5 CREATIVE WAYS TO BUILD SKILLS FOR A RESUME FROM HOME
These 5 creative projects can help you build skills for a resume from the comfort of your home – no official job experience necessary! 😊
The Skills section of a resume is where you can showcase the technical and soft skills you’ve gained throughout your employment history.
If you’re anything like I once was, your resume’s skills section might be in need of some tender loving care… (mine, for instance, consisted of only Microsoft Outlook, Word, and Excel at that time).
While there’s no shame in this, I personally knew that I wanted to enhance both the soft and technical skills on my resume and feel more confident in the value I bring to the workforce.
Get Creative
Once I realized that the skills on a resume weren’t limited to those gained through formal education or employment, that’s when I started looking into other creative ways to develop skills in my own free time.
I began experimenting with small projects centered around my personal interests until I found those that suited me best (blogging has been my favorite, by far!).
This journey of curiosity and experimentation with different projects has ultimately led to me gaining valuable skills such as:
🔸 Writing
🔸 Digital marketing
🔸 Website design
🔸 SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
🔸 Content creation
🔸 Web analytics
🔸 And honestly so much more
I’ve now proudly incorporated many of these skills into my resume, and knowing that I possess these skills has significantly boosted my confidence when presenting myself to potential employers.
The list below includes 5 of my favorite ways to develop employable skills from the comfort of your home. I hope you find this journey as impactful as it was for me.
Remember you don’t have to wait for a new job or new duties at work to empower yourself with the privilege of self-education! 😊
❗Before you begin: Be prepared to explain to potential employers how you acquired any skills mentioned on your resume. If a personal project is of a more private nature, it might be best to exclude it from your resume for now! 😉 Best of luck!
5 Creative Ways to Build Skills for a Resume
1. Start a blog
For me personally, starting a blog was the most rewarding of the various projects I’ve explored.
Not only has it taught me a number of new skills, it has also provided a platform to express myself on topics I feel passionate about, which in turn has added meaning and purpose to my life.
A few (among the many) benefits and skills you can acquire through starting a blog include:
Website Creation & Design
One of the first things you learn when starting a blog is how to build, design, and manage a website. Some bloggers choose to build their website on hosted websites such as Wix or Squarespace, while others use a hosting provider such as Bluehost along with WordPress.org (not to be confused with WordPress.com).
Both options come with their advantages and disadvantages; however, either one will teach you valuable skills and equip you with the knowledge to create or maintain websites for future professional pursuits.
Writing Skills
Regular blogging helps you improve your writing abilities. You’ll use written language to engage, inform, or influence your target audience and over time, you’ll learn how to develop your own brand voice, creating a recognizable and cohesive brand identity.
In addition, it can significantly enhance your value to employers if you’re able to demonstrate how your writing (persuasive headlines, effective CTAs, etc.) has successfully led to tangible conversions or engagement on your site.
Research, SEO, & Analytics
Beyond the front-end aspects of your blog, there’s a lot that you will learn on the back-end. You’ll discover how to conduct research for well-informed and desirable content, you’ll understand SEO (search engine optimization) strategies to optimize your blog for search engines and expand your audience reach, and you will monitor your blog performance through analytics tools and metrics.
Monetization Strategies
If you choose to monetize your blog, you can learn about the various strategies to generate income. Some commons ways to monetize a blog include joining ad networks to display ads, promoting products through affiliate links, and selling digital products such as online courses or e-books.
This not only enhances your blog’s value but also presents a clear advantage—the potential to earn money from your blog!
2. Turn your life into a project
Many employers value candidates who can demonstrate their ability to oversee a project from start to finish. If you haven’t had the opportunity to oversee a project through work, why not start one in your personal life?
You can begin by learning the basics of a work management tool such as Asana, Monday.com or Notion and using it as a life planning and organization strategy for your everyday life.
Then, when you’re ready to step it up a notch, gather a group of friends with a common interest and decide upon a common objective.
The overarching goal should be the creation of something.
Some ideas for a group project might include:
🔸 starting a weekly meetup group based on a common interest (i.e. a weekly book club)
🔸 organizing an event (such as a social mixer, an outdoor trip or excursion, a guest speaker, etc.)
🔸 starting a social media page (to inform, entertain, or influence your audience)
🔸 designing and creating a physical product
🔸 planning a workshop
🔸 starting a mock business project
🔸 coordinating a community service project
🔸 and so on…
Not only will you be able to add your involvement in the group to your resume, but it also provides an avenue to showcase your proficiency as the project manager. This includes highlighting the specific project management tools you used to bring the project to successful completion.
3. Start a social media page on a personal interest
As highlighted in the last example, you can create an account on a social media platform and post content on a topic of your choice to inform, entertain, or influence your audience. While this can be rewarding as a group effort, you definitely don’t need others to start this as an independent project!
I love the idea of creating your own social media presence that is based on something you feel passionate about—you can even remain anonymous if you are concerned about other people seeing or knowing about your page.
Many businesses promote themselves through social media these days so knowing how to create visually appealing and engaging content is a valuable skill to develop.
Here are some potential ideas for your account:
🔸 Offering information or advice related to your favorite hobby (cooking, photography, fitness, etc.)
🔸 Educating your audience on a subject you have expertise in
🔸 Crafting easily digestible content on a cause or topic you care about
🔸 Sharing your travel experiences including tips and recommendations for various destinations (or your hometown!)
🔸 Reviewing books, gadgets, or other physical products
🔸 Documenting your fitness and health journey
🔸 Inspiring others with motivational content, affirmations, etc.
🔸 And so on….
Starting a social media page on a topic you love allows you to combine your passion with the potential for personal and professional growth.
Don’t underestimate this as a credible project – maintaining a professional social media page takes substantial effort, involving continuous learning in areas such as copywriting for crafting compelling content, mastering visual design, and fostering audience engagement.
4. Start a YouTube channel
Starting your own channel can provide numerous opportunities for skill development. Even if you do not want to personally appear in the videos, there’s a lot you can do with a YouTube channel that doesn’t involve revealing your identity.
There are many YouTubers that create visual content by using whiteboarding tools such as Doodly or VideoScribe and then adding your own voice narration on top of the video. The same approach can be applied using stock photos and videos for an equally engaging result.
However, an approach that I found to be widely applicable in various business settings involves creating a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation with a voiceover. This method is fairly straightforward, requiring minimal training, software, or equipment. However, the benefits significantly surpass the effort required.
How to create a YouTube video in PowerPoint:
🔸 Step 1: Create your slides in PowerPoint
🔸 Step 2: Use the “Record Slide Show” feature to record audio for each slide
🔸 Step 3: Export your presentation as a video
🔸 Step 4 (Optional): Edit and enhance the video by adding music or effects and trimming unnecessary parts
🔸 Step 5: Save and upload to YouTube
Creating presentations and engaging in public speaking are common practices in many workplaces. I found that this approach provides an excellent opportunity to refine your presentation skills conveniently from home. As a result, you can confidently assert your experience and proficiency with PowerPoint to potential employers!
5. Complete online courses or certifications
While this is not necessarily a creative project as in my previous example, it is an extremely valuable personal endeavor that you can begin from the comfort of your home to build skills and qualifications for your resume.
Online courses—especially those from credible providers that award certificates for completion—are an easy way to add qualifications to your resume that will be recognized by potential employers.
If you want to develop skills but prefer to follow a syllabus rather than taking the more self-directed route that you’d face with the previous examples, I recommend exploring popular online learning platforms such as Coursera or LinkedIn Learning. Google also has some great online courses with certificates on their Grow with Google page.
I hope you’ve enjoyed these ideas and you’re inspired to start one of these 5 creative projects to develop employable job skills for your resume, increase the chances of landing your dream job, and help you feel more confident promoting yourself to prospective employers in today’s competitive job market. ✨
Thanks for reading and good luck! I hope this post helped you find some great ways to build skills for a resume!
Check out our other posts about career development on our Career Development page.