Your resume plays a major role in shaping your career. Though your employers spend a very little time going through your resume, still a good resume is quite valuable. You may need it at any point of your career. So it’s best to have a professional resume, showcasing your relevant skills, experience, and achievements, at ready should an opportunity come up.
Do you find resume writing to be a daunting task? Just follow these steps to write a perfect resume:
Choose a suitable Format
The three most common types of resume format are:
● Chronological Resume Format
The reverse chronological resume format is the most popular, common and safest resume format. It is the best choice for almost all job seekers and the standard in every industry. In this type, the work history comes above education and the most recent job above the less recent jobs.
● Functional Resume Format
This type of resume is skills-based and used rarely, mainly by people who seek change in their careers or those who have had a gap in their employment. Instead of experiences, your skills are written above work history and education.
● Combination Resume Format
It is a mixture of the other two types. This format is used by people who have rich experience and extensive, specialized skill sets. Here the skills are highlighted at the top and there is a chronological work history section also.
Basic Information First
Your contact information must be placed on the top. Include the following details:
○ Your Full Name
○ Your Telephone Number
○ Your Personal Email Address
You can also include your up to date LinkedIn profile or Personal website URL, your Social Media profiles(if relevant to the job).
Mailing address is no longer mandatory as email is in use.
A Winning Resume Introduction
A well-written resume introduction, placed at the top, briefly introducing your key qualifications and skills convinces the employers to read further.
The two most commonly used introduction styles are:
● Resume Objective
This is meant for entry level candidates as it focuses on your career aspirations. You can include a two to three sentence statement that gives an overview of your skills and experience and explains why you are interested in the job.
● Resume Summary
This style can be adopted by experienced job seekers or career changers who can showcase their experience quantitatively. Four to five sentences can be framed in a paragraph or bulleted format, highlighting your past accomplishments and the broad range of hard and soft skills. It should be easy to read, brief, memorable and must be written in a simple manner.
Add in your Relevant Work Experience
A perfect resume shows accomplishments backed with data and does not just list your duties and responsibilities.
Work experience is the most essential part of your resume because it best represents your qualifications. Your hiring managers will get an idea of your background and expertise.
Either you can keep it as one whole category or break it into segments, namely ‘Relevant Experience’ and ‘Additional Experience’, so that the hiring managers can focus on the more important jobs. In both cases, take care to place the most recent work experiences at the top.
Include the following in your Work Experience:
○ Official Job Title
○ Company name
○ Company location
○ Years you worked there (dates of employment -month and year. If currently working, you can write [month] [year] – present)
Below each job title, add these three to five bullet points explaining the relevant qualitative and quantitative accomplishments
● strong action verb
● quantifiable point
● specific and relevant job done
You can add those achievements that made a positive impact,or you are extremely proud of and also the ones that are best aligned with the job you are seeking.
You can include Volunteer work or other experience
If you lack formal experience, not to worry! You can list your volunteer work, special projects, extracurriculars, on-campus activities, under the section, ‘Volunteer Experiences’.
The Education Section
Education comes at the bottom of the resume, until and unless you are still in college or have recently graduated.
Include
○ Names of your university, College or technical school (don’t include high school unless you didn’t attend college)
○ Location of the college
○ Graduation Year, month
○ Major
○ Degree
○ Honours, Awards, Thesis or other notable achievements
Keep this section very simple. You can add a more recent relevant online course or certification course above the graduation degree.
Mention your skill sets and interests
Relevant job-specific skills are what hiring managers look for. Place the section at the bottom.
List hard and soft skills using separate bullet points. You can also add technical skills to represent your knowledge of various systems.
For a more creative profession, you can organize your skills section using bars.
Listing your interests would serve as a conversation starter with your employers and you would be perceived as a good cultural fit for the company.
Tailor your resume to the job
Now go back to your job description and make sure that your resume matches with your employer’s needs. You should stand out as the perfect candidate for the advertised job.
Proofread your resume
Give an edit to the rough draft. Double-check and triple-check for typos and grammar. You can send it to a friend or colleague along with the job description to get a second opinion.
Choose the ideal resume layout
Highly formal industry needs a traditional design. Add splashes of colours and background art for a creative field resume. A one page resume is ideal but if you are an established person, you can have two to three pages. Fonts must be simple, sleek and legible. One-inch margins are standard.
Save your resume in PDF and DOCX files.
Perfect with a Cover Letter
Submitting a cover letter increases your chances of being hired.
Follow these steps, create a great resume and seize the opportunities
