Your Resume is your sales brochure that you use to sell yourself. The objective of a resume is to attract the potential employer’s attention and create a desire to know more about you.
Getting good at creating a resume can help improve your chances of being hired. This article will teach you how to create a compelling and professional resume.
Apply these resume wiring tips to make your Resume desirable to recruiters and outsmart your peers.
Resume as a Marketing and Sales Tool
When hiring managers are looking for the best fit for a job, they want to select candidates who can bring the most value to the job.
Your resume has the power to transform your career experiences and accomplishments into a powerful marketing and sales tool.
Aside from your credentials and work experience, your Resume should also include your personality and style to make a powerful impact.
Let’s see the three primary purposes a resume should serve:
- Quick Marketing – A recruiter’s average time to scan a resume is less than 10 seconds. Your Resume should be able to impress potential employers that you are the right fit for the job within this short time frame.
- Sales Pitch – Recruiters use resumes to quickly evaluate and compare all applicants against each other to figure out who is best suited for the job role. The Resume is your sales pitch, where you help hiring managers visualize your capabilities to do the job.
- Interview Steering Guide – Tailoring your Resume for every job requirement you apply for can enhance your chances of getting an interview call. The success and achievements indicated in your Resume can influence your interview and act as a steering guide for discussions.
Your resume has the power to transform your career experiences and accomplishments into a powerful marketing and sales tool
Create a Future-Oriented Resume
Create a future-oriented resume highlighting the various avenues you want to pursue instead of simply listing your previous job positions and responsibilities.
Highlight your capabilities and achievements, based on the needs of your market and narrate how you could bring value to the organization and help the company achieve its goals.
When creating your Resume, don’t simply describe your work. Instead, highlight the advantages you offer, such as improved productivity and sales, and your talents that the company can leverage to execute future projects.
Use your past achievements and credentials to highlight your future potential and help recruiters visualize you as the right fit for the job.
Highlight your capabilities and achievements, based on the needs of your market and narrate how you could bring value to the organization and help the company achieve its goals.
Create a Customized Resume Version for each Job Role
If you have transferable skillsets, which could make you desirable in multiple job industries, maintain different versions of your Resume to reflect the needs of the different sectors.
Create one master resume as the main template, and depending on the different job roles yor are applying for, prepare different versions of your resume each tailored to highlight the relevant experience and skillsets required for a specific job requirement.
Don’t use “job objective” statements that limit your Resume to a specific position or industry. Instead, highlight the various accomplishments that link to your goals.
The objective is to make your Resume stand out and differentiate yourself from the others around you while making it most relevant and suited for the specific job role you are applying for.
Have a master resume as your main template, and create different versions of the resume each tailored to suit the specific job role you are applying for
Create a Two-Page Resume
A two-page resume is just the right size, but if you are applying for a senior-level position, you can make it longer as appropriate. A one-page resume is apt if you’re starting your career and do not have much work experience.
Your master resume could be more than two pages, where you would list all your accomplishments and career experiences.
When you start applying for a specific job role, create a tailored resume picking the most relevant skillsets and accomplishments suited for that job role. Limit this customized resume to a maximum of 2 pages.
Use bullets, job titles, capital letters, and bold or underlines to highlight the company or job title as required.
Formatting a resume can take a lot of your time. Consider purchasing a simple resume template to eliminate the bulk of work that could waste your time.
Your focus should mainly be on updating the content of your master Resume with your skillsets, work experiences, and accomplishments.
When you start applying for a specific job role, create a tailored resume picking the most relevant skillsets and accomplishments suited for that job role. Limit this customized resume to a maximum of two pages.
Up-to-date Contact Information In the Resume
Your contact information should always be up-to-date so that employers can reach you.
Although it’s essential to include your email address, avoid using the office email address. Instead, create a personal email address (like Gmail) suitable for professional purposes.
Let’s look at the “contact information to include” in your Resume vs. “information to exclude” from your Resume.
- First Name and Last Name (e.g., John Smith)
- Phone Number – Mobile or home (eg: +1 222 333 444)
- Personal email address (e: john.smith24@gmail.com)
- Location – Full address not required, include state and country. (eg: California, USA)
- Office Phone Number
- Unprofessional email address (e.g., xsdfast1223@gmail.com)
- Date of Birth
Have up-to-date contact information in your resume, so employers can reach you.
How To Update Your Resume in 2022?
Keep it short and sweet when narrating your career history in a Resume. List all your significant accomplishments using bulleted points.
Use a templated approach – Start bulleted points in your resume with action verbs, and end the sentence with tangible results, or results that can be measured.
To present your achievements in the best possible way :
- Quantify your Accomplishments – Translate your achievements to “dollar” savings or revenues for the companies you worked for.
- Achievements, not Responsibilities – Focus on results and achievements rather than your responsibilities or work.
- Sell Yourself – Show how you contributed to the growth and profits and your role.
- Skillsets – List any specific skills or knowledge you have acquired in your work.
- Summarize – Consolidate and group all your similar projects/assignments into one listing.
- Freelance/Temporary/Voluntary Work – Include any relevant consulting, freelancing, or temporary and voluntary work.
A cover letter to go with your Resume is ideal. Never lie or make negative statements about yourself in your cover letter or Resume.
The purpose of your cover letter and Resume is to get an interview. Provide enough information to help the hiring managers visualize you as the right fit for the job and get that interview call.
When narrating your career history in resume, keep it short and sweet. List all your major accomplishments using bulleted points.
How To Make Your Resume More Attractive?
Let’s go through some helpful, actionable tips to enhance your Resume and make it more attractive to potential employers:
- Reverse Chronological Order – Use reverse chronological order when listing your work history; start with your most recent job role and work backward.
- Quantify Accomplishments – Quantify your accomplishments as revenue or savings to the company.
- Relevant Achievements- Showcase all your important achievements and emphasize those most pertinent to the job you’re applying for.
- Career Summary – Your career summary should be the first line in your Resume, after your name and contact details. Narrate to the hiring managers shortly and concisely how you could bring value to the organization.
- Overall Theme – Your resume content should support the overall theme or message.
- Job Titles – Rewrite job titles to reflect the actual work that you did.
- Proofread – Do a final review and proofread.
- Publish and Evaluate – Publish your Resume to the marketplace, evaluate how it’s performing and make adjustments as required.
Final Thoughts
It’s the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.
John Wooden, Basketball Coach
The Resume should reflect your skills and experience most relevant to the job role you are applying for. This helps hiring managers visualize you as the best fit for the job.
In addition, highlight the reasons why you’re a good fit for the position via a cover letter. This will help build a stronger connection with the company and impress the recruiters.
Finally, proofread to ensure your Resume is error-free. Preventing spelling mistakes, typing errors, and other technical issues will give recruiters the perception that you’re a dedicated and detail-oriented person.
