More and more college graduates and young folks are either unemployed or under-employed. It used to be rare when you met someone that didn’t have a job. We would scoff at them and think that they need to network more by going on LinkedIn or something along those lines. These days it’s more common to meet a young person struggling to find work.
Let’s say that your resume sucks, what do you do? You haven’t been able to find work for an extended period of time and now you have a blank resume. Damn. Are you out of luck if your resume sucks because you haven’t worked in a while?
Not at all. After asking around I found some answers for you guys. I got feedback from friends in the field and those that have been able to get out of the unemployment line recently.
How to find work when your resume sucks? How do you fill in those blanks on the resume?
Volunteer for a bit.
Nobody wants to work for free, but it beats an empty resume. When you volunteer, you get to put your hands on some interesting projects. You also get to see how companies function and how you can be an asset one day.
Instead of frowning upon working for free, you can give it a try. I’ve been told that if you find the right company, volunteering can be an experience of a life time. You just don’t want to stuck being the coffee guy.
Work for a small business.
A small company is always looking to bring someone on to help out. Every small business needs some help in one way or another.
Below are a few things to consider when working for a small business:
- They might not have that much money.
- You can build your portfolio.
- You learn from great minds.
- You can pick up knowledge that will help you start your own business.
- One day you’ll get paid if the company succeeds.
There’s nothing like being apart of a small business. This is how I feel writing for this site and other sites under the M-35 umbrella.
Find part-time work.
You still have bills to pay and time to kill. This is why I advocate finding some sort of part-time work. With this, you’ll be able to make some money while working on your own projects/looking for other jobs.
I believe that I’ll always keep a part-time job because you can never be too sure. Plus, you can meet lots of interesting characters at any given side gig.
This will improve your resume because it shows that you’re proactive and capable of finding some sort of work.
Start freelancing.
My goal is to become synonymous with freelancing. This is why I launched Start Freelancing Now. I strongly suggest that everyone reading this looks into freelancing. You have so many God-given skills that it’s worth exploring at least one of them to see if you can make some money at it.
Freelancing will improve your resume because your freelancing work can have a strong tie in with the actual job that you apply for. Imagine freelancing as an accountant and then applying for a job in accounting?
That’s what you can do when your resume sucks. It’s always better to take action than to do nothing at all.
How will you improve your resume?
