Smart job seekers understand the importance of a resume because it is an important part of your job search. It is important to pay attention to your resume and to keep it updated on a regular basis.
There is a lot that you should include in your resume, such as qualifications, education, experience history and necessary skills. Hiring managers will not pay attention to poorly written and lengthy resumes.
Keep in mind that a resume is an excellent way to portray your skills and abilities. It will be the first impression that you make with a potential employer; therefore, you should design your resume in the best way possible.
Your resume should have action verbs, compelling objective statement, and essential keywords. There are a few tips and tricks that prove helpful for everyone when trying to write a compelling resume:
Select a Format for Your Resume
The format of your resume is imperative because a wrongly written resume will hurt your chance of getting the job instead of helping it. Try to highlight important sections of your resume with bold headings and use bullet points to make your skills visible.
Typically, a hiring manager takes 10 seconds or less to scan your resume. A solid resume will be easy to scan quickly. Instead of stuffing your resume with information, you have to pay attention to its format.
1. Always use wide margins and a logical format, clear headings and simple fonts.
2. You can use italic and bold typeface to guide the eyes of the reader.
3. Use bullet points to grab his/her attention to major parts of your resume.
Identify Your Accomplishments
In technical fields, hiring managers want a candidate with analytical and problem-solving skills. They look for qualified candidates who can solve problems and satisfy the different needs of the company.
If you want to write a resume for a technical job, it is a good idea to write about your previous experience. Explain how you have solved the same problem during your last job.
Instead of listing out your previous job description, try to focus on your achievements and accomplishments from your previous jobs.
1. Make a list of your achievements and pinpoint your benefits for your previous employer.
2. You have to write your actual accomplishments instead of copying the accomplishments of other people.
3. Instead of giving a generic description, you should mention particular incidents.
Quantify All Your Accomplishments
Making general claims is a major mistake of resume writers; therefore, keep your resume free from industry jargon. You have to design your resume to sell your strengths and skills. Focus on your achievements to increase the marketability of your resume.
1. Quantify your accomplishments, such as using dollar amounts, percentages and number of team members. It will increase the interest of the hiring manager in your resume.
2 Begin by listing your most recent accomplishments and work back from there. Include the benefits that your previous employer received from the work that you did.
Design Your Resume for Industry
You have to advertise your skills, qualifications and licenses in a unique way to impress potential employers. You can impress your potential employer with a distinctive design and unique words.
Your resume should be free from grammatical and spelling errors, fancy fonts and decorative borders. Keep your resume simple and professional to avoid potential problems.
Write Career Summary Instead of Objective
You can design a career summary to give a concise overview of your objectives regarding your career.
The career summary looks similar to the objective statement, such as you will include information about your capacity to take on challenges and your use of skills to better the future of the organization. You should use action words to grab the attention of the hiring manager.
Keep in mind that you have to spend some time developing a good summary and a way to powerfully describe how you will be the solution to a problem.
Network is Extremely Important
Unemployed candidates have plenty of time to write their resume. They can personally send a resume to any organization. The majority of junior to senior level positions are often filled through networking.
It is wise to make sure your network is reliable to increase your chance of getting a position through your network.
Networking may include:
1. Business contacts: people working under your supervision, your employers, supervisors, and clients
2. Sales representatives and vendors to whom you worked within previous years
3. Individuals in the directory of your alumni (alma mater)
A solid resume and an excellent network will help you to increase your chances of getting hired.
Don’t Write Everything in the Resume
Instead of writing everything on the resume, you should write only relevant skills and achievements. You want to leave some things to be discussed at an interview with a potential employer. There is no need to write about old jobs that are not in a related industry or irrelevant skills. Use bullet points to highlight your core competencies. At the end, you will want to include professional references. Make sure to ask for their permission before including their name and contact number.
I hope this article has offered you some help with the resume writing process.
If you have any questions or want help, please leave me a message below.
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