Posts Tagged ‘resume writing tips’

Tips for writing a great resume

Having a strong resume can change your life. Your resume is your gateway into a new job. You want it to look professional and you want it to stand out to the person who will be reading it. Here are some tips to make your resume a little better.

1.    Design each resume to fit each particular job. Make sure you are tweaking each resume that you send out so that it pertains to the job you are applying for. Sending out a generic resume does not stand out to a future employer.

2.    Be specific. Use numbers, dates and names when describing something in your resume. The absence of dates on your employment history can raise some red flags.

3.    Present information that is most impressive first. This will help you decide if you should put experience or education first on your resume.

4.    Use everyday language and short, concise paragraphs. You do not want to sound like you used a thesaurus for every word in your resume. People can tell when you do that.

5.    Get someone else’s reaction to your resume before you send it out. Sometimes that person may catch a mistake that you did not see or they can help you improve the format of the resume.

6.    Proofread for spelling and grammar before you type of the final copy. You do not want to submit a resume that has errors in it, as it does not look very professional.

7.    Use boldface type, underlining and indentations to make your resume easy to read.

8.    Make sure that you include all of your experience. You want to include all volunteer work, achievements, extracurricular activities (related to your job) and awards. But when doing so, do not put ridiculous things on here just to fill up space. If you got highest honors back in your junior year of high school and you are now 40 years old, don’t include that. The employer will not care about something you did back in high school over 20 years ago.

9.    Make sure that you have good references. You do not always have to include references on your resume, but it is a good idea. That way, the employer can see that you are willing to give them up front and will not have to call you for them. Make sure that your references are people that would be professional if they got called by one of your future employers.

10.  Make sure that your resume reflects what the employer wants and not what you want. You want something that will be noticed by the employer, Look at from their point of view and then write.

Great Resume is your magic to a great interview

There’s no magic to getting the job interviews you want, just a great resume.  A great resume follows some simple but crucial guidelines. 

• Determine who is reading your resume
• Write what the reader wants to hear
• Make your resume easy to read
• Write a resume with substance & depth

Determine who is reading your resume

Who is reading your resume?  A human resources manager? A department manager?  A headhunter?  That reader – we’ll call him or her a Manager – knows the type of person they’re looking for before they read the deck of resumes in front of them.  That Manager is looking for someone with certain experience, certain skills, and certain training.

Your resume is not the only resume on their desk, it’s 1 of 50 or 1 of 100.  The better the position and the better the company you are applying to, the more resumes your resume will be competing against.  Remember that the Manager is looking for a specific type of person.  They’re not going to interview 50 candidates.  They will interview 4-5 candidates,   You want to be one of those 4-5 candidates. 

That Manager knows the type of person they’re looking for.  If you don’t write what they’re looking for, your resume will be tossed out.  If you write exactly what the Manager wants to hear you will be one of the 4-5 interviewed.

Write what the reader wants to hear

When most people write their resume (90%+) they are not thinking about what the Hiring Manager is looking for, they’re thinking about themselves.  They write their autobiography.  The Hiring Manager is not interested in your life story.  He or she is not looking for a friend, a spouse, or an interesting person.  The Manager is looking for someone that demonstrates they can best do the job available.

The Hiring Manager wants to hear what they want to hear.  This resume has to be honest, but it also has to focus on the part of your background that is relevant to what the HR Manager is looking for.

If the Hiring  Manager reading your resume is thinking “big deal, there’s nothing here that I need”, they will read 1/3 of the page and toss it.  If that Manager while reading the resume is thinking “wow… this person is doing exactly what I need,”  you’ve got the interview.  It should not be a coincidence that the Manager is finding what they are looking for.  Your resume needs to tell him or her  exactly what they want to hear!

Make your resume easy to read

Too many resumes are written in the traditional paragraph format that is not easy to read.  The Manager has 50-100 resumes and they will not read the paragraphs.  They’ll scan 1-2 lines of each paragraph and probably will not find what they are looking for because they didn’t spend the time reading it.

Writing your resume in a bulleted format will enable the Hiring Manager to scan your resume. 

Bulleted job descriptions are 3 times faster to read than the long paragraph format. 

In 20 seconds they can read a bullet formatted resume. 

It would take 60-90 seconds to read a paragraph format. 

It’s well documented that employers spend only 20 seconds on the initial reading of a resume.

Write a resume with substance & depth.

Making your resume easy to read doesn’t mean simplifying your job descriptions down to 2-3 lines like on many resumes.  If you summarize your jobs down to 2-3 lines the Manager will think you are lazy and don’t do much on the job.  On the other hand, if you give 8-12 bullets describing your recent jobs the Hiring Manager will think that you really take on significant responsibilities and are a good employee.  The bullet format enables you to say a lot and still be easy to read, as opposed to the paragraph format where the more you say the less is read.  Bulleting is a win-win technique.  It enables you to say a lot about your jobs and it is still easy to read.

Basic principles of writing resumes to get jobs

The prime-most principle to bear in mind before sitting down to write down a resume is

Keep it simple

So, when you have written a first attempt at your resume / CV, get someone else to look at it, and tell you how to make it better.

Ask your friends, your tutors or teachers, your career office, family friends in business. What you have written may seem simple and obvious to you, but not to an employer! Go through it again and again, making it shorter, more readable, more understandable!

Before you start

Sit down with a piece of paper. Research the job(s) and job descriptions(s) that you wish to apply for. Consider how your skills, education, and experience compare with the skills that the job requires. How much information do you have about the job description?

Sometimes employers do not give enough information. Ask for more detail if needed. Spend time researching detail about the job(s) that interest you and information about the employer – their structure, products, successes, and approach.

What you should Include

Personal details

Name, home address, college address, phone number, email address.

Education

Give places of education where you have studied – most recent education first. Include subject options taken in each year of your course. Include any special project, thesis, or dissertation work.

Pre-college courses (high school, etc.) should then be included, (in a CV and NOT in a resume) including grades. Subjects taken and passed just before college will be of most interest. Earlier courses, taken at say age 15-16, may not need much detail.

Work experience

List your most recent experience first. Give the name of your employer, job title, and very important, what you actually did and achieved in that job. Part-time work should be included.

Interests

The prospective employers will be particularly interested in activities where you have leadership or responsibility, or which involve you in relating to others in a team. A one-person interest, such as stamp-collecting, may be of less interest to them, unless it connects with the work you wish to do. Give only enough detail to explain. (If you were captain of a sports team, they do not want to know the exact date you started, how many games you played, and how many wins you had! They will ask at the interview, if they are interested.) If you have published any articles, jointly or by yourself, give details.

Skills

Ability in other languages, computing experience, or possession of a extensive computer knowledge should be included.

References

Usually (can be avoided in a resume) give two names – one from your place of study, and one from any work situation you have had. Ensure that referees are willing to give you a reference. Give their day and evening phone numbers if possible.

Length

Maybe all you need to say will fit onto one sheet of A4. But do not crowd it – you will probably need two sheets. Do not normally go longer than this. Put page numbers at the bottom of the pages – a little detail that may impress.

Style

There are two main styles of resumes / CV’s, with variations within them.

Chronological

Information is included under general headings – education, work experience, etc., with the most recent events first.

Skills based

You think through the necessary skills needed for the job you are applying for. Then you list all your personal details under these skill headings. This is called ‘targeting your resume / CV’, and is becoming more common, at least in india, some of the Asian countries and UK.

But it is harder to do. So take advice on whether it is OK in your country and culture, and how to do it best.

Optional extra

It can be good to start with a Personal Profile/Objective statement. This is a two or three sentence overview of your skills, qualities, hopes, and plans. It should encourage the employer to read the rest.

Presentation

You may vary the style according to the type of job, and what is accepted in your country and culture. Consider using a two column table to list your educational qualifications and courses taken.