Sometimes the simple things can make the difference between being shortlisted or being overlooked. Follow these simple steps to lay a great foundation for your resume.
First Priority
Focus on placing your most relevant details in the top half of your resume
How do you entice a hiring manager to keep reading? Research shows that recruiters spend an average of 6-7 seconds on your resume. This means, logically speaking, you should have the most relevant details at the top. This includes your contact information and any skills, competencies and accomplishments that match the vacancy posting. By the way, please don’t plagiarize the job ad...more on that later.
Reverse It
Place your most recent professional experience first and work your way backwards.
Remember, 6-7 seconds is all you you have. The reviewer doesn’t want to know about that internship you had back when you used a typewriter. As a matter of fact that shouldn’t even be on your resume. (That’s a tip for another day) A reverse chronological resume helps the reviewer understand your most relevant and recent work experiences. This is the best way to ensure your experiences are noticed.
However, if you have gaps in your career or shift jobs and industries a lot, this format highlights it and may expose your weak spots. Don’t fret though, we can help you select the best format for your resume.
Stay Relevant
Only include the last 10-15 years of your career history and keep the experience relevant to the job you’re applying.
Your resume is not your autobiography. You do not need to detail every job you‘ve ever had. Remember that internship we spoke about earlier? Unless you’re a recent graduate, you may want to leave that out.
If you’ve had a job for only one month, yes you may want to leave that out too. Unless of course you worked on a project that your potential employer will find valuable. If you're changing industries or worked in several, you may also want to omit those not specific to the role you're applying for. The hiring manager is only interested in what you can do for this particular role. Make their life easier and increase your chances of a call by staying relevant.
Major Key
Always browse the job posting and highlight the key words that express what the employer is looking for in an ideal candidate
Using these key words will ensure the Applicant Tracking Software shortlists your resume. It also signals to the employer that you possess the competencies that they need.
A note to the smart guys out there...Including these keywords in your resume is totally different from
plagiarizing the vacancy posting and passing it off as your resume. We can assure you this would not work, as recruiters we know if something seems too good to be true, it usually is.
One and Only
Your resume is really an ad. The quicker you can get to the point, the better. All your information should be one page unless...
You have more than 10 years’ experience or several professional achievements. If this does not describe you, then time to chop chop chop! We’ve already established that hiring managers and recruiters have a short attention span so keeping it to one page will 1) keep their attention and 2) force you to focus on your meaningful experiences. It’s a win win!
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