You have no experience, and you are worried because your resume looks as empty as an SJW’s friends list on Facebook. So, what do you do? Do you lie about your experience? It is an idea, but a pretty lousy one if you are young, or have a good reason for having no work experience. Before you resort to telling people that you worked for that small place in Australia that burned down, you should take some advice from career expert Ava Williams from Resumeble.com and promote the reasons why you are a good worker.
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But They Won’t Hire Me Without Experience
As many famous actors have said, from the fearless Gina Carano to the beloved William Shatner. “Tell them you can do anything, and then pick it up when you get there.”
It is true that you are going to apply for even the easiest jobs, like tending a bar and people will not hire you because you have never served a pint before. But, that is only the initial impression. It is the first date anti-climax, it is the taste of wine before your mouth adjusts. Getting over the “Objection” (to put it in sales speak) that you have no experience is very easy.
Create your resume with no experience on the basis of selling yourself as a great employee, and you do this by understanding exactly what managers and HR staff “HATE” about employees.
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What do Managers and HR Staff Hate About Their Employees
Contrary to what people think about high power managers and bosses, in reality they just want a quiet life. They want everything to run smoothly and automatically so that they are not constantly putting out fires (fixing unexpected problems). Staff members are almost always the cause of said problems, so here are the things that managers and HR staff hate.
- Unplanned absence (aka – throwing a sickie)
- Lateness or leaving early
- Staff who work too slow
- Employees who take the half-assed approach
- Rudeness to customers
- Staff who will not work as a team
- Employees who complain
- People who steal
- Negligent employees
- Staff who criticize the company
- Employees who think they have rights
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How to Write a Resume With No Experience Based on Manager Pet Peeves
Every item in the list above can be used to create a fantastic resume. When you write your resume with no experience, make sure you add your education details, awards, extra-curricular stuff, and so forth. Then, you create an “About Me” section, in which you counter all the points made in the previous section. Here is how you do it:
- Unplanned absence (aka – throwing a sickie)
I have not had a sick day from school/college in 5.3 years.
- Lateness or leaving early
I am very punctual, as I consider lateness to be rude.
- Staff who work too slow
I like to keep busy as it passes the time more quickly.
- Employees who take the half-assed approach
My best traits are that I am diligent, hardworking, and ruthlessly efficient.
- Rudeness to customers
I am polite, I understand customer relations, and understand that you have a reputation to uphold.
- Staff who will not work as a team
[Try to mention team sport achievements or hobbies.]
- Employees who complain
I like to get on with things and try to avoid negative and complainy people.
- People who steal
[Try to mention in-education activities that required trust, like being the fire marshal, working the tuck shop, being a set striker during panto, etc.]
- Staff who criticize the company
I consider myself a positive person who prefers to look on the bright side (because life is too short).
- Employees who think they have rights
[The world is full of militant employees and people (Karens) who think they have control over the manager because they have “Rights.” In reality, managers secretly know they can fire employees whenever they want and then make up a story as to why they did it, such as claiming you peed in a drinking fountain or stole money. Ergo, try to point out the non-entitled things you have done, such as charity work, helping your nan, babysitting, or mostly any form of helping people.]
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I Can’t Just Leave the Experience Section Empty
Perhaps you cannot leave the experience section empty, but you can certainly make it physically smaller on your resume. Do not be the silly fool who writes a resume with 1/3 of the page dedicated to experience, and then leave that section blank.
Make the experience section physically smaller so that things like “About me” and “Objectives” and “Education” are more prominent on the page. You then fill in a few experience notes on your unpaid experience.
Start with the reason why you have no paid experience. Usually you have a resume with no experience because you have been in full-time education, but other times it is because of a chronic illness, or you were locked up abroad, or whatever your reason is. Your “No experience resume” should then have notes on your unpaid experience.
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Examples of Notes on Unpaid Experience
The key is to keep the experience section short, and keep your unpaid experience notes very brief. It is better if your future employer concentrates on the other sections of your resume. Here are a few notes.
- Team Sport – I played football with my spare time and even earned a scholarship for my first year of college.
- Animal Experience – I have had pets all my life, and even used to walk the dogs for my neighbors during my summer breaks.
- Health and Sanitation – Besides what I learned in Food Technology, I also cooked for the old-folks home during the winter holidays.
- Childcare – I have two brothers who are 12 years younger than me. I often cared for them while my parents were working.
- Computer Literate – I consider myself an expert at all things Microsoft Office, Libre Office, and Adobe.
- Social Media Savvy – During my college years I had quite a YouTube following.
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Conclusion – Is This Mostly Just Weak Sauce?
This article has covered the many ways you can promote you as a good employee and has covered examples of ways you can show unpaid experience. These may not seem like big selling points, they may seem a little weak and watery, but you will be surprised how often each of these points appear in job advertisements.
More times than not you will see ads that say they want dedicated employees, and that is because they are tired of their current employees calling in sick. The number of times you will see “Computer Literate” or something similar on a job ad is staggering. Even truck drivers are expected to be IT literate these days, so adding such points into your resume can really give your prestige a boost.
As a final thought, as you look through job ads and you see comments like “Need diligent employees” or “Need employees who can hit targets.” Perhaps consider working the very same comments into your resume, especially in your experience section if possible, because many times a frustrated employer will care more about these facets of your personality than how many other jobs you have worked.
