List Your Experiences

If you are looking for work for the first time, you may think you don’t have any relevant experience for a job.

But classes you have taken in school, special courses, clubs, chores, and volunteer work all provide useful experiences that can help you get a job.

For example: Learning CPR in health class might prepare you to work as a lifeguard, or a nanny, or an EMT.

Interest in the food industry might prepare you to be a restaurant host, a waiter, caterer, or chef’s assistant.

Volunteering at a children’s museum might prepare you to work as a camp counselor, a daycare teacher, or a museum assistant.

In this video, you will brainstorm a list of your experiences that might help you look for a job, and add them to your document.

Then, you will list the skills you gained from each experience.

To begin, add a new heading for Experience.

Start your list.

Consider any previous work you have done, paid or unpaid.

Jobs outside your home, like mowing lawns, delivering food, or selling concessions at a sports game, might have taught you how to manage money, for example.

Jobs inside your house, like babysitting or washing dishes, may have taught you how to stay on schedule.

Volunteer work, such as singing at a retirement home or picking up trash in your community, may have improved your people skills.

Also consider: Online training courses on topics like photography or coding, Afterschool clubs, like the school paper or a foreign language group, Formal career training, such as classes in cosmetology or auto repair, And classes in school that required long-term projects or assignments.

Add at least three relevant experiences to your list.

Next to each experience, write at least one skill that you gained from the job or task.

Think about how your classes at school and experiences at work have prepared you for your future jobs.

They may have taught you specific subject matter, such as a English grammar, or they may have taught you specific skills, such as how to use a spreadsheet, a microscope, or how to do research at the library.

Now, it’s your turn: Add a new heading for Experiences to your document.

Spend about five minutes brainstorming previous jobs, chores, volunteer work, and formal training you’ve done.

Add at least three experiences to your list, And name the skills you gained from each experience.