In the first steps of creating a resume, it should be noted whether you have work experience or not. If there is no experience, you must indicate the reason: for example, study, maternity leave, military service, pension, change of profession or that you have been looking for work in recent years. You can specify your own option, if it differs from all proposed for you. Or formulate in other words, paint more.
We will explain how to correctly explain the lack of experience and how to make a resume better in the eyes of employers.
1. If there is no experience at all
If you have recently graduated from a university, school or are still studying, then your lack of experience is understandable. But before choosing the option “No work experience”, think: is it definitely not there? If you went through summer practices and internships – this is an experience, and it is worth mentioning.
If during your studies you did not work at all in your specialty (for example, you were a salesman, waiter, call center operator), and now you are looking for the first job in your specialty, this is no reason to hide your experience. He will be useful to you.
Suppose you have not had any practice or internships yet, unskilled work, too. But surely there is some other information about the period of study, which will help to draw the attention of employers to you. For example, you wrote a thesis on a topic that is important for the field where you are looking for work. This should be indicated in the window immediately after the “No work experience” mark. In the resume, she will appear in the “About Me” section.
2. If the experience is small or incomplete
We interviewed employers and we know that they are interested in information on the candidate’s experience over the past 5 years in a resume. Of course, this does not apply to novice specialists who do not and cannot have such an experience. Representatives of working specialties also do not have to paint the experience for 5 years, you can limit yourself to the last job.
In other cases, if you indicated less than five years of experience in the resume, the moderators will compare your age or graduation year with the current year to understand whether you are a beginner or not already. If the data do not converge, it will appear that your resume is incomplete. For example, it is clear that you completed your studies a long time ago, but your experience is indicated only in the last year or two.
Such inconsistencies are best explained immediately when creating a resume. In any case, employers will have questions about this. We list a few typical situations – perhaps you will find yours among them.
3. There are large gaps in experience
The simplest example is that you devoted yourself to raising children for several years. Or were forced to deal with problems with their own health or caring for a seriously ill family member. They were in search of a new job for a long time or specifically took a break to recover from a stressful project or to take a break before changing their career vector. We were engaged in self-development – we learned languages, mastered new skills, received additional education. They retired, and now they decided to work again.
In a word, there are many options, but there should be some reasonable explanation of your long working unemployment over the past 5 years in the resume. Write about this in the “About Me” section.
In some cases, you should carefully consider the wording so that potential employers do not interpret them not in your favor.
4. You had a job in another area
Your career has developed quite logically. But at some point I had to get out of the usual way for the sake of making more money or because there were no options for the specialty at that time. Or you tried your hand at a different profession, but were disappointed and decided to return.
There is nothing shameful in this, many find themselves in such situations. There are teachers and doctors who left to work as sales managers, and then decided to return. There are lawyers who between two jobs in the specialty earned money as drivers. There are financiers who went into creative professions, but realized that it was a dream of castles in the air.
Whether to write about it in the resume when you are looking for a job in your specialty again is a big question. On the one hand, why is it needed there if it is clearly knocked out of the general career path? On the other hand, an incomprehensible, unexplained gap will also raise questions. And if because of it your general work experience indicated in the resume turns out to be less than 5 years, although judging by the age and time of graduation, it should be clearly longer, then the resume may not be moderated.
Compromise option: write streamlined in the “About Me” section that during such a period you tried yourself in another professional field that is not related to your main profession, but you returned. If asked for an interview, explain in more detail.