QUESTION: I just graduated from college and have no job experience or internships. What do I put on my resume?
Cheryl Milmoe, Cardinal Expert Résumés
Heading, email, LinkedIn, phone, website/blog, relevant coursework that ties to your employment goals, academic projects, Dean’s list, Clubs, leadership roles in school or your community, volunteer work. These topics not only give readers a window into your college experiences, they provide a glimpse into the attributes that make up your personal brand that distinguishes you from others.
Kyle Elliott, CaffeinatedKyle.com
You have more experience than you realize! You just spent two, four, or more years completing a degree. As such, your education deserves more than a single line on your resume. Highlight relevant class projects, university and industry associations, and extracurricular activities. Regardless of whether you were paid, your experience is valuable and transferable. Your job is to connect the dots.
Virginia Franco, Virginia Franco Resumes
Think about papers you’ve submitted, group projects and even case studies that you’ve completed that relate to your job target! Also be sure to include the titles of any coursework you’ve completed as often times these can double as valuable keywords on your resume.
Jane Roqueplot, JaneCo's Sensible Solutions
You may not have had a job, but you’ve certainly had experiences. Consider volunteer involvement, academic accomplishments, projects, and extra-curricular activities. Thinking about your duties in those areas, emphasize skills you used that are relevant to your job goal, including positive results. Showcase your soft skills with evidence of how those strengths contribute to your success.
Anne Barnwell
Transferable skills come from both paid and unpaid experiences. Emphasize experiences gained through relevant coursework, college projects, volunteer work, community involvement, extracurricular activities, and online certifications. Also, don’t disregard work that is unrelated to your career goal. Everyone started somewhere and some of our best skills come from those early experiences.
Edward Lawrence, Getstarted LLC
You include your tough courses, class projects, and volunteer activities, as well as any intramural sports and clubs. Most employers don’t worry about hours worked at some job. They want to see curiosity, leadership potential, and collaboration. In other words, include anything that will help them gauge what you’ve learned and show how you would fit in and contribute at their company.
Alana Henry, The Writique, LLC
Did you participate in clubs while in college? Get involved with any programs? Participate in study abroad? College activities can be leveraged to highlight skills on a resume–not just employment. A skilled resume writer will know how to pull details to illustrate your suitability for a professional role. Start a rough list of your involvement with dates and your contributions for inspiration!
Emily Salazar, St. Edward's University
Here are other kinds of experience for your resume: community service, campus organizations or clubs, study abroad, athletics, fundraising phone banks ,professional associations’ memberships, attending professional conferences or seminars, presenting at any conferences, class projects & team projects, research papers, oral presentations in classes. All of these can be included.
Ask a Question
Ask us your question and it may be selected as the topic of our next blog post, with answers compiled from the advice of NRWA members.
Work with the Best
Find a Resume Expert
If you’re looking for more information on how to write a great resume – or get an expert to help you with yours – you’ve come to the right place! This site was created by the National Resume Writers’ Association (NRWA), a US-based non-profit association with members from around the world who are dedicated to learning about and providing expertise in resume writing to all job seekers.
The National Résumé Writers’ Association
9 Newport Drive #200, Forest Hill, MD 21050
Thanks for checking out ResumeExperts.theNRWA.com!
For more on our association and certification, see www.thenrwa.org
Member Services: 1.877.THE.NRWA or [email protected]
Copyright © 2018 The National Résumé Writers’ Association