Things You'll Need:
- Computer
- Word Processing Software
- Printer
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Step 1
Identify your skills. Even though recent grads may not have tons of practical experience, they still have skills and competencies that they can leverage for a knockout resume.
For example, let's say that you want to go into sales. You have a two-month internship experience in which you pretty much just answered phones and sat in on sales meetings. You didn't sell anything--you didn't even get to sit near the telemarketers. You had a grunt work job--what can you use from that?
Plenty! Think about what you're good at. Here are some questions you can ask yourself to help identify your skill set!
-Are you a people person? Or do you prefer to work independently?
-Are you a good communicator? Are you persuasive?
-Do you focus on honesty and integrity?
-Are you a good presenter? Is public speaking easy for you?
-Do you prefer one-on-one interaction?
-Are you resourceful--can you get answers even when you don't know them?
-Are you great at customer service? (Now those high school jobs come in handy!) -
Step 2
Demonstrate your competencies. Now that you know your skills, it's time to help them shine! In addition to a great objective (we'll get to that in the next step) you should offer a few bulleted items that say what sub-specialties you want to focus in. These competencies can also include what you are good at. The following are examples of competencies:
• Communications
• Consultative Sales
• Customer Service
• Web Development
• Contract Negotiations
• Project Management
• Financial Management
• Sales Forecasting
• Direct Mail Marketing
• Profit and Loss
• IT Security
• Presentations
• Team Leadership
• Development and Training
* These are from different fields, but examples of competencies that you can tailor to your own industry. -
Step 3
Get objective. Literally. While I tell my seasoned job hunters not to use objectives, they are perfectly fine for recent grads. While people that have more experience can focus their resume on who they are and what they've done, most entry-level job candidates have little experience and need to focus on what they have to offer and what they can do.
The key is to integrate your skills into an effective objective. Most grads have something like this on their resume:
To find a job that lets me use my talents and skills to benefit an organization.
But you can be more effective by tossing in some adjectives and stating who you are and what you are looking to do:
Energetic leader looking to leverage consultative sales skills to exceed profit goals.
It just sounds more refined to focus your objective a little and state who you are (in this case, a leader with consultative sales skills). You may not need tons of experience to have that, either. So think about what you have done and integrate it into an objective that says what you want to do without being too specific or broad at the same time. -
Step 4
Highlight relevant experience. An entry-level resume is a great place to focus on an internship you had, or even other jobs that may not necessarily be in your industry. You want to show that you have a steady work history, so that will even include high school and college jobs. Employers don't expect you to have that much experience as an entry-level candidate--but they do want to see that you are a hard worker and can be trained.
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Step 5
Go beyond. While you may not have boosted corporate sales when you were stuck behind the desk as a receptionist, you may have tried a new method to process incoming calls that was later used by all of the call center specialists. Think of the tiniest accomplishments and bulletize them. Highlight anything you did to go above and beyond, even if you didn't think it was important. This shows an employer that you're dedicated to improving the workplace and not just doing a single-task job.
