Have you ever asked yourself, “Why is nobody hiring me, even though I always update my resume?” If the answer is “Yes,” you’ve probably landed yourself a life-changing opportunity!
Job seekers often struggle writing resumes. They find it tough to collect all their skills and expertise and align it with a concrete job description. Besides, some of the information they provide might need to be revised or updated, making it hard for the hiring manager (and the potential employer) to see them as great applicants.
The HR team takes about six seconds to scan a resume. They pay attention to your contact details, mistakes, or other triggers to decide who stays and who goes. In big companies, recruiters might also refer this job to ATS bots to check if your resume is unique and competitive.
Therefore, it’s not enough to just list your skills and work experience. You must sound in accordance with the company voice, expressing a clear motivation to join this particular team. And in this article, we’ll tell you just how to do it!
Contents
Know Your Audience
Understanding the audience you are writing for is essential to writing anything well. Create a CV that will appeal to them by demonstrating your value rather than one filled with “responsible for” claims.
One of the possible options is finding professional resume writers who can do the job for you and craft a winning resume. At skillhub.com, you can find just the right professional to embrace your skills properly and make your application appealing to the recruiter.
Target Your Accomplishments
Remember that every job you do is not about an overall experience but your personal contribution. For example, instead of saying, “I identified business prospects and sold the product to them,” say, “I increased the total revenue by 2.5% during the last quarter.”
Let the results speak for themselves and talk in numbers: this is the real way to get hired.
Add Keywords
As mentioned earlier, the recruiters would likely pass your resume through an Applicant Tracking System (ATS). It helps to determine whether a resume is plagiarized, but more importantly, it allows an effective searching, filtering, and routing of applications.
Your resume keywords should match the specific job description. The more focused you keep on your language, the more potential you have to become a perfect match!
Take Care of Formatting
Your resume has to be visually appealing and easy to read. It should have plenty of white space (so that the document can “breathe”) alongside a simple layout and design.
Besides, your fancy photos and custom fonts might not od to read and interrupt the ATS bots. Avoid using the standard Microsoft templates or the ones most popular you find online. Make a clear, terse resume to stand out among the rest of the candidates!
Customize Your Resume
The first thing you should do is to make sure your resume resonates with the job description. It’s something many job seekers fail to notice, sending hundreds of similar resumes to different companies.
An experienced employer can glance at a resume to define it as copy-pasted. Therefore, focus on the key strengths that make you an ideal applicant who targets specific companies.
Create a Personal Brand
Everyone should care about their brands, and that’s not a privilege; that’s a necessity. By knowing who you are and how you communicate, you’ll be able to capture your career identity in a resume.
Here’s a quick guide on how to develop your brand:
- Define who you are;
- Measure your actual progress;
- Find an appropriate niche;
- Take care of your social footprint;
- Network, network, network.
Your brand should be dynamic and evolve in a rapidly-changing world. However, don’t get too far in adjusting: stay authentic and harness the power of a well-cultivated brand.
Avoid Looking Out-of-Touch
Your accomplishments and value are the main focus of today’s resume. A postal mail address, an objective statement, or the dreaded “References available upon request” are all things you’d better not include on your resume. To stand out, you must write your resume in an innovative style.
The other important thing is not to make lengthy summaries. To avoid redundancy, put them in bullet lists instead of plain text.
You can also improve a resume by eliminating buzzwords, such as “driven, results-oriented team player.” People aim to sound unique when they use phrasing like that, but unfortunately, they sound just like everyone else to the hiring managers.
Edit and Proofread
The resume doesn’t end with the last dot. You should reread it at least a few times or give it to the colleagues you trust to hear their honest opinions. Don’t rely on AI spell checks or on Microsoft Word’s grammar function.
Besides, ensure your resume has a logical flow. More than half of recruiters reject a resume if it has typos or is hard to read. So, give yourself time, don’t wait till the deadline, and proofread your resume carefully.
Brief Summary
Resume writing is challenging and tedious unless you know how to make it more effective. Besides listing your skills and qualifications, try to align them with a specific job description. Manually edit and proofread your resume; once you’re done editing it, make sure it has a logical flow.
To craft a winning resume, you must have an impeccable personal brand. It’s a part of your image, whether you’re applying for CEO or an entry-level position. A resume is like a window into your career. It may open many possibilities or fail any attempt to get a dream job.
The last (but not least) advice is — don’t try to talk about things that aren’t there. Stay accurate and truthful: nowadays, every piece of information can be checked, and you don’t want to pose as a dishonest candidate.
