How To Create an Entry-Level Human Resources Resume
You need experience to gain experience – the ultimate Catch-22. You need a resume to apply for a job in HR, but you don’t have a lot – or any – professional experience! What to write without making it look like you’re padding?
When you’re creating your entry-level Human Resources resume, you might wonder how to stand out—especially if you don’t have much direct experience. Since many companies use an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) to do the first screening, it’s important to frame your skills and background in a way that fits the HR role you’re applying for.
The good news? You likely have more relevant experience than you think. In this article, we’ll break down the key sections your HR resume should include, from the obvious ones like education to less apparent sources of experience that can help showcase your potential.
Contents
Common entry-level HR roles and skills
Outline of the resume
Creating an ATS-friendly entry-level HR resume
Entry-level HR resume examples
Entry-level HR resume template
Other tips
Common entry-level HR roles and skills
Before we go over the specifics of a resume, let’s think about what roles you may be applying for. There are a lot of different titles possible, but a lot of them have a few skills that will always be essential at the entry-level. You may come across titles such as:
- HR Intern
- HR Assistant/Associate/Coordinator
- Recruitment/TA Coordinator
- Benefits/Reward Administrator/Coordinator.
Of course, each company may have more specific requirements for each of these roles, but broadly, a few skills are universally essential for most of the roles above.
Interpersonal skills
Interpersonal skills are about how well you are able to work with others. HR is ultimately a people profession, so each HR professional needs to know how to collaborate and communicate productively with others. Even the very Excel-based analyst roles need to eventually deal with the people side of things.
How to demonstrate this in your resume
Do you have experience working in a team? It could be projects during your education or extracurricular work. If you had experience working with people from different backgrounds, highlight that and the outcome of the work you produced with them.
Communication skills (oral and written)
Hand-in-hand with interpersonal skills go communication skills – in HR, both oral and written are essential, as you will need to be very clear with all kinds of people at work. You need to be able to simplify things for everyone at work, and you need to be able to write clearly as well.
How to demonstrate this in your resume
Your resume will be the first piece of written work the hiring team will see. Make sure it is well-structured, with no spelling mistakes and correct punctuation. It should be easy to understand and follow.
Have headings, and do not clutter too many things together. Do not put it in prose – bullet points are your friends. Beyond that – any experience with public speaking, any experience leading communications, debate, or negotiations – those are always interesting for the hiring team to see. Were you part of a debate team or student body of some kind?
Organizational skills
Unsurprisingly, the HR department has a lot going on at any one time, so being organized is essential. You will often need to ensure you are on top of multiple projects and day-to-day work.
How to demonstrate this in your resume
Showcase any experience where you had to balance many priorities and/or deliver to a deadline. This could be as simple as tasks you had to do as part of a weekend job alongside your studies or even other commitments you had to balance.
Author’s HR tip
Do not hesitate to say that you’ve had personal commitments to balance alongside your studies. Maybe you had to take care of a sibling or a parent alongside your studies and couldn’t necessarily take a part-time job. That was the case with me, and I was very hesitant to mention it. This, however, made all prospective employers at the start of my career keep on asking me why I didn’t work during my studies, and one outright said – “If you can’t manage a simple part-time job and a degree you won’t be able to manage this job.” It can be scary to divulge so much, but you don’t have to go into detail.
Project management
It’s not just about you being organized, but it’s how you can organize others toward the common goal. From a very early point in a career in HR, you will need to coordinate a lot of things and people – you may see that a lot of the example titles above are, indeed, “coordinators.”
How to demonstrate this in your resume
Make sure to highlight any projects delivered – academic, other work (non-HR or other entry-level HR), or extracurriculars. Did you organize a demonstration or a theater production? Amazing – make sure you highlight it. Especially focusing on projects where you’ve had to coordinate multiple people.
Analytical skills
Often in entry-level roles, there is a lot of data to manage and eventually learn how to extrapolate insights from. For this, you will need to be able to show your analytical skills – you should be comfortable with numbers and software like Excel. Going forward, a future where data becomes less of a companion to an HR division is unlikely.
How to demonstrate this in your resume
If you are comfortable with Excel or Sheets, mention it on the skills side of things. Also, note any courses or extra certifications you may have taken in data, analysis, or anything numerical. Do it in a similar way with any projects where you had to analyze data – if you’ve conducted any research or even just dealt with some survey data, it would be helpful to demonstrate your comfort with numbers.
There are many more skills required for an HR role, but some are a bit more specific per role or for a more senior position. Refer to the job description for more details.
As you can see, a lot of these skills interact, and you may be able to demonstrate a few skills with the same example (Project management and Organizational or Interpersonal and Communication skills). Don’t feel like you need to write an example for every single one, or worse – make one up!
Kickstart your HR career with confidence
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Outline of the resume
Now that we know a bit about the content, let’s review the recommended structure for an entry-level Human Resources resume.
Objective
Right under your name, the objective should give a clear direction of why you want to choose a career in HR. Don’t make it generic! What exactly do you find interesting? What skills have you honed so far in that direction, and what would you like to gain out of your next role? This should be your elevator pitch – make it concise and precise.
Skills
This can be put either on the side if you have a two-column style resume or under the objectives. This is done so that you can anchor what you will be highlighting in the resume. Make sure you follow up in the education, experience, or extracurricular sections, including examples of where you have demonstrated the skills you highlight in this section.
Education and certifications
This is where a lot of your emphasis probably will be, and that’s why it might be a good idea to start with this section, especially if you are a recent graduate and/or don’t have a lot of relevant experience to highlight.
- If your education is in HR – make sure to highlight the areas of HR you have covered. This goes for certifications like SHRM or CIPD as well as for any degrees.
- If your education is not in HR – go over some of the modules but not in a lot of detail, only ones that may be relevant (e.g., Employment Law if you have a Law degree).
Author’s HR tip
Once you have a bit more experience under your belt, move education toward the side (if two columns) or the bottom of the CV. You want the hiring team to be able to jump straight into reading about your experience. There is also, sadly, the slight bias that you may appear more junior than you are if you keep putting your education, for example, 5 years after your graduation, at the top of your resume. It is an unfair bias, but it is there, so tailor your resume as you progress!
Experience (internship, other)
This is where you can put down any experience you have. If you are a graduate, don’t forget to mention any side jobs, internships, etc. Only go into details for the roles where the details are relevant.
For example, suppose you had a weekend job as a manager of a fast-food chain restaurant. In that case, you can mention responsibilities for a team, conflict resolution you may have needed to do, or any administrative or organizational work you have done. No need to mention in detail if you have optimized the output of the ice cream machine, as impressive as it may be if you have other, more relevant things to highlight.
If you are a career switcher, you can talk about roles you’ve had outside of HR and describe them concisely. Only go into detail where you see that it was relevant to the potential role in HR you are applying for.
For any work you highlight, make sure to lead with achievements and any numbers you may have—e.g., rolling out better rota scheduling increased staff retention to 75% from 25%.
Especially if you have been a team lead before now, you may have achievements like this example which are very relevant to HR. This can show a few things. For one, that you already know some of the important metrics in HR, such as engagement scores, time to hire, and retention. Additionally, you can also show that you know the impact your work has had.
Extracurricular activities
Here is where you can highlight anything you may have done outside of strictly work or education. This could be so many things, but here are a few examples:
- Organize a local group for sport, advocacy, creative arts, etc.
- Teach a subject locally or abroad
- Volunteer work
- Competitions, olympiads
- Clubs and teams.
You don’t have to be the main organizer of these groups, but if they take up a chunk of your time, do mention them. They show you as a rounded individual and contribute to your being seen as a motivated, organized person who can handle the day-to-day of a role in HR.
Creating an ATS-friendly entry-level HR resume
Most companies nowadays use Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to manage their recruitment processes. More and more of those leverage the algorithms and AI systems that most modern ATS come with, so here are a few tips on making sure that your resume is seen by a person.
- Be mindful of the document format: Nowadays, ATS systems with AI try to read your resume, and often, ones created in more creative programs confuse the systems. That’s why it’s a good idea to stick to Word or Google Docs. What’s more, while PDF files are commonly accepted, some ATS software struggles to properly scan them, especially if they contain complex formatting or graphics.
To be safe, check the job posting for any file format preferences. If no guidance is given, a plain Word document (.docx) is typically the best choice to ensure your resume is read correctly. - Avoid complex elements: Avoid excessive design elements, tables, or text boxes, as these can cause parsing errors and lead to missing information in the system.
- Keep it simple: Use standard fonts, headings, and bullet points.
- Include keywords: Often the AI tools are just looking for keywords, so whether it’s in the skills or in the education or experience – make sure you match some of the keywords the job is looking for. The easiest match will be in the skills, but if you have experience in some of the activities mentioned in the job description, that would help too.
Entry-level HR resume examples
Entry-level HR Assistant resume (with some work experience)
Entry-level HR Generalist resume
Resume for HR internship with no experience
Entry-level HR resume template
This entry-level HR resume template in Word keeps formatting simple while highlighting your skills, education, and any relevant experience. Customize it to match the job description, focus on your strengths, and showcase your potential in the HR field.
Other tips
Don’t forget these essential things in a modern resume – far too often; resumes go out with the very standard academic format with lengthy sections, chronological focus, and dense formatting. Resumes like that are not easy to read and do not prioritize getting information in an organized and concise manner. Instead:
- Keep it to one page: At this stage in your career, you simply don’t have enough to write to fill out two pages. You should be able to summarize your experience so far in 1 A4 sheet.
- If you are a career switcher, you may have a bit more to mention, but if you keep it only to the relevant bits of your work, you should be able to keep it to one page.
- The title should be only your name: There is no need to add “Jane Smith Resume” or “Joe Smith CV.”
- Pay attention to the file name: Ideally, make it your first and last name. If you want even more file security, make it FirstName_LastName. The underscore makes sure the title is legible on every system, as spaces in file titles tend to jumble things up. Do not leave it as “Joe Smith totally final version of resume—final(1).”
- Avoid cliches: Stay away from cliches such as “hard-working.” Let the examples speak for you on that point.
- Tailor to the role: While a lot of job descriptions can be quite generic and similar, pay attention to ones that are not or ones that have more specific requirements. For example, for a Junior Compensation Analyst, you’d need a different resume than for an HR Specialist role.
- Include contact details: Do not forget to put down your email and phone number. You’d be surprised how many resumes go out without those!
- Include your LinkedIn page: Create a LinkedIn page for yourself. This will be your professional network, so make sure you are already set up and put the link in your resume.
- Don’t make it all about education: While your education is likely to be dominant in your resume at the start of your career, it’s not the only thing. Do not go into excessive detail about what you studied.
- Mention interests: They should not be HR only. Show that you are a rounded person!
- Know what you’re applying for: Even though it might be hard to judge from the job posting, aim to apply to roles that are true entry-level to ensure higher chances of success.
To sum up
The first step toward a career in HR is challenging but exciting. It is not easy to create a resume where you are looking to say the most with the fewest words possible. However, the process itself of creating a resume can already give you so much insight into eventually what it takes to be in the position.
Once you get your foot in the door, do not forget what it was like to be on the applicant side of things, and make sure you work toward improving processes, systems, and mindsets.
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