Is your resume not getting noticed? Are you having trouble using the right phrases? Here’s a step by step guide to making your resume impressive.
Think of your resume like your personality on paper. You are instantly judged by the way it looks and the way it is presented. These days it’s become so easy to apply for a job or an internship via platforms like LinkedIn, Internshala, etc. Imagine the plight of a recruiter of the HR who has to go through so many resumes at once. How would you make your resume stand out? Will the recruiter look at the title or your qualification or your achievements? If your resume is poorly written, it will be difficult for you to get the interview you want.
There are a few attributes that are must-go in your resumes, and we will be discussing ‘How to write your resume? A step by step guide’.
- The objective of a resume?
- What should go in your resume?
- How long should be a resume?
- Employment Details
- Key Strength and its examples
- Skills
- Educational Qualification
- References
- Important Keywords
- What not to have in your resume?
- Professional resume service
The objective of a resume
A resume is a marketing tool for you. Its purpose is to tell the recruiter whether you are the right candidate for the job if you have the appropriate qualifications, experience and skills that they need for the job.
What should go in your resume?
- Opening statement
- Employment Details (if you’re not a fresher)
- Under each employment, your key responsibilities
- Educational Qualification
- Details of certifications, courses (if relevant to the job you’re applying to)
- How can you be contacted
The most important thing for is to get the most useful information first. For example, if your educational history has nothing to do with your job, put it at the bottom of your resume and follow the job-related information.
See free resume templates here- Free Resume Templates
How long should be a resume?
There isn’t a set length of an ideal resume. It purely depends on the industry that you are applying in. For example, the resume for an IT company will be different from the resume for a manufacturing company. It will also depend on the kind of experience you had till then. Even if you a lot of experience in different companies, it’s not advisable to write more than two pages. It’s better to be concise about what you write than fill in unnecessary information.
It’s really important to tailor your resume for your job.
In today’s age, there are no specific designations across companies. The work profile is quite malleable. For eg., An X company can look for a digital marketer while a Y company can have a requirement for a digital marketer with a specific focus on graphic designing. You might want to show them that you have relevant knowledge or experience about what they are looking for. It’s good to grab their attention right at the beginning i.e. your opening statement. Think about it- your resume might one out of fifty resumes that recruiters are going to see so chances are very high if they discard your resume to save time if they don’t see relevant skills in the beginning.
Employment Details
If you are not a fresher, just list the names of the companies you have worked from and the duration of the employment. Make sure you get the full name and the correct spelling of the companies. If a company’s name doesn’t give away much about what it does and which sector it belongs to, please add a line about what the company does. You can take it from their ‘About Us’ page.
Key Strengths
Your resume should have a certain kind of special keywords to grab attention. You need to highlight the impact you made in the position you were in. Here are some keywords you can use- Analyzed, Compared, Detected, Gathered, Measured, Adapted, Calculated, Constructed, Designed, Engineered, Installed, Fortified, Debugged, Rectified, Systematized, Surveyed.
Examples-
Analyzed gaps in sales-marketing to increase store productivity
Led recruitment and training of new employees
Developed a new set of practices for organizational development
Monitored warehouse machinery to identify complex problems and rectified them
Supported production needs in setup and operation of production equipment
Gather necessary information to facilitate smooth flow of sales channel
Handled support tickets in CRM, determined root causes to ensure 100% problem resolution
Diagnosed and resolved technical issues on workstations and server
Skills
This is an area where you should include the courses or certifications that you have done from platforms like Udemy, Great Learning, Upgrad, etc. It’s not advisable to include courses that don’t add any value to your application or are too obvious a skill to know already, like- Microsoft Office, MS Paint, Photoshop, etc.
If you do not have any technical skills to add, do look at trying some personality development courses from Dale Carnegie, LinkedIn, and such sites to add here. These could be related to leadership skills, training for managers, effective communication at work, collaborating digitally, or problem-solving & decision making.
Educational Qualification
You can add the highest education that you have completed. If your Bachelor’s degree and your Post-Graduation degree are from different streams, you may add both. Yes, you will have to include percentage/GPA too.
Beginners can add some academic achievements from college and schools like a rank in an elocution competition, achievement in sports, or participation in drama or poetry contests.
References
Most of the companies do prefer candidates with references. It gives them an affirmation to check with someone who can vouch for your skills and area of strength. Provide their name, their position title, and contact information. Do confirm with your referee first before putting their name in the resume. Just ask them- “Do you mind me putting your name in my resume for a reference check? I will be highly obliged.”
Important Keywords
Like we were discussing above, the resumes are selected on basis of certain keywords that match with the job description. To make sure your resume has the right set of keywords, check the job description in detail. If you do not have the job description, ask the recruiter to mail it to you or check on their LinkedIn Jobs section. You can search on Google to find other ads for similar jobs and see what kind of keywords those ads use.
One example of keywords for the job of a Marketing Intern would be- Marketing Strategy, Media Plan, Presentation, Brand Management, Campaign Management, Market Research and Analysis, Vendor Management.
You resume should NOT have
- Any spelling mistake or factual error.
- Fancy formatting. Stick to normal fonts like Calibri, Arial or Helvetica. Use 12 or 14 as font size
- Avoid tables to put in the information
- Fake information of your degree or employment history. They always do a background check and if you’re caught, you will lose your job immediately.
Is your CV still not giving you an interview call?
If you want to create your resume online, there are some tools available for it to create an impressive CV. You can take the help of Resumonk. You can get a standout resume designed for you in minutes. They keep their resume templates updated and you can choose from one of the templates that suit your industry. For example, a resume for the IT industry will be very different from a resume for the entertainment industry.
They have a basic plan which is free where you can choose 5 resume templates, import your LinkedIn profile, and download them as a PDF. In their paid plan which is $ 29, you can choose 20 premium resume templates and download your resume as a DOCX file too.
This is a fantastic tool for creating effective resumes. It allows the writer to concentrate on producing a first-rate resume. It generates resumes and cover letters using templates that generate PDF and Word documents that can be customised to meet your specific requirements. You can definitely try it out if you have a problem creating one.
If you are not sure to go for a paid tool and want to write content on your own, you can go for a grammar-checking tool. The one tool that I use for the site is Grammarly. It is the best tool available in the market to use to check for grammar, punctuation, syntax errors. Not just for your resume but you can also use Grammarly for checking your mails, your public posts on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc. It has some free features but if you want to go in-depth into checking your grammar, you can opt for the paid version as well.
ALSO READ: 5 Free Websites College Students Must Use
