One of the most common problems for a first time job applicant is the part that asks for job experience. While this can be fairly easy in countries that actually give work opportunities to students, it is almost impossible to have that here in the Philippines.
It might leave a lot of first time job applicants a difficult time trying to be confident when answering "no" to the question if they have a job experience or worse they undervalue themselves just to get a job.
Even though applicants do not have any work experience, there are more things about themselves that they can use to build up their resume. These are some that I used to build up my resume and what made interviews a lot more interesting and not a dead end:
Extra-curricular activities
In my early years as a student, I detested extra curricular activities and never found any value of doing something other than going to school (which I thought the only thing I was supposed to do as a student). It was only until I went to job interviews that I get asked a lot about my outreach and leadership experience. My involvement with things other than the norms were more than interesting enough to spark engaging interviews and actually added so much more to my credibility and holistic ability even though I don't have any job experience.
These activities, especially those that are geared to certain advocacies, will show that you are ahead of other first-time applicants and you had the chance to develop soft skills and work ethics even before getting into employment.
Internship
I would not have been able to get into the marketing realm if I did not challenge myself to apply for a PR company before. I was studying Bachelor of Arts in English but we did have journalism, marketing and advertising subjects that made me eligible to look into marketing for internship.
In the Philippines, internships could be an applicant's best chance to have somewhat of a job experience while studying but you'll have to be able to do more than just making coffee or printing copies in the internship. When looking for internship opportunities, you may want to ask about the type of work the company typically gives their interns and if you are not satisfied, you can ask if there's more that you can do because you really do want to learn or you can keep looking elsewhere.
A high value internship experience will be a very strong gear in your resume.
Part-Time Jobs
I have mentioned that this is not easy to look for in the Philippines especially if you are a student but it does not mean that the opportunities are non-existent. I started getting writing gigs even way back when I was a freshman in high school and though I did not earn much because it was mostly ghostwriting for websites, I still did have something of high value for my resume.
I believe fast food chains like Jollibee offer part time jobs to students with scholarship programs. If you have gigs for the summer, you can also ask for even just letters stating that you did some work for them. There's also tons of online jobs like what I found that accept students - just know that these jobs don't pay much but I think that's acceptable if you're still building up experience.
Portfolio
I think this is very helpful especially those who are in the creative spaces. The internet now has a variety of platforms that anyone can use to showcase their work. If you try to keep a portfolio that the public can see consistently for a certain amount of time, you can use this to strengthen your application so that your probable employer can see your progress and will be able to tell how passionate you are of what you are doing.
I would stress the part of consistency over time because it does not make much sense to create a portfolio now and apply tomorrow.
Your porfolio would also be a good angle for conversations during your interviews.
Hope this helps!
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