A resume or curriculum vitae [CV] is an important key, which if presented in the right manner could unlock the door to your dream job. Your resume is not just an MS Word document; it’s a mirror showcasing your skill set, achievements, and talent. Any dream turns into reality with hard work and perseverance, and to land your dream job you need to let your resume do the talking.
7 Best Ways to Write a Great Resume
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Selling Yourself:
The most important thing to remember while applying for a job is that you are, in many ways, selling yourself. For example, mobile companies such as Samsung, LG and Apple often highlight the best features of a new model when it is released. They make you believe that it is their best phone, and that’s what selling means. You need to showcase the skill sets you acquired during your education or with a previous employer. The achievements, the hard work you had put in to gain a promotion or an award – you need to highlight and clearly mention these in your resume.
Once you accept the idea that you need to display yourself, open a notepad or a word document and list all your achievements in your education and professional life. Once you are done, review them and pick the best and most suitable for your job profile. The next step would be to either phrase it in a paragraph or you could put in under a separate sub-heading called ’achievements’ with bullet points. However, ensure it is on the first page of the resume and recruiters do not have to scroll down to read it. -
No Standard Resume Template:
There is no standard resume template available on the internet. Therefore, you are making a mistake if you are picking one from MS templates or some other website (thinking that’s the standard). A generic template is very common, and while designing your resume, you need to stand out of the crowd. Browsing to know the important fields is fine; however, you never should be copying and pasting the template for your personal use.
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Important Fields to Include in a Resume:
You can do an exercise – open a notepad or word document and list all the fields you think a resume should have. Now review them from the recruiter’s perspective and think if it provides any value to the recruiter to shortlist you. Then, delete all the unnecessary fields.
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Do Some Homework:
You need to do your groundwork about the job profile or the organization before designing your resume. For example, for the role of business analyst, a company may need a candidate with team management skills. However, other companies might just need a purely analytical person. Therefore, ensure that you include skills that the organization and job demands.
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Do Away with the Job Objective:
Most recruiters or employers are not interested in what you want. Their main priority is whether you fit into the job profile. Therefore, putting a two-three lines of your objective is a sheer waste of time.
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Target Job Title:
Imagine yourself as a recruiter and you have a job portal in front of you, and you’re looking for a business analyst with skills in MS Excel. Most recruiters would type in business analyst on the job portal, perhaps also mentioning the necessary years of experience and location. Therefore, including your target job title could help you get picked up from the database.
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The ‘Why’ Clause:
A very common question asked during an interview is: “Why do you think you are suitable for this job?” Including this statement with an answer in your resume at the top could aid in your being shortlisted.
Your resume is not just a piece of paper; it is an autobiography of your work experience. Therefore, pen it down with a lot of care and devotion. Do let us know in the comments section if we have missed out any key aspect in building a great resume.
