About Jobs: Finding and Landing your First Job after your Graduation
If you’re recently divorced and have decided to re-enter the workforce after returning to school to earn a high school diploma, college degree or advanced degree, you may still face the challenge of landing a job with no previous work experience in the field you’re hoping to break into. The same applies for someone looking to switch career paths altogether. By focusing on your skills and life experiences (as opposed to your lack of real world job experience), you can position yourself as the perfect applicant for a job, and not necessarily have to start in a low-paying, entry-level position.
IFYOU HAVE NO PAST WORK-RELATED EXPERIENCE
Based on what you’ve learned in school, your hobbies, your extracurricular activities, volunteer work and jobs you’ve held in the past, create a resume that showcases your most marketable job-related skills, as well as your education. As you do this, focus on the skills that most apply to the job you’re applying for. Demonstrate not just that you posses specific skills, but also how you’ve used them effectively in the past.
If you’ve done charity work or served as a leader for one or more clubs or extracurricular activities, for example, perhaps you’ve developed strong organizational, computer, management, writing, verbal communication and/or leadership skills that could serve you well in the workplace. Being able to highlight these skills effectively within your resume, and also be able to demonstrate how you developed and used those skills in the past will help to set you apart from other applicants and make you more appealing to potential employers.
Instead of using a traditional chronological resume format, which focuses on past work experience, job titles and employment dates, use a Skill-Based or Functional resume format that highlights your skills instead. The formatting of a skill-based (Functional) resume is different than a Chronological resume, that still communicates the same basic information. It’s the emphasis you put on specific pieces of information that’s different.
CREATING A SKILL-BASED RESUME
When creating a skill-based resume, your name and contact information should appear at the very top of the page, just as it would for any type of resume. Don’t forget to include a phone number that has voice mail associated with it, as well as your email address. You need to make it as easy as possible for a potential employer to get in touch with you.
Below your contact information, include a one or two sentence Objective.” This is a description of the type of job you’re looking to fill and a very brief explanation of why you’re a qualified candidate. An example of an objective statement might be, Seeking a full-time position as an assistant manager for a retail establishment that would allow me to utilize my five years worth of part-time retail sales and customer service experience, as well as my strong work ethic.”
If you were to create a chronological resume, below the objective would be your employment history. To create a skill-based/functional resume, however, the next section of your resume should list your experience. Instead of listing past employers, simply list one marketable skill at a time, followed by three or four bullet points for each describing accomplishments and ways you’ve used each skill in the past. As you do this, make sure the skills you list, such as management, computer proficiency, telemarketing, retail sales, event planning, typing, etc., relate directly to the job you’re applying for.
Working your way down the resume page, the next section of your skill-based or functional resume should describe your education and include a list of schools you’ve attended (in reverse chronological order). Be sure to list the school’s name, as well as its city.
The last or bottom section of your resume should include your employment history, and list the job titles you’ve held, along with each employer’s name, location, and dates of employment. Here, you can list paid or unpaid work, including volunteer work, relevant life experiences,” or other important titles you’ve held. Because this information is at the bottom of the page, it puts less emphasis on your real-world work experience, allowing you to highlight the skills you possess, as well as your most impressive accomplishments.
Your skill-based or functional resume should fit nicely on one, 8.5-inch by 11-inch, single-sided sheet of paper. For help formatting this type of resume on the page, consult a resume writing book, or purchase resume creation software for your computer. You can also download a free skill-based or functional resume template for Microsoft Word from the Microsoft Web site (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/CT101448941033/).
INTERNSHIPS ARE THE KEY TO LANDING EMPLOYMENT
If you’re just jumping into the workplace, a good way to get the job you want is to participating in internship programs. Research conducted by Vault.com, Inc. (publisher of Vault Guide to Top Internships 2008 Edition, $14.95, www.vault.com/store/book_preview.jsp?product_id=34266) concluded that nine out of 10 recently graduated college students had completed at least one internship, and two-thirds of those same people had completed at least two.
An internship is typically coordinated through your school. Participation allows you to earn credit toward your graduation. While an internship typically has little or no pay associated with it, as an intern you’ll gain extremely valuable experience working in the real world, potentially within the industry you plan to break into upon graduation.
Often internships are a way into the company. Employers are more apt to hire someone they already know and who has already proven themselves. At the very least, you can leave the internship with a letter of recommendation, which will impress other potential employers. According to MonsterTRAK.com, research shows that 85 percent of companies use internships and similar experiential education programs to recruit for their full-time workforces.
