You've donned the cap and gown and you are staring down years'
worth of student loans – congratulations, you've graduated!

For those looking to enter the job market, you probably triumphantly added your new degree to your resume - and nothing else.

After
years in academics, any area of your resume except education might feel
a bit empty. Here are a few tips to highlight your true potential to
your first employer.

Highlight the Experience You Do Have

Consider
using this trick. Look up your ideal job and read through the posting
(it doesn't have to be geographically desirable, just the right career
opportunity).

Highlight or keep a list of the keywords used and
find a way to incorporate them into your own resume. Even if you don't
have the exact experience they are requesting, think about parallel
experience that you do have.

For example, that perfect job
posting may request experience in project management; you may never have
done that in a formal office setting, but organizing the large charity
event you ran last summer will undoubtedly have required a similar skill
set.

Make sure you do yourself the credit of highlighting all
of your relevant experience – there's likely to be more than you think!

Add Unpaid Experience

Just
because you didn't get a paycheck doesn't mean you didn't walk away
with something valuable. Consider any volunteer experience you might
have as if it had been a job; list the responsibilities you had, the
skills it required, and the goals you achieved.

Include Soft Skills

We've
probably all found ourselves in this situation: your interviewer asks
if you have any experience in a particular field or situation, for
example, conflict resolution with a coworker.

Luckily, you
remember a time when you had to resolve a scheduling issue with someone
you worked with. You do have conflict resolution experience! But is this
skill listed on your resume?

Mark Jeffries, a leading expert on
soft skills in career management, describes soft skills as "anything
that enables you to influence others, to pitch ideas, and to
successfully persuade others to take action," according to
CareerJoy.com.

Do you take initiative on new projects? Do you
have a tendency to rework organizational systems for the better? These
are all highly marketable skills.

The catch is that you can't
just list them out on a resume. Imagine if you were the hiring manager
reading a list of 30 soft skills: leadership, communications, people
skills, zzzzz… Don't do yourself the disservice of boring the person who
is reading your resume.

Instead, look for ways to incorporate
these keywords into concrete examples. It will keep a human reader
engaged, and still help an automated resume scanner or bot to flag you
as a possible candidate.

Consider Your Education

Completing
your education is nothing to sneeze at. It may seem to you as if
everyone has a degree, but that's simply not the case; and having that
diploma means more than just a framed piece of paper.

Successful
students must exhibit exceptional time management skills, project
management, attention to detail, and be strong readers, writers and
(though it may seem obvious) learners. These are all skills your
potential boss needs to know about.

Beyond the skills it took to
get you through school, consider highlighting what you actually did. Did
you earn any scholarships? Take on extra-curricular responsibilities
like student government? Perhaps you organized an event for your
dorm-mates.

On the academic side, did you complete a thesis?
Assist a professor? Go over your academic career carefully and make note
of all of your accomplishments, no matter how small they may seem.

Highlight, Don't Lie

There's
a slippery slope between shining a spotlight on an accomplishment (and,
let's be honest, polishing it up a bit) and outright lying. If you
really did start a small summer business selling homemade greeting
cards, play it up!

You probably did some marketing, client
schmoozing, and kept your own books. But don't lie about the size or
profits of your business just to make it seem more legitimate. Lying on
your resume, even seemingly harmless lies, is the fastest way to get
your resume ripped up.

The Bottom Line

Recent
graduates face a unique challenge when they enter the working world for
the first time. But just because you've been in school for the last few
years doesn't mean you aren't a desirable candidate.

It just
means you need to find a way to showcase your best without relying on a
ton of work experience. And really, marketing yourself effectively is
the goal of all jobseekers.

Can this tip embodied in Algeria?

Consider Your Education

Completing
your education is nothing to sneeze at. It may seem to you as if
everyone has a degree, but that's simply not the case; and having that
diploma means more than just a framed piece of paper.

Successful
students must exhibit exceptional time management skills, project
management, attention to detail, and be strong readers, writers and
(though it may seem obvious) learners. These are all skills your
potential boss needs to know about.

Beyond the skills it took to
get you through school, consider highlighting what you actually did. Did
you earn any scholarships? Take on extra-curricular responsibilities
like student government? Perhaps you organized an event for your
dorm-mates.

On the academic side, did you complete a thesis?
Assist a professor? Go over your academic career carefully and make note
of all of your accomplishments, no matter how small they may seem.