An Entry Level Fashion Merchandising Resume, especially when you have no relevant experience, will look a little different from most resume examples you might see online.
Your most pressing issue may be a lack of work experience. But that should not stop you from applying to jobs you’re interested in.
In this article, I’m going to show you how to write an entry level fashion merchandising resume in response to a real job at Macy’s.
IMPORTANT: the job post you’re responding to is what’ll guide how you write your resume. Most resume writers don’t talk about this. But I like to focus my method on a proper study and understanding of the job post.
If you’ve already read some of my other articles and are already familiar with how to study a job post, skip ahead.
If your new to this site and/or writing your own resume, don’t worry.
Take my hand. Read on. And I’ll take you through it step-by-step.
Below is a fashion merchandising resume that I created in response to this job ad from the fashion brand Macy’s. Even though it’s an entry level position, it did require a couple years of experience. But don’t worry. I included examples of how to write a resume even when you have no work experience down below.
Career Coaching Notes: For the most detailed instructions on how to write each section of your resume, please refer to this fashion resume how-to guide I created for you.
When you use it, give yourself ample time to learn how to write a resume. The first one may take several days. That is perfectly alright.
Better to write your resume well over a few days, than to write it badly over a few hours. In this article, I’ll briefly go over why I wrote each section the way I did with the assumption that you’ll refer to the how-to guide for more information.
I’ll go over your resume and create a personalized 10 - 15 minute video review that you can watch as many times as you need to.
$21
The first thing I do is copy and paste the job post into a word doc. So we can study it in depth.
For this example, we’ll be looking at a job post from the popular brand Macy’s. I've included my personal notes.
For your convenience, the job post opens up in another window. That’ll make it easier for you to follow along.
Optimize your resume
Just like search results on the internet, resumes are sorted and filtered. This is how a company separates candidates it’ll consider vs those they won’t. When you optimize your resume, you use the same keywords on your resume that the company is searching for.
Step 1:
Begin to highlight any keywords that stand out to you. Keywords are any jargon and technical terms associated with a job.
It’s a skill to learn how to properly study a job post and it does take a little practice.
I highlighted what I found important in pink in the job post sample.
These words and phrases are what you'll use to optimize your resume.
Step 2:
Look out for the specifics of this
particular role. It changes from company to company. This is a basic overview
of what I can see about this job…
Now we’re prepared to start writing our resume.
HINT: Start your work in a basic word document. Work on the content aka words of your resume first. Worry about templates or how it will look later.
Even though contact information seems very basic, it’s still possible to get your resume disqualified on badly written contact information.
There are 2 main areas of your contact information that could make or break your fashion merchandising resume. They are your…
Please refer to this section of the how-to guide for more details on how to complete your contact information.
Once you’ve done this section right, you can always reuse it in any other resume you’re writing. So know that it’s time well invested.
*For this particular post at Macy’s, you won’t be needing a portfolio. So, we can skip that bit.
Even though the experience section is usually further down the resume, I like to work on the experience section next.
This gives me a chance to explore all the details of why a candidate is a good fit for a role.
Most articles will tell you to come up with 3 to 4 points that demonstrate
your ability to work well in this role.
When it comes to experience, only relevancy counts. So baby sitting and food serving don’t count.
As a rule of thumb, if any section of your resume is weak, you simply move it further down the resume and place your stronger sections before that – in a more prominent position.
So what should you write if you have no work experience?
Rather than using a heading like Work Experience, go for a heading like Campus Engagement, Volunteering And Work.
List the roles you have held rather than go onto detail about each.
See the comparison below.
It’s a simple matter of putting down the details of your degree and you can move on to the next sections of your resume.
If you have
no work experience:
you can list relevant modules you covered in your degree that will be useful to
this role such as...
See image above.
I’ll go over your resume and create a personalized 10 - 15 minute video review that you can watch as many times as you need to.
$21
Headlines are one important part of resumes that candidates often overlook.
The headline I used for this resume was…
MERCHANDISE CONTROL ROOM ASSISTANT
Marketing and E-Commerce Content Production
I used a variation of the job title at the beginning of the job posts and as a second line pulled the phrase Marketing and E-Commerce Content Production which I noticed was repeating itself a lot.
If you follow my method, you already know what you’ve written in your experience section. So that can guide how you craft your headline.
For more details on how to write your headline, read here.
Most people are at a loss when it comes to what key skills to write on their fashion merchandising resume. There’s no need to search the internet for key skills. Rather, you need to search the job posting for the key skills.
Remember all that keyword research we did at the beginning of your resume? You get to use that again in your key skills section.
So, make a list of all the skills you could find and use around 6 to 8 of them to create your skills section.
The key skills do split into at least 2 groups…
I only call it a career objective so we can both be on the same page.
However, a career objective is a sure resume killer.
This part of your resume should be summarizing why you’re a good fit for the job (a career summary). NOT stating the obvious about how you wish to work with this company (a career objective).
If you’ve been following along, you already worked out your experience, and education. You're now in a good position to - just like in English class- write a summary that hits all the high points of hiring you.
Think overview versus general.
For example, …
For more info on how to write your objective/summary, read here.
By now, you have the content of your entry level fashion merchandising resume complete. But what about look and feel?
Now is the time that you can copy and paste your content into a chosen resume template.
Sorry to say, but most free templates were designed by a graphics person and hardly have any space for quality content. Not to mention they have unnecessary headings and sections like hobbies. Yikes!
So, I always prefer a minimalist template that sticks to one page.
This is the safest option.
The most daring I would do is to maybe customize the fashion merchandising resume to look and feel like the brand.
Simply put, the content of your resume needs as much attention, if not more, than the look of the resume.
Hope you find this useful. Remember if you need more direct help, the best way I can help you is with a resume critique and rewrite.
I’ll go over your resume and create a personalized 10 - 15 minute video review that you can watch as many times as you need to.
$21