The internet is flooded with hundreds of resume samples, which is one less worry. However, to make your resume professional and effective, you need to understand the importance of layout and wording. As you will discover in this article, there are a number of tips to provide you with the extra help needed when using a sample resume.
You need to know what works and what does not work when creating a resume. Chances are, you have been sending out resume after resume without much result. Instead of feeling frustrated and discouraged, follow these simple tips to land the interview.
• Sell Yourself – To get a potential employer’s attention, you have to be a good salesperson, selling your skills and experience. This does not mean bragging but laying out the facts to show the employer why you can be beneficial to the company. By including your strengths and ways in which they are relevant to the position, you are making your resume stand out. This means showing how you have built the business and increased profit. List any unique value you can add, whether with experience, training, or education.
• Special Rules – A key method of selling yourself is to write your top selling points within the top, one-third portion of the resume. The reason is that potential employers generally scan over resumes. By creating your resume this way, the employer will be impacted within seconds, thus capturing the employer’s attention early. The result is you gaining a much better chance of having the rest of the resume read.
• Stay Focused – Commonly, people will create a resume with so much “fluff”, it does nothing to help land an interview. Keep the resume simple but also concise. A comprehensive resume will use keywords and phrases that stand out – eliminate wordy content.
• Keywords/Phrase – By choosing your words carefully, you will get far more bang for your buck. As an example, instead of writing, “I was responsible for managing a team”, you would write “Strong team leadership”. Some popular keywords to consider include:
o Collaborated (in place of worked together)
o Executed (in place of completed)
o Formulated (in place of prepared)
o Generated (in place of produced)
o Implemented (in place of applied)
o Reconciled (in place of resolved)
o Surpassed (in place of improved upon)
• Company Needs – Most resumes floating around today are written to tell the prospective employer what the job seeker can offer. The key is to write the resume so you show the employer how your skills, experience, and education can benefit. As an example, if you were applying for a position in finance, rather than just list past financial companies worked for, give specifics on what you did for the business. You could say something like, “Through tax impact and cash flow analysis, identified an annual savings of $40,000.”
• Keep it Simple – Sure, you can choose a resume design with a border or heading but again, keep it clean. Some resume templates are loaded with animations, frames, photographs, graphics, and other distractions to the prospective employer. The only time this type of design would be appropriate is for someone seeking a position in marketing, advertising, or graphic design. Otherwise, stick with a professional resume.
Image taken on 2009-09-30 00:01:05. Image Source. (Used with permission)
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