Try to keep your resume to 1 page. Write a cover letter if you have experiences that didn’t have a place on your resume but are relevant to the job you’re applying for. There are templates online for cover letters and resumes that you can borrow from. Don’t go too fancy with the resume styling. Just a clean, readable layout.

A psychology thing I use to put the reader in my shoes and make me seem capable (because I am them as they read) is that I describe in detail my responsibilities with action words ending in “ing”. Example, if I was a waiter in the past and applying for another customer facing role, I could write “- served food and drinks. Stocked consumables.”, or I could highlight my empathy and social awareness and time management:

• promptly greeting customers as soon as they walk in
• creating an environment where they can enjoy their meal and company
• adjusting my service based on their individual needs
• timing tasks to keep on top of restocking and cleaning while prioritizing customers

It feels weird to write “ing” verbs at first but it makes a difference. Good luck, keep practicing, it takes ages but try to tweak your resume for each individual job you apply for. Dont be afraid to follow up with the ones you really want - calling is unheard of these days but if you phone and sound friendly, ask to speak to the hiring manager, mention you’re keen on this position and would love the chance to interview for it, that will probably put you at the top of the pile. They don’t want to waste their own time interviewing people that are only half interested in the job.

If you get an interview, obv being confident is great but if that’s not you, it’s ok to be nervous. They know you will be. Just focus on giving coherent answers. Practice the STAR method to answer their questions. Explain the Situation, Task, Action, Result. Keep it relatively short and to the point. Example: tell us about a time where you handled friction at work.

Situation - I was working on a project that required external collaboration. Task - I needed a colleague to give a timeline on a task of theirs but they were hesitant to commit to a date since this was not a typical priority for them. Action - I empathized that this was an extra workload to them and asked questions to understand what their biggest roadblock was. I then offered a few options that had different approaches but still achieved both our goals. Result - We came to an agreement on priorities, clarified requirements, and both delivered our projects on time. This person also ended up being a valuable contact and we often consulted each other in future tasks.

Try to think of at least one question to ask them at the end, such as “what do new employees typically find surprising after they start?”. Do a bit of research on the company, even if just for small talk as you’re walking to the meeting room. It’s not a good look if you have no idea what the company does.