In today’s rapidly changing job market it is vital for job seekers to be up-to-date and always make the best impression possible. Your resume is the first point of contact for a potential employer. Often, hiring managers see hundreds of resumes a week so it is imperative that your resume stands out from the others. Here are tips to help job seekers create smart resumes that stand out from the pack.
BIG PICTURE
Appealing formatting and clean layout: The future belongs to resumes with catchy layouts and a professional appearance. Customise your resume format to optimise your qualifications and experience. Keep it simple and factual, use bullet points when you are able. Keep your resume’s formatting and layout simple and clean as too much clutter can be distracting and overwhelming for the hiring manager.
Remember your purpose: Always understand the purpose of a resume – to be invited for an interview. This means that you need to update and customise each resume submitted for the position to which you are applying.
Relevance matters: As time is becoming an unaffordable commodity, the importance of relevance in resumes is valuable to job seekers. When a prospective employer comes across irrelevant details in your profile they are likely to lose interest, discard the resume and move on to the next candidate. Ensure you provide only relevant information such as related skills and expertise based on the job description.
Computer friendly: The coming era is a digital one and printed resumes have become essentially obsolete. Learn how to convert your resume to PDF format to ensure it reaches the employer exactly in the manner you formatted it.
SMALLER PICTURE
Bullets and headings: Usage of bullet points is very common in job resumes. It also formats the resume to have a clean appearance. To set your resume apart in the competitive market, consider adding bold or italic headings in each section of your resume.
Top to Bottom Rule: In short, the most relevant and best points must be stated at the top of each section as these serve to hook the reader. This rule still stands valid in the resume writing market today and will continue to do so in the future.
Short-story telling approach: This approach is to provide accomplishments written as very brief stories. For example ‘Enhanced revenues by 30% through effective business relationships building’ should now be replaced by something like: ‘Implemented effective business relation building approaches and revitalised the company’s clientele which resulted in 30% enhancement in revenue’. Don’t forget to use figures and numbers to show your tangible results or accomplishments when possible.
Add colour: Conventionally, resumes are black and white. However, highlighting some key sections or core competencies by using some coloured font can also help in setting your resume apart.
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