1. What do
you do if you don't have enough experience—or have no experience at all?
If you don't
have enough experience, expand your definition of experience to include paid,
non-paid, volunteer, community service, political, tutoring, sports, and
church/synagogue/mosque/ ashram activities. You can even feature classroom
experiences if they support your career goal.
Here's one example:
Office of
Admissions/Physical Education Department,
Fall 1999 and 2000 Orientation Coordinator (Public Relations)
•
Conceived role of public relations
representative for the Sports Complex to the orientation process; was
appointed by the A.D. as "Czar of PR."
•
Won approval for Sports Complex as site of
"Bop Tilya Drop" orientation bash.
•
Convinced cheerleaders (male and female) to
lead Sports Complex tours.
•
Increased Sports Complex utilization by
over 15% in first year alone. See enclosed letter from A.D. citing my
contribution as key to exempting S.C. from budget cuts.
Pay particular attention to this example. This
student created this project for a lark. The only pay was a few extra perks
around the gym, but look how well it turned out on his résumé. Many students do
something for their departments, for some branch of student government, or for
some student organization. Sometimes this kind of unstructured "work" can round
out the rest of your experience rather nicely.
Also, here's how one student sold her classroom
research as experience of interest to business employers:
Sample Projects
•
Analyzed all sectors of the Norsk Hydro
conglomerate of Norway, including industry and competitive trends, financial
and management strengths, corporate infrastructure, and historical
performance.
•
Prepared comprehensive country profile of
Brazil's business climate as part of feasibility analysis of investment and
joint-venture potential.
•
Developed study of cross-cultural
organizational behavior investigating corporate communications protocols
using Pakistan as a model.
2. What do you do if you're too young?
Too young usually means not enough experience.
If you still think you look too young, don't put any dates on your education,
and then at the bottom of your experience listings put what is called a "summary
statement," implying additional experience. Here are two examples:
"Additional
experience in customer service positions of considerable responsibility," aka
babysitting, or
"Additional experience in outdoor aesthetics requiring operation of dangerous
equipment," aka mowing lawns.
You don't need to do more than hint at this
additional background; and no one can know your age for sure from your résumé.
3. How do you create a résumé
when you have the wrong kind of experience?
Tell what you learned in your old experience that might be applicable in your
targeted new industry. For example, in the restaurant industry, the standard way
to describe a position is to describe the menu, the number of tables, or
"covers," and the volume, i.e., gross sales per annum. To interest a corporate
recruiter for marketing and sales, though, you would have to use entirely
different language. This candidate makes restaurant experience relevant to her
future career goals:
Neptune's Sea Palace,
Miami, Florida, Summer 2000 Food Server
•
Acted as a "sales representative" for the
restaurant, selling add-ons and extras to achieve one of the highest
per-ticket and per-night sales averages. Prioritized and juggled dozens of
simultaneous responsibilities. Built loyal clientele of regulars in addition
to tourist trade. Used computer daily.
In short, make your old experience relevant to
the newly targeted industry. Ask yourself, "What can I say that will convey to a
prospective employer that I gained skills that are relevant to her needs?"
Always use the language and address the concerns of the targeted industry, not
the industry you want to leave behind.
4. What do you
do if you have the wrong degree?
If you got a degree in music history and now want a job in financial services,
omit the major:
Stanford University,
Stanford, California Bachelor of Arts, 2000
No matter what your major was, you can feature
the coursework that is related to the field you have targeted, as in this
example:
Michigan State
University Bachelor of Science, 2001
Coursework included:
• Financial & Management Accounting
• Statistics & Statistical Analysis
• Research Methodologies for Social Scientists
5. What do you
do if you have date gaps?
Stop worrying about date gaps. It's a modern world, and most résumés have gaps
of some kind on them. Students, grad or undergrad, usually don't list specific
months, anyway. Use dates like these:
Summer 1999
Fall-Spring 1999-2000
If an employer wants to know about a specific gap
that shows on your résumé, he/she'll ask. Then you can tell her what you were
doing (hopefully in a positive light).
