Even though the world currently seems to be saturated with small business ventures and side hustles, the truth of the matter is that only a handful of people actually stick to and build their hustle, even if it’s only bringing in a small income.
Side hustles are basically a way to earn a little cash while doing something you love until you reach a point where you’re able to get a stable income from it.
The point we’re trying to make is that only very few people actually stick to building their side hustles until they become successful.
Most people get disillusioned after a few months because let’s face it—side hustles don’t normally become an overnight success.
The fact that you have a side hustle that you’re consistently working on is proof that you belong to the very small circle of people who don’t give up when things get rough, and that’s something you’re going to want to include in a resume.
In this article, we’re going to give you 3 killer tips on how you can not only include, but also use your side hustle as leverage in your resume. Without further ado, let’s dive right into it!
1. Don’t Oversell It
It’s always better to be humble about it than exaggerate it and come off as a liar. For instance, if your side hustle has been fairly successful, but is still in the process of building a bigger customer or client base, it doesn’t make sense to over-exaggerate its success on your resume.
Instead of trying to talk about how great your side-hustle is, the point you should be trying to make is to draw the recruiter’s focus onto how many skills you’ve been able to develop because of the side hustle.
For instance, you could talk about how your side hustle has taught you about project management, designing, building a customer base, using and managing CRM software, working in a team, managing finances, or even just building good time management skills.
These are real-life qualities that are likely going to be useful in your future job as well, so focus on talking about what all you’ve learned in the process of starting and building a side hustle.
2. Structure it Well
Are you writing a resume for the first time? If yes, then you could use a little help on understanding how to structure your content.
For starters, you need to think of a design that will catch the eye. If you aren’t very good at designing them from scratch, you could also refer to some great resume examples for inspiration. Here are some pointers to keep in mind when designing your resume:
- Don’t use too many colors. Try to resist the urge to make it colorful and fancy. In fact, you could create a killer resume using just black and white.
- Use a font that’s easy to read at first glance.
- Structure your content based on priority – this means that if you have experience working part-time, full-time, as a freelancer, or on a side hustle, and this experience is in some way relevant to the job you’re applying for, be sure to include this at the top of your resume.
- Avoid using generic words to describe yourself and your work ethic.
- Don’t use words that you wouldn’t use when you’re talking to a person in an interview.
3. Justify Your Characteristics Using Your Side Hustle
Instead of adding in a list of bullet points talking about your characteristics such as “hard-worker, motivated, responsible, team-player, etc.”, it’s better to show why you’re all these things instead of just telling them what you are.
Additionally, you can use your experience from building a side hustle to talk about these characteristics using small and simple one-line descriptions.
For instance, you can talk about how you “Managed a team of 4-5 people while hitting monthly targets” at your company, instead of saying you’re consistent and get good results.
At the end of the day, be as honest as possible on your resume—because you may be asked to prove or justify everything you say. Good luck!
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