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First time building a resume?
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You've come to the right place.
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I'm Sinéad, and coming
up in this video,
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I have all the tools you need
to build a resume from scratch
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so you can get your foot in
the door and start working.
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And if you don't have any
work experience just yet,
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deep breath, and stop
stressing right now,
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because it's totally OK.
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You can still prove you'll be
a great hire with a few tips
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and tricks.
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And be sure to stick
around until the very end
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of the video, because
I'll be sharing
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how to create an amazing skills
section that will definitely
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appeal to employers and
amp up the overall power
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of your resume.
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All right, let's do this.
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Let's start with the basics.
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What is the purpose
of a resume, anyway?
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Who's reading it, and how
much time do employers really
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take to review my resume?
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A resume is your
professional calling card,
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and it's your best chance to
make a strong first impression
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on the recruiter
or hiring manager.
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But since there are often a
lot of candidates and companies
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do want to fill
positions quickly,
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most recruiters won't spend very
long reading a resume at all.
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In most cases, we're
talking, like, 10 seconds.
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So your goal is to ensure that
your best attributes jump off
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the page.
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And how do you do that?
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Well, that leads us
right to step number one,
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create a resume outline
and define your format.
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Getting started is
obviously the hardest part,
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but an outline will give
you something to work with.
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Outlines are our friends when
it comes to building resumes.
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You can either open
a blank document
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and create an
outline from there,
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or we have a variety
of resume templates
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to choose from on indeed.com
that will guide you
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through building your resume,
which is so helpful, especially
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if it's your first time.
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All right, so let's break down
the format of your resume,
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starting at the top and working
our way towards the bottom.
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Your name and contact
info go at the top.
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Your objective statement
goes below that,
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followed by your education.
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Experience goes
below that, and not
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necessarily
professional experience,
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but also activities
like volunteer work.
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Add your skills underneath
your experience,
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and include relevant
activities if you'd like.
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Keep in mind that
an ideal resume
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is straightforward
and easy to read,
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so be sure to set equal
margins all around.
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0.7 inches is good to start,
but you can go up to one inch
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if needed.
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Choose a standard font like
Times New Roman or Arial.
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Type your name at the
top in the biggest size
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font, about 16 to 18 point.
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Then create your section titles
in a slightly smaller size,
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about 12 to 14.
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You may choose to
underline, bold,
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or center your section titles.
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Whatever you do
decide, just stay
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consistent with what you do.
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Finally, create
the actual content
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in about 10 to 12 point font.
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It should be smaller
than your section titles.
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Don't include graphics.
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No photos, and no
colorful fonts.
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We're aiming to keep it
clean and professional
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so that your work
speaks for itself.
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Again, check out our
resume builder tool
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that allows you to skip
formatting completely.
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All you have to do is
respond to the prompts,
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and then the tool builds
your resume for you.
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Within a few minutes, you'll
have a perfectly formatted
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resume that you can
either download or use
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to apply to any job on Indeed.
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Now that we know the best way
to outline and format a resume,
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let's start filling
out those sections
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and talk about the best strategy
for first-time job-seekers.
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But before I get into that,
if you've watched this far,
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please give us like, hit
that subscribe button,
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and of course, hit
that notification
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bell so that you never miss
our weekly career advice.
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Step two, use the upper
third of your resume
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to display your highlights.
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The top part of your resume
gets the most attention.
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Let's be honest here.
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Employers are really
busy, and they may not
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spend that much time
reviewing our material.
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So it is smart to put the
most important stuff first.
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The top part of your
resume should include
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your first and last name.
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Put your city of residence, and
don't include your full street
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address for privacy reasons.
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Next, contact info,
like your phone number
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and your email address.
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And pro tip.
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If you've had the same email
since elementary school,
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let's make sure your
email address is
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professional-sounding, so not
like ilovepuppies@indeed.com.
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Stick to a simple
format, like first name
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initial dot last name at
your email provider dot com.
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You could also choose
to include links
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to other work-related materials,
like a portfolio or perhaps
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your personal blog.
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Underneath your contact
info, I recommend
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that you create something
called an objective statement.
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Basically, in one
to two sentences,
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write a statement that
explains your core offering
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to an employer.
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So to start, ask yourself, if
an employer were to only read
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this part of my
resume, what would I
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really want them to know?
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If you don't have
prior work experience,
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mention your background
in other areas.
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So for example, if you're a high
school student seeking a job
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as a receptionist, you may say,
"detail-oriented and personable
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aspiring receptionist on track
to graduate with honors from
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Hometown High in 2025.
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Eager to support
office efficiency
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through proven
organizational skills,
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as demonstrated by two
years of experience
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as Glee Club treasurer."
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For more advice and
resume summary examples,
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feel free to check out
this video right here.
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Step three, include
your education.
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You did the schooling,
so let's show it off.
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List any diplomas, degrees,
and/or educational milestones
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that you have achieved
or are working towards,
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starting with your
highest achieved first.
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For example, if you
graduated high school
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and now you are
currently in college,
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this is how you would craft
your education section.
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Start with the name
of the institution,
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as well as the city
and state, and then
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your expected graduation year.
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And then put your name of your
degree or your achievement
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underneath.
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So, for example, you have,
"State University, Cleveland,
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Ohio.
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Expected graduation 2024.
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Bachelor of Arts, English major.
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Hometown High School, Cleveland,
Ohio, graduated 2020."
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Now, it's important to note
that under any educational
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institution, you can
totally put all your awards
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and your honors,
such as dean's list
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or honor roll, and then
extracurricular activities.
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You may also choose to
add relevant coursework
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under each school.
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Now, if you have a lot of
classes to list, first of all,
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go you.
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But you also may want to
make relevant coursework
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its own section on your resume.
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Either way, it's
best to only list
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the classes that support your
candidacy for the position you
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are currently applying for.
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So let's say you are a
college student applying
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for a job as a psychology
professor's research assistant.
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Your relevant coursework
may look something like,
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"Relevant Coursework--
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Statistics, Psychology
101, Intro to Research,
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Ethics in Psychology."
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Yes, you might have
taken yoga in college,
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but we probably don't need to
know that for this position.
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Step four, think beyond
professional experience.
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It's a common misconception
that you can only
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show paid work on your
resume, but this could not
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be further from the
truth, especially if you
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are new to the working world or
if you have little experience.
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It is perfectly fine to
showcase part-time, freelance,
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volunteer, and even non-career
related info on your resume.
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Even experience like babysitting
for friends and family
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can be relevant work
experience, depending
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on the job that
you're applying for.
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If you do have some
work experience,
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this is how you would list it.
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Start with the title
and affiliation.
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Add dates to the side.
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So you have your job
title, an employer,
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starting month to ending month.
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For example, "Spanish Tutor,
Self-employed, June 2021
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to Present."
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Then underneath,
you should add three
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to five bullet
points that describe
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your key accomplishments.
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Choose a different strong action
verb for each bullet point,
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and try to use numbers
and explain your impact
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when possible.
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Continuing with our
Spanish tutoring example,
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you may have bullet
points that say,
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"Assessed client
educational gaps,
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identified preferred
learning styles,
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and developed
personalized improvement
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plans for four students
learning Spanish,
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resulting in an average
GPA increase of 0.75
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within a month."
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However, as I mentioned,
as a first-time job-seeker,
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you should feel free to pull
from a range of experiences
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in this section, including
academic or personal projects,
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extracurricular involvement,
club activities, and volunteer
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work.
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For example, let's say
you held a car wash
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for your favorite charity.
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So you could list the following.
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"Cash Wash for School Supplies
Project, January 2020.
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Marketed fundraising event
through a synchronized social
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media strategy across
multiple platforms,
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driving 30 attendees.
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Coordinated logistics including
traffic pathways, team shifts,
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and necessary supplies,
producing a seamless customer
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experience and six
word-of-mouth referrals.
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Managed four volunteers and
customer payment collection,
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resulting in over
$300 of donations,
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or one year's worth
of school supplies,
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for classrooms in three hours."
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A good deed like a car wash
can go a long way on a resume.
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Step five, include both
hard skills and soft skills.
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Many first-time
job-seekers may feel
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like they don't have
any professional skills,
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but not so fast.
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It is so easy for us to
take our assets for granted,
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so take some time to consider
any skills you have that
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took any time at all,
or training, to acquire.
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These are your hard skills and,
yeah, they're very valuable,
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because if an employer needs
someone with a hard skill,
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they either need to train
an existing employee
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or find someone who
already knows how to do it.
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So if you've got it, show it.
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Hard skills include words typed
per minute, Microsoft Office,
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Google's suite of
products like Sheets
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and Docs, foreign language
fluency, coding ability,
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software familiarity, and
even social media knowledge,
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because oh, yeah, that is a
skill that not everyone has.
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Soft skills like customer
service or coaching
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can also be relevant to
include, depending on the role.
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Even if you only have common
knowledge and experience
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in these things, it's
often worth mentioning.
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However, this leads me
to my final bonus step,
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which is step six, find and use
language from job descriptions
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to tailor your resume.
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As much as we'd
all like it to be,
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a resume is not a
one-size-fits-all document when
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it comes to applying for jobs.
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So be sure to take
the time to tailor
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your resume for every job you
apply for, because ultimately,
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this is what is going to help
you appeal to recruiters.
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It's also going to help
assist online application
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softwares that scan
your resume to determine
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whether you are a match.
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So how do you
tailor your resume?
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The skills section, first of
all, is a great place to start.
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Check out the preferred
and required qualifications
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on the job posting.
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Take note of any desired skills.
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If you meet those
requirements, put them
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on your resume using
that exact same language
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so that the applicant tracking
system or the recruiter
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can easily identify that
you have those desired
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characteristics.
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For example, if they say
advanced Spanish proficiency
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and you wrote Spanish
fluency, change it
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to match their exact wording.
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This shows that you've
done your homework, which
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can impress employers and
have them saying, well, wow,
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this is exactly what
we were looking for.
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The skills section is one of
the most obvious places where
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you can tailor your
resume, but it's also
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smart to adapt the way that you
describe your work and impact
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in your objective statement
and your experience sections,
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as well.
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It really does make
all the difference.
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All right, that's a
lot of information,
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so let's quickly review
the six steps for writing
00:11:33
a resume with no experience.
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Step one, create an outline
and define your format.
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Step two, use the upper
third of your resume
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to display your highlights.
00:11:42
Step three, include
your education.
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Step four, think beyond
professional experience.
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Step five, include both your
hard skills and soft skills.
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And bonus, our step
six, find and use
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language from job descriptions
to tailor your resume.
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We really hope you found
this video helpful.
00:11:58
If you did, be sure to
give us a big thumbs up,
00:12:00
subscribe to our
channel, and of course,
00:12:02
hit that notification
bell so that you never
00:12:03
miss our weekly career advice.
00:12:05
For even more on
creating resumes,
00:12:06
I recommend checking out this
playlist right over here,
00:12:09
or for all of the
things we should
00:12:11
avoid when writing a resume,
click this video right here.
00:12:14
Thank you guys so
much for tuning in.
00:12:15
I'm Sinéad de Vries, and
I'll see you guys next time.
