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.
How To List Skills On Your First Job Resume
Your skills section should be a list of the skills you possess that will help you in the role you want. You can usually refer to the job description for the skills necessary for the job! Most of the time, they include a list of qualities that applicants should have use that as a guide when listing skills on your resume.
Its useful to distinguish between hard skills and soft skills. Hard skills are the practical skills youll use from day to day in your role things like the use of particular software packages, or the ability to use a cash register. If you dont have all the hard skills listed as necessary for the role you want, dont panic you can write, either in your cover letter or as part of your skills section, that you are willing to learn on the job.
On the other hand, you probably already have some relevant soft skills! Well cover those in more detail below.
For general information about skills on your resume, check out our resume skills guide here!
What To Include On A Resume When You Don’t Have Work Experience
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Writing your first-ever resume can be a challenge. How do you sell yourself to an employer when youre a student who doesnt have any experience in your targeted field?
When writing your first resume with no formal work experience, it’s appropriate to include casual jobs like babysitting, pet sitting, lawn mowing, and shoveling snow. You can also include volunteering, internships, and school and community activities.
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Show A Progression Of Roles And Responsibilities If You Haven’t Been Promoted
If youve held multiple jobs at one employer without a formal promotion, try listing more impressive and in-depth accomplishments for later roles and fewer or simpler accomplishments for earlier ones. If youve only ever held the one position, include accomplishments that speak to career growth, like explicitly mentioning times youve taken on additional responsibilities or been entrusted with higher-level tasks.
Show career growth in the same role by focusing on a progression of duties in your accomplishments
Here are some bullet point examples you can use:
- Oversaw the development of more robust reporting for the customer support team, which improved customer NPS by 15% year over year
- Grew to lead and onboard a team of 4 operations analysts
To ensure your resume’s bullet points are effective, make sure you take advantage of free tools like Score My Resume they’ll scan your resume’s bullet points and tell you if they’re effective from the point of view of hiring managers.
Read more about listing multiple jobs at the same company on your resume.
What Are Examples Of Technical Skills For A Resume
When listing technical skills on your resume, include specific proficiencies and certifications. Front-end web developers, for instance, would report their level of expertise in HTML, CSS and JavaScript and other technologies the company lists in its job posting. A financial controller, meanwhile, might claim a strong foundation in GAAP or SEC reporting, and an administrative professionals resume skills could advertise a CAP or MOS certification.
Here are some examples of hard resume skills for 15 in-demand fields in Canada:
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Can I Get Hired Without A Resume
Yes, sometimes you can get hired without a resume. Mostly, this is the case for informal, part-time jobs such as babysitting, delivery work, or waitering jobs. Yet, the employer may ask for a personal reference letter instead. Also, most freelance jobs dont require you to file a formal resume. And so do popular gig platforms.
What Are Examples Of Soft Skills For A Resume
Make no mistake, the soft skills on your resume can be of as much interest to a hiring manager as the technical skills you offer. Smart managers know that an experienced, highly trained new hire who doesnt fit in the office culture, communicates poorly with clients and colleagues, or freezes under deadline pressures can take a heavy toll on the workplace. Your resume and, later, how you present at the interview should assure the employer that you not only can do the job, but youll help make the team thrive.
Unsure which soft skills can send that message? Remember, every job application should get a tailored resume. So review the duties of the position youre applying for, and determine which of your personal strengths would help you be a success at the job and in the work environment.
Consider these 15 soft skills and personal attributes, and why employers value them:
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Has A Friend Reviewed Your Resume
Getting a fresh pair-of-eyes to look at your resume will do wonders. Not only will it give you an idea of how your resume comes across to a neutral party, but they may also find mistakes that youve missed. They may even think of some achievement you forgot to include. Luckily, Enhancvs built-in referral link allows you to do this with ease.
Technical Or Hard Skills
The technical skills you should include depends largely on the field youre planning to enter. Refer to the job description for clues on what the employer requires. Technical skills could include anything from knowledge of specific programming languages or software, or speaking a foreign language.
When listing technical skills, be as specific as possible. If an employer lists certain technical skills as desired, place them in a prominent position on your resume and include your level of proficiency. For example, if you have extensive experience using spreadsheets, you might write Advanced in MS Excel, including pivot tables and vlookup. If youre just beginning to learn a new hard skill, you can indicate that as well. For example, if youre learning to use a CRM system you could write, Familiar with Salesforce CRM.
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Write A Resume Objective
The resume objective, also called a career objective, resume summary or objective statement, is usually composed of one to two sentences that summarize your relevant skills. Often its placed at the top of your resume to capture the hiring managers attention.
Writing a clear, concise resume objective can quickly give employers context around where you are in your career, what youre looking for and the strengths and experiences you have that make you a great fit for the job.
Here are several examples of objective statements you can use for reference as you develop your own statement:
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I am a highly driven recent business school graduate seeking a full-time position in finance where I can lend my knowledge of market analytics to help your organization improve profitability.
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I am a motivated team player and aspiring fashion buyer with proven communications skills seeking to grow my knowledge of the couture industry and use my conversational skills as a junior retail associate for your womens formal wear boutique.
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Tailor Skills To The Job Ad
Not sure which skills to mention in your first job resume?
The simplest way to find the essential ones is to check the job ad.
The recruiter themselves mentioned the skills theyre looking for – the only thing you need to do is mention them in your resume .
Lets say youre applying for a graphic designer position that wants the following qualifications and skills:
- Adobe Creative Suite proficiency, particularly InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop and Acrobat XD, Animate and/or After Effects are a plus
- Working knowledge of presentation software
- Ability to work under pressure, manage work on multiple projects daily, manage a large workload and meet deadlines.
- Detail-oriented, highly organized
Based on that, your skills section should include the following:
- Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and Acrobat
- After Effects and Cinema4D
- Time management
- Detail-oriented
If the job ad isnt too descriptive, you can also check out these 101+ most in-demand skills for 2022.
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What To Include In Your First Job Resume
Keep your resume simple and easy to read while still providing the most relevant information the employer will need.
Its advisable to keep it short and easy to understand. Since most employers receive many resumes in a day, they wont have time to read over pages and pages of contentin fact, hiring managers spend an average of only six to eight seconds looking at each resume.
Most first job resumes should include these sections:
Give Your Career An Internet Presence
Now that you’ve broken into the “real world,” you need to consider your presence on the Internet. This is especially important if you work in the online industry, but even if your career path doesn’t involve work, you can show off on the Internet that doesn’t mean potential recruiters and hiring managers aren’t using the Internet to find and vet potential employees. There are a few online venues to consider when cleaning up your online presence act:
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Pay Attention To Technical Details
When editing your resume, make sure there are no punctuation, grammatical, spelling, or other errors that will make your resume look unprofessional. Then, have a friend or family member read it again to catch any mistakes you might have missed you can’t afford a typo or missing word as a candidate with no prior work experience. Also, be sure to vary your language and utilize action verbs throughout your resume to keep your reader engaged.
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Use Numbers To Show Impact
Including numbers and metrics is the best way to make your accomplishments stand out, even if youve only held one job. This is called quantifying your resume’s bullet points.
Stating what you did is all well and good, but what potential employers want to know is what youre likely to do for them and using numbers to show the concrete impact youve made in your current role is the most effective way to do that.
Even a close approximation will do if you cant find out exactly how much revenue youve generated for your company, or how much youve improved efficiency, listing a good estimate is far more valuable than not using numbers at all.
Here are a few sample resume bullet points which show you how to use numbers in your resume, to increase overall impact.
Use numbers to drive home the impact of your accomplishments
Read more about how to quantify your resume and what recruiters are looking for.
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Choose A Type Of Resume
Next, choose the type of resume that suits your needs best. Here are the most common types of resumes:
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Chronological resume: This resume lists your education and experience in chronological order, starting with your most recent achievements. This helps hiring managers skim your resume easily.
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Functional resume: This resume highlights your skills and accomplishments by placing them at the top of your resume. If you have work experience, you can include it at the bottom, but it’s not the focus.
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Combination resume: This is a mix of functional and chronological resume, which is a good option for those with extensive job experience or want to switch careers.
A functional resume is often the best option for your first job as you likely have little to no job experience yet. Using a functional resume allows you to show prospective employers you have the skills and credentials they’re looking for, so your lack of work experience won’t hold you back from succeeding.
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Match Your Experiences To The Job Listing
Writing a solid resume begins with studying the job description for the role youâre applying for. You want your resume to match up with what the company is looking for, so start by making a list of the key terms from the job description.
Go through the job description, and write down or highlight all the abilities, skills, and values listed within. Pay close attention to those listed as required.
Now, think about experiences in your own life that match up with the items on the list. If the job listing asks for someone with strong organizational skills, think about times when youâve had to be particularly organized. Maybe you helped plan a school event or led a group project.
Itâs okay if you donât have something for every item. Keep this list nearby as you begin to fill in your resume template.
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Take Stock Of Your Achievements And Activities
Make a list of absolutely everything you’ve done that might be useful on a resume. From this list, you’ll then need to narrow down what to actually include on your resume. Different things might be relevant to different jobs you apply for, so keep a full list and pick the most relevant things from it to include on your resume when you send it out.
Include A Resume Objective
Recruiters spend on average 7 seconds scanning each resume before deciding if its worth more consideration or not.
That means your resume has about 7 seconds to leave a great first impression and convince the recruiter youre the person theyre looking for.
A good resume objective does that for you.
A resume objective is a 2-3 sentence snapshot of your skills, achievements, and career goals. Its purpose is to communicate your motivation for getting into the field and your interest in this particular position.
This makes it ideal for the first job resume of a recent graduate or somebody whos changing careers. Basically, any resume with no work experience.
Your resume objective should be tailored to the position you are applying for and highlight skills that will help the company achieve its goal. Use as many facts and numbers as you can to back up any statements or achievements.
- Creative and motivated recent graduate with a B.A. in Marketing from the University of Michigan. Seeking permanent employment in the field of marketing after completing successful internships in 2 major media companies. Looking to further develop my market analysis skills and contribute to future marketing strategy developments at XY Company.
- I am looking to put my marketing skills into action by initially working for the marketing department of a well-known company until I can finally get to an executive position.
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Minimize Your College References
Shuffling the education part of your resume down, just above your references, shouldnt be the only action that youll take against all college-related on your resume. Purge it of some of the unnecessary educational references in your resume such as your organizational or club commitments, what your GPA is , or any stuff about high school that you included when padding your mostly empty resume.
You dont need those references anymore now that you have work experience, of which you can further maximize on with a Technical Skills section.
Use Seo In Your Resume
SEO is Search Engine Optimization. If you already knew that, then chances are you work in an industry where having keywords in your resume is very important. Even if you work in an industry not closely related to tech or the Internet, SEO can still play a key role in getting you hired. Implementing a few basic SEO principles when crafting your resume makes it more likely that the system a company uses to filter out resumes chooses yours for the next step instead of kicking it out. Three-quarters of companies use some sort of applicant tracking system, most of which use algorithms to filter out qualified applicants based on keywords in the resumes they submit. There are three essential SEO rules all resumes should follow:
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