by JULIE COX

Now that you have a good idea of the type of job you are going to pursue, it is time to start to build the information you need to get that position. In short, you need to figure out what you need to do to display your qualification for the job. You might be thinking, “how can I be qualified if I have never had a job in that field?”. Qualification for a position can be demonstrated in many different ways. It is probably not as difficult as you might think. You just might have to be a little creative and think outside of the box, but here are a few suggestions:

  1. The most obvious is to use accomplishments from a professional position if you have had one. Even a part time position can lend itself to qualifying you for a post graduate job. For example, I once wrote a resume for a student who worked as a bartender while going to school. He thought of ways to improve inventory management of the beer that the bar sold and saved the owner money. Customer service is always a good way to show achievement. If you help customers choose items to buy or provide friendly service you are increasing sales revenue and customer retention. And demonstrating that you work well with others and are generally friendly is valuable in any job.
  2. School clubs, student professional associations, and special campaigns always provide students with opportunities to build leadership skills. Fraternities and Sororities are active across campus and the community and provide a good opportunity for you to demonstrate your ability to work in a group and/or lead if you had a leadership role. You don’t have run the project to take some credit for it. If you are part of the finance club that analyzed data for stock trading of a student run portfolio, you can use the successes of that portfolio on your resume. State the result and your contribution. Make sure to include that you worked in a team because that is always valuable (not everyone plays well together!).
  3. Don’t forget your school projects and case studies. IT students have the easiest time including these examples because their classes are project based. But even in other business disciplines there are projects that you might do independently or in a team. If you have several and very little other experience to include you can make a “project” section on your resume and include them there. Make sure your examples include the point of the project, your results and how you did it. This is a great opportunity to show your knowledge in methodologies and programs such as regression analysis, financial statement analysis, excel, SQL, etc.
  4. Volunteer and church participation should not be overlooked either. Any missions or projects that you contributed to can be included in your resume as well.
  5. Finally, if you still feel that you are lacking in examples that demonstrate your skills and knowledge, ask a professor if he or she has a project or any research that you can help with. Most professors have a quota they have to meet to publish and would welcome assistance with gathering and organizing data. These examples of participation in the industry look great on a resume!

Now it is time for STEP 3 – Check it out here – Choosing a Professional Format for Your Resume