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You're a few months from graduating with your degree in psychology, and the only work experience you have is from several seemingly unrelated hourly jobs you had while in college. Perhaps you were a lifeguard or you tutored a few hours a week at your school's academic assistance center.
Regardless, now that you're writing your resume, you realize you have nothing to offer prospective employers in the way of useful on-the-job experience.
You couldn't be more wrong. At face value, these job experiences may not translate into the type of work history you want on your resume, but most hourly jobs teach you a host of essential skills that employers demand. Skills like working well with others, communicating effectively and demonstrating self-motivation.
If you're like many college students, you don't realize what skills you've gained from typical hourly jobs like these:
Working in Restaurants
This is perhaps the most underrated hourly job. But think about the skills you had to demonstrate while working: accuracy in taking orders, coping with stressful shifts (Remember those daily lunch and dinner rushes?) and developing ways to effectively manage your time.
More importantly, you've learned to be diplomatic with difficult patrons and may have had to respond to questions and even complaints with confidence and, in some cases, good humor. When including this type of job on your resume, be sure to emphasize the interpersonal and communication skills you gained from the experience.
Working in Child Care
If you've worked at a day-care center or preschool, you've taken care of some pretty precious cargo: Children. That alone implies you're trustworthy, responsible and flexible.
You may have also had to demonstrate initiative and creativity in developing fun activities for the kids. Not to mention develop a way to communicate with youngsters. You probably also had to exercise good judgment and enforce the rules. These skills are all valued.
Working in Retail Sales
Whether you've sold clothes at a department store, assisted customers at a bank, or worked the graveyard shift at a local gas station, you've dealt with people. So whatever retail setting you've worked in, you've had to hone your people skills.
You may also have dealt with money. This may show you're honest and accurate, especially if you've been responsible for activities like reconciling cash and receipts, or bringing money to the bank after hours. This demonstrates your trustworthiness.
Working as an Administrative Assistant
You may have manned the front desk of the audiovisual department or answered phones and filed documents. Whatever the role, you've no doubt developed your organizational skills.
Since most administrative assistant jobs require you to have some computer skills, you can list your ability to use a word-processing (e.g., Microsoft Word) or spreadsheet program (e.g., Microsoft Excel), or even a database (e.g., Microsoft Access). You may have developed basic Web pages or newsletters and brochures -- all things to include on your resume.
Will simply listing these types of hourly jobs on your resume be the key to getting your first job? Probably not. But that doesn't mean you should overlook them or remove them entirely from your work history. Employers will recognize the skills you gained from these job experiences, if you emphasize the value of them.
