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 A lot of job hunters believe they are at a disadvantage because they have little or no work experience. That's certainly true if you're looking for a job that requires a lot of on-the-job experience. But there is a market for entry level positions too - and we're going to help you increase your chances of getting a job by showing you how to write an entry level resume.
In fact, we're not only going to help you by explaining the right way to write a resume for an entry level position, but we're also going to provide you with an example you can download too.
Resume Formats for Inexperienced Workers
We're going to start this tutorial by providing a brief description of the three most common resume formats:
- Chronological Resumes - a chronological resume does the best job at highlighting your prior work experience.
- Functional Resumes - a functional resume focuses in on what skills you might possess and the knowledge that you've gained.
- Combination Style Resumes - a combination resume starts off like a functional resume and finishes up in the chronological style.
For those of you that are new to the workplace - such as former students - or if you're thinking about making a career change then the resume format you'd want to choose is a functional resume.
A functional resume emphasizes what you know, what you've accomplished, and the skills you possess rather than where you've worked in the past. Highlighting those particular elements on a resume is important for someone just entering the job marketplace.
Functional Resume Format
The functional resume is the ideal resume format for individuals looking for entry level positions. In the next several sections we're going to describe all of the features of this kind of resume. As you'll soon see, this resume template does not include a listing of prior work history.
Name / Contact Information
Like most resumes, a functional resumes starts off with a banner at the top of the page that includes your name and contact information such as your street address, telephone number and an email address if you have one.
Education
The next section you'll find in this resume is a table of information on your educational background. While you may be used to seeing this type of information at the end of a resume, many experts believe that recruiters screen candidates to make sure they meet certain requirements.
If education or a degree in a certain discipline is one of the items recruiters or hiring managers are using to screen out candidates you might as well help them out by putting this information right up front. Either you're qualified for the job or you're not - so let's not waste anyone's time.
Honors / Certifications / Licenses Held
The third section in a functional resume contains a bulleted list of any certifications, educational honors or professional licenses you might hold. For example, a certified public accountant would include that certification listed in this section of the resume. In the same way a nurse or an IT professional that earned a certification or accreditation would highlight that achievement right up front.
Careers Skills / Knowledge
The fourth section you'll find in an entry level resume is a bulleted listing or table of the skills and knowledge you've acquired. Since this section is so visible on this type of resume, you'll want to take a great deal of time making sure it projects the right image of your experience and/or knowledge.
For example, if you're looking entry level position as a software engineer you'd want to include any programming languages you know.
Career Achievements
The next and final section appearing in a functional resume is bulleted listings of what you believe are your most significant accomplishments. Keep in mind that just because you're looking for an entry level job doesn't mean you haven't accomplished a lot in your life.
In the resume sample provided we've got several examples of achievements that any active member of a community might possess. When writing achievements it's important to try and provide hints how they might be transferable to the workplace.
Entry Level Resume Sample
Here is a link to our entry level resume sample. What's nice about all of our samples is that you can download them and use them as a starting point, or template, when constructing your own resume.
We just finished up a series of articles on cash flow, so while we're still in the mood this particular example is for an entry level business analyst. If you'd like to look at more resume samples, just visit our downloads section and take a look through all of the resume examples we have to offer.
Building an Entry Level Resume
For those of you worried that you simply don't have enough experience or achievements to put on your resume we offer two final tips on how to build up your resume and your confidence:
- Always remember that you're looking for an entry level position. Companies are always looking for fresh ideas and new faces. Keep things in perspective - even relatively inexperienced workers are valuable to companies.
- One great way to build up your resume is to volunteer. If you read through our example, you'll notice that several of the achievements we created involved volunteer activities. Volunteer work provides you with a unique opportunity to both gain valuable experience and help others in-need too.
About the Author - Writing an Entry Level Resume
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