Tips To Write The Perfect Resume
A resume is an essential part of an interview, therefore having a solid and effective resume writing is a must. It holds all of your achievements and certificates and is a very important step for you to get your dream job. Here we have some essential tips for you to have an effective resume.
- KNOW THE PURPOSE OF YOUR RESUME
Some people write a resume as if the purpose of the document was to land a job. As a result, they end up writing a long and boring piece that makes them look like desperate job hunters. The objective of your resume is to land an interview, and the interview will land you the job.
- MAKE USE OF YOUR QUALITIES AND STRENGTHS
Instead of writing a long and boring list with all your qualities (e.g., disciplined, creative, problem solver) try to connect them with real life and work experiences. In other words, you need to back these qualities with your previous work, otherwise, they will look like you have just made up things to fill your resume
- MAKE SURE YOU USE THE KEYWORDS
Most companies are already using digital databases to search for candidates. This means that the HR department will run search queries based on specific keywords. Guess what, if your resume doesn’t have the keywords related to the job you are applying for, you will be out even before the game starts.
These keywords can usually be nouns. Check the job description and related job ads for a clue on what the employer might be looking for.
- USE EFFECTIVE TITLES
A recruiter can make a judgment on your resume by just seeing the titles of it, it will not take them more than 5 seconds to make an opinion about you. Under this time frame the most important aspect will be the titles that you listed on the resume, so make sure they grab the attention. Try to be as descriptive as possible, giving the employer a good idea about the nature of your past work experiences.
For example:
Bad title: Accounting
Good title: Management of A/R and A/P and Recordkeeping.
- PROOFREAD IT AS MANY TIMES AS POSSIBLE
Do we ever submit our exam sheets without proofreading? Then how can we not proofread our resume? One small typo and your chances of getting hired could slip out of your hands in no time. Proofreading it once is not enough, so do it twice, three times or as many as necessary. If you don’t know how to proofread effectively, ask someone to do it for you. Take help of a family member or a friend.
- USE BULLET POINTS
No recruiter will have the time or patience to read a long paragraph. Make sure, that you use bullet points and short sentences to describe your experiences, educational background, and professional objectives.
- DESCRIBING YOUR CAREER GOALS
You should give a brief description of your professional goals, this can help you by giving the recruiters an idea of what you want from the future, and how you want to get there. You don’t need to have a special section devoted to your professional objectives, but overall the resume must communicate it. The question of whether or not to highlight your career objectives on the resume is a polemic one among HR managers, so go with your feeling. If you decide to list them, make sure they are not generic.
- PUT IMPORTANT INFORMATION FIRST
This point is valid both to the overall order of your resume, as well as to the individual sections. Most of the times your previous work experience will be the most important part of the resume, so put it at the top. When describing your experiences or skills, list the most important ones first.
- PAY ATTENTION TO THE TYPOGRAPHY
Pay attention to the little things like making sure that your fonts are big enough. The smaller you should go is 11 points, but 12 is probably safer. Do not use capital letters at all places, remember that your goal is to communicate a message as fast and as clearly as possible. Arial and Times are good choices.
- USE THE PROPER LANGUAGE
DO NOT use statements like “Available for an interview” or “References available upon request.” If you are sending a resume to a company, it is understood that you are available for an interview and that you will provide references if requested.
- WRITE ABOUT YOUR SKILLS
Write how your good creative writing landed you the job mentioned in the resume. Merely stating that you can do something will not catch the attention of the recruiter. If you manage to explain how it will benefit his company and to connect it to tangible results, then you will greatly improve your chances.
- AVOID NEGATIVITY
Do not include information that might sound negative in the eyes of the recruiter. This is valid both to your resume and to your interviews. You don’t need to include, for instance, things that you hated about your last company.
- WRITE ABOUT YOUR ACHIEVEMENTS RATHER THAN RESPONSIBILITIES
Resumes should not include a long list of “responsibilities included…” they are seen as plain boring, and not efficient. Instead of listing responsibilities, therefore, describe your professional achievements. For instance, how you felt good when you became the employee of the month.
- DON’T ADD PICTURES
Sure, you might be good looking, but unless you are applying for a job where the physical traits are very important (e.g., modeling, acting), and unless the employer specifically requested it, you should avoid attaching your picture to the resume.
- USE NUMBERS
If you are going to describe your past professional achievements, it would be a good idea to make them as solid as possible. Numbers are your friends here, don’t merely mention that you increased the annual revenues of your division, say that you increased them by $100,000, by 78%, and so on, it gives a good impression of your work.
- USE DIFFERENT RESUME FOR DIFFERENT JOB PROFILES
One of the most common mistakes that people usually make is that they create a standard resume and send it to all the job openings that they can find. Sure it will save you the time, but it will also greatly decrease the chances of landing an interview. Tailor your resume for each job profile.
- AVOID ADDING YOUR AGE
It is not good to discriminate people because of their age, but some recruiters do take these into consideration nonetheless. Why take the risk? Unless specifically requested, do not include your age on your resume.
- DON’T LIST ALL YOUR PAST JOB EXPERIENCES
If you have job experiences that you are not proud of, or that are not relevant to the current opportunity, you should just omit them. Mentioning that you used to sell hamburgers when you were 17 is probably not going to help you land that executive position.
- BE HONEST
One of the most important things to keep in mind is that you should be honest while writing a resume. If you never had any real working experience, just include your summer jobs or volunteer work. If you don’t have a degree yet, mention the title and the estimated date of completion.
- USE MR. AND MS. AT APPROPRIATE PLACES
If you have a gender neutral name like Alex or Ryan make sure to include the Mr. or Ms. Prefix, so that employers will not get confused about your gender.
- ANALYZE JOB ADS
You can find plenty of useful information on job ads. Analyze not only the ad that you will be applying for but also those from companies in the same segment or offering related positions. You should be able to identify what profile they are looking for and how the information should be presented.
- USE ACTION WORDS
A very common advice to job seekers is to use action verbs. Now the big question is what are they? Action verbs are basically verbs that will get noticed more easily, and that will clearly communicate what your experience or achievement was. Examples include managed, coached, enforced and planned.
- DON’T MENTION YOUR HOBBIES
Do not mention your hobbies unless you are 100% sure that some of your hobbies will support your candidacy, else avoid them. We know you must be proud of your swimming team, but share it with your friends and not with potential employers.
- UPDATE YOUR RESUME REGULARLY
It is always a good idea to update your resume on a regular basis. Add all the new information that you think is relevant, as well as courses, training programs and other academic qualifications that you might have received along the way. This is the best way to keep track of everything and to make sure that you will not end up sending an obsolete document to the employer.
- MENTION WHO YOU HAVE WORKED WITH
If you have reported or worked with someone that is well known in your industry, it could be a good idea to mention it on the resume. The same thing applies to presidents and CEOs. If you reported to or worked directly with highly ranked executives, add it to the resume.
- NO JAGON OR SLANG
It should be common sense, but believe me, it is not. Slang should never be present in a resume. As for a technical jargon, do not assume that the recruiter will know what you are talking about. Even if you are sending your resume to a company in the same segment, the person who will read it for the first time might not have any technical expertise.
- BE CAREFUL WITH SAMPLE RESUME TEMPLATES
There are many websites that offer free resume templates. While they can help you to get an idea of what you are looking for, do not just copy and paste one of the most used ones. You certainly don’t want to look just like any other candidate, do you?
- CREATE AN EMAIL PROOF FORMAT
It is very likely that you will end up sending your resume via email to most companies. Apart from having a Word document ready to go as an attachment, you should also have a text version of your resume that does not look disfigured in the body of the email or in online forms. Attachments might get blocked by spam filters, and many people just prefer having the resume on the body of the email itself.
- NO PRONOUNS
Another point to keep in mind is that your resume should not contain the pronouns “I” or “me.” That is how we normally structure sentences, but since your resume is a document about your person, using these pronouns is actually redundant.
- REMEMBER THE BASICS
Always remember that the first thing on your resume should be your name. It should be bold and with a larger font than the rest of the text. Make sure that your contact details are clearly listed. Secondly, both the name and contact details should be included on all the pages of the resume.
- TAKE THE HELP OF A PROFESSIONAL
Even after sending a million resumes to different companies you are not getting any response or you are having a hard time creating your resume, or if you are receiving no response whatsoever from companies, you could consider hiring a professional resume writing service. There are both local and online options are available, and usually, the investment will be worth the money.
- DON’T USE FANY DETAILS
Do not use a colored background, fancy fonts or images on your resume. Sure, you might think that the little flowers will cheer up the document, but other people might just throw it away at the sight.
