As a student, filling out your resumé to reflect enough experience can be difficult. There are several things you can do to fill out the empty space, and other factors to consider when building your resumé.

Work experience is not the only kind of experience

As a student, you might not have had a full-time or a student job yet, but that’s not the only way to gain experience. If you’ve used programs relevant to a position in your studies, you can add these to your resumé. If you’ve done volunteer work – for example, through events, volunteer jobs, etc. – then this can make your resumé shine as well.

If you’ve developed skills in your free time, you can also add these to your CV – these include skills you’ve gained via freelancing, personal interests or anything else that’s given you a specific sort of knowledge. If you don’t have much work experience, you’ve got to get creative and include other forms of experience.

Consider who will be reading your resumé

If you’re applying for a student job, remember that your potential employer is aware that you may not have much prior work experience. If they’re looking to fill a student position, they’re probably not expecting you to come with decades of experience, as one of the leading experts within your field.

If you’re applying for a position where having certain skills will give you a leg up, you might consider whether you’ve gained similar skills during your studies or through your personal interests. You can adapt your resumé to different potential employers, so that it emphasizes skills most relevant to the different recipients.

Keep an eye on opportunities through your studies

There can be a wealth of opportunities to gain experience through your studies. The most obvious is through an internship, which can give you a taste of what employment is like before you really enter the workforce as a recent graduate. There are also plenty of other opportunities however – maybe your university has a newsletter or a radio you can do some work for, or maybe one of your teachers sends out an email about a project or media, who could use some assistance from students.

If you would like to get a student job relevant to your studies, you can read our article about how to get one here.