what to put on a resume when you have zero work experience

what to put on a resume when you have zero work experience what to put on a resume when you have zero work experience A reader writes: I was tapped to help my friend, “Jordan,” get their resume together. Jordan and I are both in our early-mid 20s and have been friends since we were in middle school. Jordan has always been very introverted and didn’t really do extracurricular activities at school. They were okay as far as grades, but they didn’t really do anything beyond that. Their scores on tests like the SAT’s were extremely high and I know that Jordan can spend hours composing music, researching, or writing- they even built multiple website forums from mostly scratch for our mutual friends to participate in. When we went to college, Jordan struggled with their major, switching it a couple of times before moving to a community college (due to the costs) and eventually deciding they would take a break to try and get some work experience before going back to school. During this time, Jordan did not really make very many friends and had a hard time participating in campus activities due to stress. They don’t have any work experience, volunteer experience, or really, anything that they can put on a resume! They are hard working and very, very smart, but schooling was always a challenge. I know that Jordan could be a good employee, and I think that channelling their skills into a workplace could help them gain some serious self-esteem that they are lacking. They can be very driven and focused, but they just don’t have anything that could “prove” it to a boss or hiring manager. They are looking at volunteering opportunities, but they are limited - while jobs are advertised everywhere. Jordan asked me to help write their resume and I am at a loss! What do you do if your resume is truly “empty”? Jordan is getting frustrated with the sense that “you have to have experience to gain experience” and I can’t help but agree. Do you have any advice for us? Help! (And no, neither Jordan nor I are comfortable or able to share the websites they built- they’re all defunct and the ones that are still around are private for our friend group!) Yeah, if Jordan truly has no work experience of any kind, not even interning or volunteering, and no extracurriculars, their job search is going to be hard. The thing is, employers don’t really hire for potential - you’ve got to be able to show how you’ve applied that potential in some way. Even with entry-level jobs, youre  going to be up against other entry-level candidates who have some amount of experience summer jobs, internships, campus projects, etc. Did Jordan do anything during school other than attend class? Edit articles for professors? Organize an event? Make fundraising calls to alumni? Lead a class project? None of those are great substitutes for work experience, but they’re better than nothing, and it might be that digging into those types of activities will yield some content for their resume. But if not and theres literally nothing Jordan could put on a resume, its likely that Jordan wont be competitive right now for the sorts of jobs that expect a resume. Instead,  they need to focus on getting any work experience they can. Volunteering would be good. Temping would be better (and if they can pass the temp agency’s skills tests, they’ll probably get sent on some temp jobs). They should also consider taking a low-level customer service job just to have something on their resume. And this is very much a time to lean hard on their network (and friends and family members networks if possible) to find someone who might be willing to pay them for something, even if its just a few weeks of filing. Also! Dont dismiss those website forums so quickly. Building something from scratch is impressive. I get that theyre either defunct or private, but if Jordan can create one thats sharable, that would allow them to list all of that work (and then if asked for samples, they can explain the situation and offer up the model one that is sharable).