You’ve dropped out of college, and now you’re ready to enter the workforce, but you’re worried about what employers will think about your resume. You might assume that your resume won’t get the attention it deserves because you don’t have a college degree like other people applying for the same position, but that’s not exactly true. Get creative and put effort into building a professional resume that highlights your skills and experience. You can stand out against other applicants, including those with college degrees, and get hired for a rewarding, high-paying job that you’ll love.

Put Your Qualifications and Credentials at the Top of the Resume

 

Don’t make the mistake of placing your education details at the top of your resume. Sure, people would usually do that when creating resumes in the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s, but times are changing, and you no longer have to do that. Instead of putting your education at the top of your resume, replace that section with your qualifications and credentials to reel employers in and get them interested in you.

 

Show Off Your Skills

 

Ask yourself what makes you a good fit for the job you’re applying to, whether it’s your social and communicative skills,  training at a tech school, or even something you’ve learned on your own. For example, you might be a fast typer who is a critical thinker, good at communicating with other people, and even experienced with technology. 

 

Highlight the things you’re qualified to do and the skills you’ve gained along the way to let employers know what you’ve got to offer. If you’re making them aware of your skills, you have a greater chance of getting picked for an interview, where you can show off your skills at communicating and answering questions like a pro.

Tweak Your Resume for Each Position

 

If you’re applying for different positions within various industries to see what you can get, be sure to tailor your resume to fit the requirements for each role. For example, suppose you’re applying to a social media management position. In that case, you’d want to include details of social media-related work you’ve done in the past, along with your experience level on different social sites. But, of course, that kind of information wouldn’t necessarily be too important when applying for an office job or any other position that has nothing to do with social media.

 

It might sound like extra work to do, but it’s worth it when you want your resume to get attention from hiring managers. They’re often looking for people with specific skills to get what they need to have done each day to help their business thrive. Prove that you’ve got the experience and skills required to complete daily assigned tasks within different industries to increase your odds of getting hired for a position you want.

Keep the Education Details at the Bottom

 

While some people are removing the education section from their resumes altogether, you can still include it if you’d like, especially if you’ve gone to a trade school and earned a certification. However, be sure to keep it at the bottom. When you keep the educational details at the bottom, you’re still being honest and open, but you’re giving yourself a better chance of getting hired, even without a degree.

 

Prioritize Skills Over Education

 

If you’re wondering how that would be possible, think about everything the potential employer would see before getting to the bottom of the resume. They’d see your objective and reason for wanting the position, the skills you’ve acquired over the years, and the experience you have long before they see the details of your education, and that means they might already want to hire you before it gets to that point. Even if the specific employer would’ve preferred someone with a college degree, they might like your resume so much that it no longer becomes a requirement for them because they see that you’ve got what they’re looking for in an employee.

Use Reverse-Chronological Order

 

When listing the different positions you’ve held, it’s usually a good idea to put them in reverse chronological order. Most people start with their first position and end with their last, but employers should see your recent experience compared to what you might’ve done five years ago. 

 

Highlight Your Latest Job Experience

 

It’s not uncommon for most people to work at fast-food restaurants and retail stores when they first enter the workforce, but that job experience might not have nearly as much to do with the position you’re applying for as a job you had more recently, such as a year ago or even a few months ago. So, instead of including outdated job history at the top, leave it at the bottom. It still counts because it adds to your versatile resume but isn’t nearly as important as some of your most recent positions held.

Include Any Volunteer Work You’ve Done

 

Volunteer work is as important as your job history. It shows that you were willing to donate some of your spare time to a good cause, whether you volunteered at a children’s hospital, local church, or with any other organization that helps others. Employers are often impressed with those who volunteer because it gives them a better idea of the applicant’s character. Your experience volunteering may have humbled you while helping you learn new skills and become the genuine person you are today, so feel free to add it to your resume!

Create a Digital Resume

 

Ditch the boring, outdated resume everyone else has and take a digital approach. When creating a digital resume, you provide the employer with a link to click that will take them to a unique, detailed resume that includes all your information on it. When you’re switching from a traditional to digital resume, it shows that you’re up-to-date with the latest trends and are making an effort to create something presentable to garner more attention from employers.

 

Pick the Perfect Color Scheme

 

Creating a digital resume gives you the chance to select a neat color scheme that can get you the attention you want and deserve. Some people like to keep it simple with traditional colors, such as white, black, and gray, but you don’t have to do that. Why not use your resume as an opportunity to show off your personality? Pick a color scheme that represents you best, whether it’s hot pink, bright blue, or even a deep red. Along with your primary color, you’re going to need two secondary colors for text, such as white, black, or even gray.

 

Include Some High-Quality Images

 

Don’t hesitate to include some photos on your resume. For example, you might want to have a headshot added to your resume or perhaps a picture of you doing volunteer work. If you’re planning to add some images to your digital resume, make sure they’re high-resolution photos representing you well.

 

Add Important Details to Your Digital Resume and Get Straight  to the Point

 

Like a traditional resume, you’ll need to add some text to your digital resume, including your objective, skills, and experience. Be sure to include the information while getting straight to the point. You can use bullet points to highlight specific details about yourself that you feel employers would be most interested to learn about before deciding to call you in for an interview.

 

Ask for Help Building the Digital Resume If You Need It

 

Be sure to ask for help if you don’t know how to make a digital resume. Not only can you look up step-by-step instructions on creating this type of resume, but you can also pay someone else to do it for you at a reasonable cost. If it means having an impressive resume that gets employers interested enough in hiring you, it’s worth it.

Build an Impressive College Dropout Resume That Would Make Any Employer Choose You

 

When you decided to drop out of college, you made the right decision. It’s too often that people choose to further their education because of pressure from those around them, including their teachers and parents. You may have decided to go to college because you heard it was the only way to succeed and make money, but you quickly realized it wasn’t for you and wasn’t something you wanted to continue doing for the next few years.

 

Now that you made such a bold move to get out of college and enter the workforce, you’re probably trying to build a resume that will highlight what you can do instead of highlighting the fact that you haven’t earned a degree. If you use the helpful suggestions mentioned above, you can create an impressive resume that will have employers reaching out to you for an interview because they see what you’re capable of doing for them.

 

Don’t feel ashamed about deciding that college isn’t for you. Over the past several years, college degrees have become less valuable, and more employers are paying less attention to them now than ever before. This should tell you that you absolutely CAN get hired for your dream job without a degree!