While a recruitment process is reliant on factors such as industry, position, size of the company, and market demand, a well-written resume can give a job seeker a considerable edge over the competition.
A resume is a brief but detailed overview of your personal, educational, and professional experience. Resumes are meant to provide recruiters with insight into who you are and your qualifications for a particular position.
A resume may not exactly guarantee you a job, but it plays a very critical part in any hiring process. It’s not so much a surprise that people spend countless hours working hard to prepare a piece of paper as some people tend to describe it.
The truth is a good resume is more than a mere piece of paper. It will get you a seat at the interviewer’s table and will represent you as well as your interests.
For you to land your dream job, you need to prepare a resume with professional resume writers that will make your resume stands out.
Here’s a list of tips that will boost your chances of landing the job you want.
1. Get a Free Resume Review
After you’ve finished writing your resume, you need to get an objective analysis of your resume from a professional. Consider that while you may feel your resume stands out, the opinion that really matters is that of a recruiter.
By getting a free resume review, you can get an unbiased perspective on your resume. A the second set of eyes can provide you with valuable insight into what areas of your resume are strong, where it comes up short, and what more you need to do to convince the recruiter you are perfect for the job.
2. Go With a Good Resume Format
Whenever you’re applying for a job, you need to consider the fact that you might be competing for the same role with hundreds of other skilled people. A bit intimidating, isn’t it?
Now picture yourself as the recruiter tasked with reviewing all those applications. It can take you days or even weeks to go through all of them. The truth is recruiters often take 5 to 7 seconds skimming through your resume. As such, first impressions matter a lot.
You need to have a resume that’s as simple, legible, and precise as possible. Try to familiarize yourself with various layouts, fonts, and formats. Examples of layouts you can consider include the combination format, the functional layout, and the reverse chronological design.
The functional layout prioritizes the skills of the job seeker. The reverse-chronological format, on the other hand, focuses on a person’s achievements in their education and professional career. The combination format articulates the skills acquired from the job seeker’s previous working experience.
3. Make Your Introduction as Captivating as Possible
The first thing most people read in a document is the top text, and that includes recruiters too.
Since they take such a short time analyzing a resume, you should try to make sure that what they see at the top motivates them to continue reading. For this reason, you should try and make sure your strongest achievements, experience, and qualifications should stand at the top third of your resume by including a resume summary statement.
A resume summary statement is a brief introduction to the job seeker that seeks to outline their skill set and emphasize key stages throughout their career. A summary statement can help recruiters to realize how valuable a hire you’re going to be.
To write a killer resume summary, you need to understand what kind of talent the recruiter is looking for. This will help you determine your top-selling points as a professional.
4. Break Down Your Work Experience and Notable Achievements
If your resume is a fancy meal, the introduction is the appetizer and the experience section is the main course. This section includes the most important things you should include in your resume. As such, it is where the recruiter will dedicate the most time and attention.
Listing your career progress in chronological order and matching them with your job duties simply won’t cut it. What your recruiter is looking for is how good you were at your job.
Focus on your most relevant and measurable results rather than simply listing your duties. Instead of stating that you were tasked with increasing company revenue, describe how you increased your employer’s profit by 80%.
5. Showcase Your Skills
Deciding what skills you need to list on your resume can be a bit complicated. We can all name more than a dozen skills that we have but we can’t include them all in our resume. After all, this section is what highlights your resume and makes it relevant to the job vacancy you’re applying to.
Read through the job description thoroughly and get a good understanding of the skills required to be considered eligible for the job position you’re currently applying to.
What software does the employer need the ideal hire to know about? Will the job require you to communicate in any additional languages?
Feel free to add a few more that you feel the recruiter could deem valuable. Remember to use words such as advanced or exceptional before listing your skills to indicate your level of proficiency.
6. Don’t Ignore Contact Information
While the contact info section may seem pretty straightforward, there are a few factors you should consider. For example, how do you plan on displaying your full name? Which of your many emails do you intend to use?
Whichever you choose, make sure the contact info is consistent with all your personal branding material such as business cards, blog, or online portfolio. Use one email address dedicated to your job search activities and an active phone number.
Consider your online presence as well. Nowadays, a lot of recruiters often investigate the social media activity of their ideal hire so make sure your LinkedIn profile is updated.
This will allow you to be in full control of your professional communications.
Proofread Your Resume Then Proofread Some More
The job market today has become increasingly competitive. To get your perfect job, you need to make sure that your resume is flawless.
Make sure you proofread your document before submitting it to the recruiter. Watch out for spelling, grammar, and spacing mistakes that can prove detrimental to your application. Writing a good resume doesn’t have to be a brain-racking experience.
Follow the tips highlighted above if you want to stand out and land an interview for your dream job.
