the Job Interview, suggests using one of these three ways to state your remote work experience on your resume:
- List the organizations corporate location when using a city/state format, but note that the work is performed remotely in the first sentence or bullet point.
- Skip city/state in the formatting and note that it is work that is performed remotely in the first sentence.
- List Remote Work in place of city/state.
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Research Common Skills In Your Industry
This is vital for people who are trying to switch into a new career or people who havenât looked for a new job in a few years. Consult recent job descriptions on top job search sites like Indeed and LinkedIn and use them to add to your resume skills list.
Check out lists of in-demand skills. These lists are a good reference to see what is popular for the year
Remember not to add different types of skills just because theyâre trendy: only include skills you actually have on your resume. These lists can help jog your memory, though, or help you determine what skills to emphasize. For example, in 2020, emotional intelligence is one of the top soft skills.
You can also reference resume examples that include education, work experience, and skills for your job title.
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Top Hard Skills For Your Resume
Hard skills tend to be more technical, and each industry or type of job will usually have its own required set. Finding out what range of hard skills youll be expected to have in your field might require some research. Here are some hard skills that tend to be in-demand across many industries.
Computer Software and Application Knowledge
The list of professions that does not require you to use computers and certain types of software is very short. You could very likely break up computer skills into two or three specific technical proficiencies for your field.
Design
Aside from the obvious professions like graphic or web design, there are jobs in marketing, advertising, branding, engineering, and construction that require some type of design skillseven if its only for drawing up presentations.
Data Analysis
Understand data is very much in vogue right now, and there are a lot of jobs out there where you will be called upon to analyze metrics and extrapolate a practical use from it, making analytical skills extremely valuable to put on your resume.
Negotiation
There are many jobs that involve selling a product or service, purchasing stock or merchandise, brokering deals for production or transportation, establishing partnerships for advertising or investments, and so on.
Mathematics
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Formatting Sections On A Resume
Clearly separate resume sections by formatting them in underlined and bold using a size that is one or two points larger than the rest of the text. This helps a hiring manager easily scan through your resume and pick out the important information fast.
When creating a resume, especially when you have no experience, it saves a lot of time to use a resume building template. Using a free resume template allows you to focus on writing the content without spending too much time on formatting.
Describe Your Educational Background
As a no-experience job seeker, your educational background is likely your strongest job qualification . This is especially true if youre writing a college freshman resume or have recently graduated.
One approach to highlight this background is to describe your relevant coursework first, like this:
You also need a resume education section, regardless if you want to mention your relevant classwork. And because youre applying for your first time job, its okay to make this section longer to fit your academic experiences.
Expand your education section by mentioning any student committees you were part of, and any scholarships, awards, or honors you were awarded. Additionally, include your GPA on your resume to further emphasize your work ethic and potential.
These details are helpful for recruiters and hiring managers, and give them another way to assess your resume other than work experience.
Heres an example of a smaller resume education section taken from a no-experience resume:
Graduate Studies
M.S. in Computer Science
California Institute of Technology Pasadena, CaliforniaB.S. in Electrical Engineering
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Add A Highlights Section
Modern resumes are built to be value-oriented, which requires providing information that is more achievement-based as opposed to task-based. If youve had multiple roles with varying achievements, select the top four you are most proud of and incorporate them into a Career Highlights section.
Try to avoid adding more than four as this section is meant to be the highlights of your achievements, and you dont want to create sections with long lists of bullets, creating a very boring way to read content.
What To Include In Your Resume
Start by mining your life experience and academic achievements to show that you’ll be an asset to the company, despite the fact that you don’t have any related job titles to show off at this stage in your career.
For your first resume, take the soft skills you have and show how they translate into success where you choose to apply them. Include volunteer experience, school achievements, sports, clubs, and organizations you belong to.
Scan the job descriptions for the positions to which you’re applying. Look for keywords that indicate what the hiring manager values in a candidate.
For example, the job listing might say, “Successful candidate will be a self-starter who delivers on time and on budget.” In that case, despite the fact that you don’t have relevant work experience in the same field, you can get the hiring manager’s attention by being sure to include projects that you’ve successfully led, such as high school clubs in which you held a leadership role that required you to manage both your time and the team’s money.
Other people skills that employers often seek in entry-level job applicants include traits like dependability, good communication and organizational skills, a solid work ethic, and teamwork.
If you start with the job listings instead of with the blank page, the hiring manager’s keywords will guide you, and help you focus on which of your academic or after-school experiences have prepared you for this first step in your career.
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Quantify Your Temp Experience
Every job on your resume will look more impressive when you are able to add numbers. If you’re not in a position to talk about how your work led to more revenue, fewer costs, or an increase in customer satisfaction, use numbers to give hiring managers a better sense of the job you did and the environment in which you worked. This could include, but is not limited to, the number of:
-
People you supported, checked in, or fielded questions from.
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Emails you replied to.
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Product or product categories you helped restock on shelves.
You get the idea. Make a list of your job duties. Then, look for places where you can add numbers to provide a clearer picture of the work you did.
Include A Summary Statement
Resume objective statements, where you state exactly what career goals you wish to achieve, have mostly fallen out of fashion. This is largely because you want to focus on what you can do for the employer, not what the employer can do for you. A resume summary statement, on the other hand, sums up who you are professionally at the top of the page in a sentence or two and serves as the first impression you give a hiring manager to entice them to keep reading.
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List Your Most Recent Work Experience First
List your most recent work experience at the top of your work experience section, with less recent job titles below. The more recent the work experience, the higher it should be placed on your resume.
Listing your work experience chronologically on your resume shows hiring managers how youve progressed in your career, and lets them see how your skills have developed over time:
Remember: With The Right Words Theres No Need To Lie On Your Resume
Do you sometimes feel like your resume work experience is inadequatecompared to others? Could that be the reason youre not getting called back?
Theres a huge chance your resume is just lacking the rightdetails. Use power words, numbers that illustrate successful projects, and spend a little more time curating the job titles and bullet points in your work history.
Do frame your work experience in a way that highlights your accomplishments and best qualities as a candidate. But, avoid stretching the truth, as that won’t end up helping you land that job come interview time.
Editorial Note: This content was originally published in June of 2017. We’re sharing it again because our editors have determined that this information is still accurate and relevant.
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How To Make A Resume With No Experience
Writing a resume for your first job or simply applying somewhere with no experience can be a scary prospect. You may have no idea how to start your resume, the best way to list your job skills, or even which resume format to choose.
Additionally, work experience is often considered the meat of a resume, and you likely dont have much at this point.
But we all have to start somewhere, and employers know it. This post provides guidelines for making your resume effective even if you have no experience.
Add More Experience With Relevant Certifications
Although certifications may not be direct work experience, they often times are major indicators to employers of how qualified the candidate is for a position.
To earn a certification, you will typically be required to complete an accredited course successfully.
It can be tempting to include every certification you have ever earned on your resume as a way to help add some extra detail and interest.
However, when you are including certifications you should still be keeping relevancy as your top priority.
As such, only the most relevant certifications should be showcased. For instance, letâs say you have a CPR and First Aid certification.
If you are applying to become a school nurse, these kinds of certifications are not only important but are likely required.
Comparatively, if you are applying to a position as a content writer, these certifications hold no relevance.
If you have earned a certification as a result of working a previous job, then you would likely want to include that certification in that specific job description.
Otherwise, your certifications may be better suited in their own devoted section.
Additionally, working to earn relevant certifications that you can list in tandem with your work experience section can help you to greatly stand out from other job applicants.
Here is a quick list of a few well-known certifications that would be useful to include on a resume:
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What If You Have No Skills Required For The Job
This is an entirely different matter. You may encounter a sympathetic hiring manager who understands the plight of new graduates seeking employment. More likely, however, you run the risk of having your future job applications deleted outright, particularly if you regularly apply to jobs for which youre unqualified.
If youre clearly not remotely qualified for a position, we recommend not applying at all. Continue your job search and find a better fit.
When you upload your resume to Chegg CareerMatch, well help you find jobs that are well-suited to your qualifications.
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Q: How Do I Articulate 20 Years Of Experience On My Resume
You only want to focus on the most recent 15 years of work experience, and the amount of detail you include for each role should decrease as you go back in your career. The reality is employers are going to say, That’s great what you did 10 years ago, but what have you done recently that’s relevant to what I’m hiring for?
That’s great what you did 10 years ago, but what have you done recently that’s relevant to what I’m hiring for?
For someone who has a lot of experience, what I typically recommend is: In addition to having your Professional Summary and Areas of Expertise, include a Career Highlights section on the first page. A highlights section is three or five bullets that show off the headliners from your 20-year career.
Not sure how to do this? You can see how a Career Highlights section is formatted in my article about ways to improve your senior-level resume.
Include anything that is highly brag-worthy, as well as particularly relevant to what you’re pursuing today. That way, if the role does fall toward the bottom of page two, it’s still getting a nod on the first page. Remember to look at each role and curate the information you’re providing based on what your current goal is.
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Resume Experience Section Examples
Here are two examples of how to write resume experience sections.
Sample One: This is for an entry-level job candidate. Here, instead of using the heading Professional Experience, one can use the broader caption Experience Highlights which allows the inclusion of a description of recent college training:
Experience Highlights
University of Washington, Seattle, WAStudent ~ Environmental Science Successfully completed comprehensive course of study in environmental science, laying solid groundwork for career in environmental restoration. Key coursework included: Environmental Biology, Geology and Soils, Air Pollution Meteorology, Waste Treatment Technology, and Ecology. Internships:
- Acme Environmental Consulting : Honed expertise in soil sampling, documentation, and client relations during internship with established environmental consulting firm.
- Hamilton Mine Rehabilitation Project : Under the direction of faculty advisor Dr. Sarah Rose, participated in $1.4 million reclamation project to reclaim mercury-contaminated mining field.
Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park Service, CaliforniaPark Guide / Trail Laborer Provided nature enrichment workshops and led park tours for park visitors ensured timely maintenance of trails and park facilities.
- Rehired based on proven teamwork, work ethic, and customer service excellence.
- Played key role in restoring 18-mile wilderness trail destroyed during wildfires.
Professional Experience