General

[quote=NotZach]@workofart: thanks! at one point i had to babysit my nephew every day for almost 3 months, while helping my mother with everything (she had knee surgery so i'm her nurse basically) and i'm going to start doing volunteer work for the elderly, kids, and at a hospital. do you think having those experiences would help?[/quote]

Yes, anything you do that helps people counts, as long as it's not illegal, pointless, or unnecessary. Volunteer work is good, actual work is good, etc.

@workofart: thanks! at one point i had to babysit my nephew every day for almost 3 months, while helping my mother with everything (she had knee surgery so i'm her nurse basically) and i'm going to start doing volunteer work for the elderly, kids, and at a hospital. do you think having those experiences would help?

@peanutfishy
I know it worked out great for you and all, but there's a pretty crucial factor you need to consider. [b]What works for some people usually doesn't work for others.[/b] Some can graduate from college and not be able to find a job. Others can drop out in one year and become multi-billionaires. Just because it worked for you, doesn't mean it'll work for the TS. Your friends may have been applying for a more prestigious job than you. For example, you might have gotten a job at say, a restaurant (if you got a high level requisite job without a resume, that company is either incredibly desperate, or you're just flat out lying), but your friends were denied jobs from multiple law firms, or financial positions.

[b]This is a pretty long explanation but I hope it helps. This is more or less for applying for a job without previous work experience.
OT: Investigate, investigate, investigate. There's several things you need to investigate: your own skills and abilities, your own faults, what investigators can dig up about you, your employer's current employees, your employer's rejected employees, your employer's psychological layout, your employer's work priorities, your company's objectives, and your company's processes.
There's several things an employer would investigate about you: your skills and abilities, your faults, and everything negative they can dig up about you. So take those pictures of you drinking with your friends or pulling a prank off facebook.

Resume:
But you need a resume that successfully brings out your abilities. Not some crap that says "very good at leadership" or "very nice to customers" or "very hard working individual." See what those are, are flood-compliments. They're [b]compliments that flood your resume[/b] with extraneous crap that the employers don't care about. [url=http://www2.ucsc.edu/careers/handouts/resume/No_Experience_Resume.html]Here's[/url] a sample resume I found following this example. Notice her qualifications summary. [b]That does not help at all.[/b] It doesn't tell the employer anything, it actually makes them think that you are unable to present your own skills and abilities in a more direct fashion.

What you want is experience or tasks that show your leadership or ability to work in groups. For example, instead of saying "very patient with others," you can say you were a babysitter. Yes, many employers actually take consideration to babysitter jobs. It shows responsibility and patience, and they know that. If you held your babysitter job for several years, they will be more impressed. Now personally I was a babysitter during my high school freshman and sophomore years, and then a tutor for junior and senior, but not everyone has tutoring/babysitting jobs. In that case, you can make it up, or essentially [i]lie[/i] on your resume. It's not really the right thing to do, but for something like babysitting, it's highly unlikely that a company (especially Wal-Mart that manages tens of thousands of employees) investigates your babysitting. I'm not telling you to do it, I'm telling you the option is there.

Point is, don't flood your resume with crap. Put in as many [b]actual achievements[/b] as you can find. They're not going to simply take your word for it. "dedicated and hard worker" isn't going to work. Give them proof. They aren't going to hire you before they see the proof, so the only proof you have is in your resume, and your interview. Unfortunately, some people are unable to fill their resume with achievements, because they never had any jobs, recordable achievements that can be shown with proof, or education on the part. In that case, just put your hobbies, extracurriculars, school achievements, etc. If you don't have those, then the only thing you can really do is fill your resume with the flood-compliements.

Interview:
This is where you investigate your employers. Know how to read people. Know the correlation between actions and speech. If your employer sounds harsh or impatient, he/she is most likely looking for a to-the-point by-the-book individual. In that case, talk with absolute confidence and respect. If your employer sounds fun and easy-going, he or she is looking for a relaxed individual. Now every employer's looking for dedicated/hard working/respecting/etc.. Relaxed does not mean "lazy." Relaxed means you can take a lot of work without fail.

Know what your employers are looking for. Change your speech according to their personalities. Keep everything in a professional sense, but don't make it tense.

Know everything about your company, but don't act like you know more than the employer. Be able to answer any question the employer throws at you, including the most common one: What are your weaknesses?

Point is, although it's Wal-Mart, take all the precautions you can. People will tell you "it's just wal-mart, you can BS everything." That's not true, minimize the chances of rejection as much as you can for any job you apply for.

you don't need a resume for walmart. -_-

i got hired at target for the early AM (5-9am). i hated taking that stupid personality test online, always do, but somehow i managed to answer them correctly enough. god i hate those things.

When they have you take a computerized test and the questions are like strongly agree/agree/neutral/disagree/strongly disagree, make sure you stay consistent and pick the best answer, not the true answer. Employers are looking to hire "perfect" employees.

No. A résumé also describes what skills you have and provides background information.

You can choose not to bring one in, though it is not recommended.

@NotZach I'm guessing you're a teenager so think about how many teenagers are applying for positions like this. You have to set yourself apart from the rest and the best place to do that is in the interview. Make sure your resume is concise and simple. Since you don't have workplace experience, don't write too much on your resume. Once you finish your application (or just hand in your resume, whatever the process is) make sure you call back and ask for the hiring manager after a week or so.

Once you get an interview, you need to act confident and enunciate your words clearly. Try not to use any word fillers (i.e. um, er). Don't be completely serious, its fine to have a little humour when you're being interviewed, but know your boundaries. Definitely practice common questions (e.g. Why do you want to work at...? Describe yourself. What are your strengths/weaknesses? If an upset customer approaches you what do you do? You notice a co-worker in the act of embezzlement, but they tell you to keep quiet, what do you do? Etc etc)

[quote=NyaTaku]Make sure your resum� is top-notch.

Even though it's a job at Walmart, you have to get into the habit of keeping an organised resum�.[/quote]

i thought you only need one if you've had jobs before?

if old ladies are being paid to sit on their asses at the front and [i]not[/i] greet people, i'm sure i'll get in just fine,

Make sure your resumé is top-notch.

Even though it's a job at Walmart, you have to get into the habit of keeping an organised resumé.

Fart

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