College Graduate Resumes ... Cover Letters ... Job-Search Services ... Intro Letter Writing Resume Writing Assistance for New Graduates, Entry-level Jobseekers, and Students
Everything has a market. If you could go back in time thirty years and tell someone people would actually be buying water in 2005 for prices higher than gasoline, you would probably be severely ridiculed. Go back fifteen years and tell someone that you would actually be able to purchase air in an oxygen bar and they would think you had been hitting the sauce. Water and oxygen are interesting products because they are readily available, free, and vital to life. There has been a demand created for them out of, well, thin air.
The basic principle of selling air or water is the same as selling an entry-level career in which you have no experience. Entry-level workers are cheap, plentiful, and easily found. As a new graduate/entry-level worker with little or no real experience, what can you do to sell your experience to employers? The same as if you were selling air – package it well, market it effectively, and create a demand.
Packaging your budding entry-level career is the first and most important step to getting your start. How you present your background and education in an entry-level resume is the make-or-break point. You have 35 to 60 seconds to pique the interest of the employer in your non-experience. The entry-level resume should be hard-hitting and aggressively written in order to gain that attention.
The key is to find your point of individuality and play upon it. Each brand of bottled water has a “claim to fame” whether it is that the water is from a mountain spring, or it is flavored, or it is vitamin-enriched, etc. You can do the same thing with your entry-level resume. Do you have an exceptional academic record that can be highlighted in your entry-level resume? Do you have an internship that adds value to your degree? Have you worked your way through school and financed your own education? There is something in everyone’s background that is notable and can be used to advantage in an entry-level resume.
Appearance is also key to a resume. People are drawn to attractive things – it’s human nature. By packaging your qualities in an attractive, eye-catching format, your entry-level resume will automatically have an advantage over your competition. Appearance can be more than pretty whiz-bangs in a Word format. Even database-friendly entry-level resumes can be made more attractive with the strategic use of spacing, font size, and placement of text.
