Contents
Intro
With a dwindling market, the way you search for a job and present yourself to potential employers is a job, itself. For every job you apply for, there could be any number of other candidates that are just as qualified or more qualified than you. Providing potential employers with less than stellar resume will only hurt your chances of getting the job, if the hiring manager even gives your resume a second glance.
Interesting Resume = Better Job
Putting together a resume that is both creative and impressive is important. With so many people looking for jobs in these hard-economic times, standing out among the competition is vital to securing a position. Getting the job means coming up with a resume that not only emphasizes your skills and work experience but also highlighting your creativity.
Be straight to the point whenever possible. It is hard for the person reading the resume to read paragraphs on end to get to the point. Writing in bullet point form instead of paragraph form is one way to achieve this effect. One way to be both concise and interesting is to make a resume out of a chart or to demonstrate it on a timeline.
Use graphics and images to your advantage but be as creative as possible. It’s a good idea to avoid any clip-art that is generic. Use an image as a logo that you create or edit to be personalized. You can also use white space to your advantage, by using the left quarter of the page as white space with a design and using the rest of the page as a template to list the information.
Not only should a resume include education and work history, it should also include interests and hobbies. This will show that you are well-rounded and social. Listing less than five activities and interests is a good idea, especially if they include roles in leadership. You may stand out to a potential employer by sharing a common interest.
Another way to stand out among the crowd is to use high-quality paper to create an air of professionalism. You can even use a color other than white, but make it just a bit different, like gray tint. You may choose to have it printed by a professional so that the printing looks clean and neat.
It is important to remember that while it is important to be creative and interesting, do not go overboard. It’s also important that you do not lie in your resume.
How to Write a Powerful Resume
No matter what type of job for which you might be applying, you need to be adequately prepared. You might use a trade magazine or a web site that offers referrals to your line of work. When these are prepared, you typically need a professional resume to place online for the potential client to view. Jobs today are competitive. It is no longer enough to show up and fill out an application. Job seekers in the current economy need a way to distinguish themselves from the competition, and the best way to do this is through a strong, well written resume.
Composing a powerful resume is incredibly easy if you know the basic components. Many word processing templates are available to help you. The problem with these is that every other job seeker uses them as well, making your resume indistinguishable from hundreds of others that hiring managers see every day. To make your resume truly stand out, it is necessary to start from nothing and compose something that highlights your skills and accomplishments in a unique way.
All too often, job seekers try to stand out in a way that makes them look unprofessional. Hiring managers do not appreciate the usage of flowery, indecipherable script fonts or resumes printed on hot pink paper. These tactics cause an employer to question a candidate’s professionalism. Your resume should be able to stand up against others on merit alone without resorting to eye-catching trickery.
Have an Ace Up Your Sleeve
Spend some time thinking about the qualities that set you apart from other job seekers. It might help to make a list of these qualities. Before you go for an interview, consider how your ace could benefit that employer. Jot down the reasons that your special skill is particularly valuable. You may want to practice talking with a friend about how that special something sets you apart.
A scientific resume should moreover emphasize the fact that the applicant is someone who is curious. They have a thirst for the unknown. The resume should reflect that they enjoy asking questions and finding answers through scientific methods. They are logical and systematic when they are looking for the right conclusion.
Research the Company
Each business or organization provides a detailed job description designed to inform each potential employee of the tasks related to the position. In truth, there is no better piece of information that can be mined by the savvy job-seeker. The job seeker’s resume should be a direct response to the items listed in the job description. The tone and language of the description should be used as a target point by the resume writer. Additionally, a well-placed phone call to a key hiring staff member should also be used to gather data and find out how to best write a company-specific resume.
Your Personal Information
An employer will need to know how to contact you, so you will need to include all your personal information. Start off with your name, address, and phone number. Some people will also include an email address as this is now a common way for all employers and recruitment agencies to contact their personnel.
You do not need to include all your personal information, such as your marital status and religion. However, if you think that your marital status will help to show that you are looking for a long-term employment opportunity, you could include it in your personal statement. This is your personal choice and does not always weigh into whether you will be called in for an interview. You need to learn how to provide a lot of detail in a minimal way.
You are not your resume, you are your work.
Seth Godin
Your Work Experience
You will need to include all your relevant work experience for the role. Employers do not like to see gaps in employment, so this will affect the way that you list your experience in the workplace. If you have no gaps at all then you should look at using a chronological list, which will clearly show the dates that you were in employment.
This option does not work for those with gaps of one month or more. It will also not work if you jump in and out of employment or if there are a lot of crossovers. When it comes to this, consider setting out the skills that you have gained instead and use examples in employment. Include as much as you can that is relevant to the role that you are applying for.
Your Personal Statement
You will need to sell yourself when it comes to your resume and the personal statement is the chance to do this. This is a great chance to explain what you can offer to the company – it is not just about your skills but the hobbies and interests that you have and that can also help the business. The employer does not want to know what he or she can offer you.
Your Value
However, you will never make your resume as good as possible without including one critical piece of information on your resume: Your value to the company. That’s the number one quality employers look for in a resume. What value will you bring to the company if you’re hired?
Your experience may be ideal, your education may be tops and your work history may be spotless, but it’s your value that determines whether or not you’ll land a job. Look at the simple logic behind this element of a resume. A company is looking for an individual who can help make a profit.
This is why it’s critical to show a potential employer the value you can add to a company. For example, if you developed a management technique that made your previous company more proficient in filling customer orders, include that in your resume.
What you did to add value to your previous employer can be simple. You mastered a technique in Dreamweaver that allows you to create CSS layouts quickly and without source code errors. This skill allowed your previous employer to get a web page up in half the time of the industry standard.
Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.
Thomas A. Edison
That’s great. Highlight that skill in your resume. The company will understand that your skill adds value. Emphasize that you have a provable skill that can make the company money. Companies hire people who can increase their profit. Employees reward these people well.
Write this value element in your cover letter. Don’t bury it in the middle of the resume employment section. Present it front and center to the hiring manager who’s reading the resume. Make sure the value element is the first thing he sees. Here’s why:
You have 20 to 30 seconds to impress the hiring manager who’s reading the resumes. That’s all the time you get to impress an employer that you’re the best fit for the job. Surveys of hiring managers show that these people are under pressure to hire the right person fast. Your first impression will determine whether your resume is thrown on the reject pile or set aside for a second look.
Don’t fill your cover letter with boring clichés, such as “hard working” or “team player.” These clichés mean nothing. Tell that company what your value is immediately. This simple technique of highlighting your value will make your resume as good as possible and increase your chances of landing that job.
Tips
A resume should never simply list jobs you have held. Instead, a resume is a way to show potential employers your abilities.
It’s All in the Wording
In order to make the strongest resume possible, it’s imperative to use strong keywords. Of course, it isn’t always easy to know what the perfect keywords would be, however, there are certain keywords that can fit all situations. For example, if a company is looking for an individual that pays close attention to detail, the phrase “detail oriented” would be a good thing to have on your resume. Some of the most effective and attractive resumes list clear goals and objectives. This lets employers know what your long-term goals are and what you’re willing to do to achieve them.
If you appear too aggressive and over the top in your resume, you may not get a call for an interview. Make your resume factual and full of information, but not too wordy, and that will propel you forward. Your work ethic will show if you have been truly working hard in your past employment.
Proofread Your Resume
One of the quickest ways to ensure that you will not receive a call back about your resume is to have grammatical errors within your resume. When you misspell words or have other grammatical errors within your resume, it speaks to your professionalism and a hiring manager is not likely to hire someone that does not take the time to make sure his resume is free of errors. Having a friend or resume writing service to make sure that it does not contain any misspelled words or other grammatical flaws is the best way to ensure that your resume will not disqualify you from a job position.
Think about the way most companies currently hire. You post a job and then get blind resumes in response. This should be a social experience.Eric Lefkofsky
A resume is likely the first contact an employer will have with a potential employee. It is therefore important to make a good first impression. A clean, attractive resume which clearly outlines your qualifications, work history and references is your best shot at a job interview. Your resume should reflect what you know about the job for which you are applying. This takes some research on your part. It is helpful to find out what the job would entail before targeting your resume to the employer. This makes it possible to best outline your skills in a way that the company would find most valuable.
A resume should tell a potential employer why they should hire you based on your past experiences and job duties. Do not be afraid to be specific about achievements. While many candidates may have experience in sales, you can distinguish yourself from them by bringing to the employer’s attention the fact that you increased sales by 75% in your last position. Be sure that this can be easily verified, however, a white lie on a resume is unprofessional and can lead to you being immediately dismissed as a potential candidate.
The nation has experienced significant job losses over the past years. For those who have been displaced by this situation, it is necessary to re-enter the work force with determination. A strong resume can lead you in the right direction.
Selling Yourself
Many resumes go unnoticed simply because of the phrasing and information. When you use boring words, avoid action words and fail to include vital information that is relative to the job, you end up selling yourself short. Potential employers briefly glance over a resume. If nothing stands out to them, your resume might not ever be looked at again.
Use buzzwords when you describe your work experience and your educational experience. Using buzzwords helps your resume stand out both electronically, and to a physical person. When you write out your resume, it is vital that you include relevant work experience. Including experience that does not pertain to your potential job ends up being filler.
Unlike a job application, resumes give you the chance to go further in-depth regarding your past employment and educational experiences.
Providing a resume that gives little to no insight about who you are, makes it generic and boring. Prevent your resume from getting lost among the stacks of others by being honest about your qualifications and only discussing relevant job experience.
Avoid Lies
Getting a job in the current market can be tough, but you should never lie on your resume. If you wish to disguise a gap in your employment history, or if you wish to make yourself look better by inflating yourrole at a prior company, you might be tempted to put a little white lie in your resume. You must resist this temptation at all costs, however. Even the tiniest lie in your resume can spell doom for your job search.
While some employers are sloppy, most employers complete their due diligence when reviewing resumes. They will call prior employers to verify the work history of applications. They will call colleges to verify attendance. When employers uncover a lie on an applicant’s resume, they will summarily reject that applicant. The applicant will never be able to get any job at that company again. The company might even tell every other employer out there about said applicant’s dishonesty. There have been cases in the past where dishonest applicants were blacklisted in their entire industries. Do not let this happen to you. Even if a lie seems so slight that it would never draw attention, the risk is too great to take.
The challenge of life, I have found, is to build a resume that doesn’t simply tell a story about what you want to be, but it’s a story about who you want to be.
Oprah Winfrey
If you feel like you need to lie to make yourself attractive for a particular job, then you probably do not have any business applying to the specific job in the first place. You owe it to yourself and your potential employer to find a good fit job. If you lie and end up securing a job that is too difficult for you, who benefits? At best, you will have to work countless extra hours to keep up with your duties. At worst, you will get fired after a few weeks because you do not measure up. Being fired after a short time is much worse than never taking a job to begin with.
Another reason not to lie is that lying causes stress. After you have lied on your resume, just thinking about the possibility of getting caught can produce a lot of anxiety. If you subsequently make it to the interview stage, you may have difficulty keeping track of your lies. You might slip up in the heat of the moment when potential employers ask you questions. It is much harder to keep track of lies than it is to keep track of the truth. Be honest.
Standing Out Through Experience
Anyone can create a resume. However, when you create your resume, it is vital to remember that this is your chance to show potential employers why you would be the perfect fit for a particular job. Marketing yourself on paper is often the only chance you get to make the positive impression you need to get an interview.
When you create your resume, you need to detail your employment history. Note any promotions or recognition you received while working for previous employers. If you were recognized as employee of the month, put that on your resume. Potential employers want applicants that have had success at other jobs. This shows future employers that you have what it takes to do a good job, while following directions.
Detailing your educational background on your resume is also important. Certain jobs require that you include your GPA on your resume, in addition to when you graduated. Under your educational information, you should also include any accomplishments and awards achieved during your school career.
Resume Appearance
Keep your resume at a reasonable length. Resumes that are too long or too short risk getting picked over. A resume should ideally be one to two pages in length. A resume that is too short indicates that you do not have experience, while a resume that is too long may look as though it contains information that is not relevant to the job.
Resumes need to include information that can be picked up upon first glance. Typically, resumes are looked at for 10 to 20 seconds. You need to write out your resume to showcase your experience, so it reads easily and quickly, in a short amount of time. Avoid information that will bore your potential employer. Information that is not relevant to the job only hurts you.
Your resume should also be easy-to-read and flow well.
Getting a job is not as easy as it once was. Finding employment can often feel like a job itself. However, when you take the time to work on your resume, it can make a difference. A clean, professional looking resume that really speaks to your abilities can set you apart from other applicants.
Business Trips
One of the best ways to impress your potential employers is to indicate in your resume that you are willing to embark on business trips for your organization. Job bosses love applicants or workers who would be ready at a moment’s notice to embark on business trips, and those who could show considerable travel experience related to their line of work. In order to be able to obtain that dream job, here are the few things you have to know about business travels before submitting that resume for job consideration:
- Indicate your willingness to travel: Your resume speaks for you in many areas, and it shows the need to either call you for a further interview meeting or not. Your resume must indicate that you are willing to make business travels to further the interests of your would-be company. This gives employers the assurance that their business would never suffer when it comes to traveling urgently to tie up some loose ends.
- Indicate your travel experiences: It is wise to indicate how far you have traveled in your job resume, and this will enable job bosses to rate your suitability and experience to their business needs. The more you have traveled in a business-related fashion the more travel experience you are bringing to the table and the more it indicates that you could handle any off-shore business needs on your own.
- Goal-getter: When your resume indicates how far traveled you are in the line of your previous businesses, it indicates to employers that you can work alone in far-away places and still achieve results in record time. It shows you are at home anywhere you find yourself, and it establishes your suitability for job consideration and expertise.
- Working beyond schedules: To many extents, your job resumes give ideas whether you can work beyond your given time schedule or not, and this goes for business trips. The more extensive you have outlined your business travel experiences in your resume, the more it indicates that you are able to give all it takes to make your job and your organization succeed. It shows you will work extra time without being forced in open fields to ensure the successes of your assignments, and this definitely endears you to employers and job bosses for job considerations.
Lastly, your job resumes must indicate your business travel experiences and outline how it could benefit your new and potential employers.
Layout and Design
Interesting resume designs and layouts can help distinguish your resume from all the others. When you choose to change the layout or design of your resume, you must keep in mind that you still need to include all relevant information in an easy-to-read format. Making your resume look interesting can be as easy as adding a personal touch, such as a logo at the top or bottom of the resume. Different fonts can also make your resume stand out more. However, the font must be readable and not distracting.
While unique layouts and designs may seem like a good idea, the most important aspect of any resume design is how easy it is for someone to glance over, find the information they need, and move on.
Formatting Your Resume
The format of your resume is extremely important. You need to clearly layout all your information so that the employer will be able to jump down to something that is relevant – or something that he or she is specifically looking for. Using bold and underlined fonts will easily guide the person reading the resume to the next section. When making a resume, try to keep the margins 1”, this will give a professional look to the paper.
Video Resumes: The Future of Resumes?
In tough economic times, the job market is slim, and competition is fierce. Prospective job hunters try everything from overhauling their resumes to taking educational classes to make themselves more attractive to hiring managers. Now there is another tool they can use: a video resume. Not only are they useful, they are becoming more and more popular with both job seekers and employers.
A video resume is a video made by an applicant that is usually uploaded to the internet for a potential employer to review. It is intended to complement a written resume, although some people use the video by itself when presenting themselves to a potential employer. It offers a visual way for a candidate to describe their skills and experience. Once considered pretentious and tedious, video resumes are more widely used than ever thanks to advances technology such as streaming video through the internet.
According to an annual survey of employers conducted by Vault Incorporated, “89% of employers revealed that they would watch a video resume if it were submitted to them.” A video resume can do much more than work together with a paper resume. It gives potential employers a chance to evaluate a candidate’s image, disposition and behavior. This is an excellent selling point for a savvy professional.
There are other good reasons for creating a video resume. Job seekers have a potential edge by showing themselves to a company. Depending on the kind of job the person is looking for, a video resume offers an opportunity to be creative. They do not have to be elaborate and don’t require lots of expensive equipment to make. They have the ability to generate interest quickly and make a hiring manager want to learn more about the candidate, possibly leading to an interview. And for those seeking jobs in fashion, entertainment or media, it is a perfect way to showcase essential skills.
Although there are a number of positive points for creating a video resume, there are criticisms of it as well. Some employers and recruiters don’t believe a visual resume alone is a sufficient representation of an applicant’s background and skills. They are time-consuming to review and do not allow for an equal comparison between two candidates. Because a candidate has time to prepare for the video beforehand, they could be following a script that does not give an accurate or truthful representation of themselves. Another area of criticism is that a video resume can create racial, age or gender bias before the candidate has a chance to present their qualifications. It could also be used as the basis for a discrimination lawsuit if a candidate is not chosen for the job.
I want to look back on my career and be proud of the work, and be proud that I tried everything.
Jon Stewart
Despite these shortcomings, video resumes are considered “hot technology” by many recruiters. Since 2007 when they first began to be used, video resumes may well have caused a revolution in the job-hunting process and become a mainstream part of the employment world. Several employment websites already exist for people to post video resumes on, such as Resume Video. Job seekers create a video with them using Resume Video’s technology and then create a website that features their video, a written resume and contact information. The video resume can also be sent out and posted to other places on the internet. Another popular video resume site is HireVue. This company has trademarked the “Digital Interview Platform,” a revolutionary way to create online job interview guides. Employers can use this to easily watch select candidate interviews and share them with managers and evaluation teams.
Some devoted employment hunters have capitalized on the popularity of YouTube to get their message out. YouTube is easily the most widely-used video site in the world, hosting millions of videos with thousands of new ones added every day. Currently, there are lots of resume videos on YouTube. Some were created by businesses or individuals to help others create a video resume. Others are actual resumes from people seeking employment. It is a valuable resource for someone who is considering making their own video resume and an excellent example of how times are changing with technology.
A search on “video resumes” shows many recruiters in the results, advocating video resumes and interviews as the future of hiring. Candidates are urged to rethink their old traditional methods of submitting a paper resume and cover letter and supplementing or replacing them with a video. With more first interviews being conducted by webcam than ever, interviewing and hiring processes keep turning towards social media. Technology is constantly changing, but it is definitely here to stay. So where does all this leave video resumes? On the ladder of job search tools, they are definitely on the way to the top.
Guide to Revising Your Resume
If you want a better job, then consider revising your resume. Since most employers weed out candidates for an advertised position by reviewing these documents, it is advisable to spruce up that paper in order to make it through until the final cut.
The first step in the application process involves submitting a resume for inspection. This is then inspected by the human resources staff who looks at the pile of candidates and does a quick scan to see if any of them meet the criteria as required by the posting. It is here that you can really stand out from the crowd.
A page that is both topical and highly related to the opening in the company is certain to get more attention. It is also the only way to receive a personal interview request. Without the latter, you have no way to showcase your personality or how you can help the company. This is the first job of the resume and cover letter combination – allowing you to get your foot in the door.
All job openings have keywords that are used by the firm. This is done intentionally to see who can pick up on such subtle differences when looking for employment. For example, a technology position might include some of the current buzzwords to see if the potential employee has experience that is relevant. It can also be done to see what kind of schooling a potential employee might have had.
If you are looking to upgrade your status, then it is important to note what types of phrases are contained in the original posting and consider implementing a few into your resume. This is bound to catch the eye of the recruiter and get you past the first round of cuts.
The next thing to do when revising a resume page is to make sure than only related employment is listed here. That is to say that most employers do not care that you worked for Joe’s Ice Cream Parlor when you were sixteen and in high school. They want to know that you have relevant background experience related to the position that was open. The less time required for training, the more quickly you can help them make money.
Failure doesn’t mean you are a failure it just means you haven’t succeeded yet.
Robert H. Schuller
Once this is completed, make sure that you have everything organized nice and neat. It is also probably not necessary to have a job objective either. You are already applying for this spot, so redundancy is not necessary here.
As a final precaution, make sure to run your page through a spell checker. While this will not catch all of the errors, it will get the simple ones. Your best bet is to read through it out loud and see what it sounds like. Then have a good friend do the same thing. The main cause of rejection is poor grammar and spelling errors. Avoid this at all costs.
Make yours a winning resume and you are certain to be one of the final candidates for this job.