How To Boost Your Career With Simple Resume Tips
Did you know there’s a difference between a CV and a Resume? Thanks to Ellie Chapman you do now! In this article she takes a look at some small changes you can make to your resume in order to help you land your dream job.
Writing an outstanding resume that will land you an immediate interview is neither simple nor complicated. As the world keeps evolving, writing an effective resume becomes a more challenging task, especially with the tech-driven employment landscape. Before we’re presenting you our best resume tips and tricks that will boost your career, we’d like to clarify the difference between CV and resume, as they’re confused way too often.
Curriculum Vitae – CV
Meaning the course of life in Latin, curriculum vitae is two or more pages document which contains all the details about your career, achievements, and education. It’s like a career biography. Usually, it’s organized chronologically in order to make easier to see one’s entire career.
Resume
A concise document which shouldn’t be longer than one page. A resume intends to make the candidate stand out from the crowd while providing the reader with a quick impression of one individual’s career and competences.
This isn’t one size to fit them all type of document, so it should be changed and tailored according to each job description. Usually, it is organized and customized in a way that will suit the candidate the best, and it must cover only relevant details for to the job post you’re applying for.
Focus on What’s Relevant Only
A resume should be perceived as a marketing document that aims to showcase your value as an employee. Therefore, you must focus on the most important aspects that your employer might want to hear (skills, knowledge, relevant experience).
The experiences that aren’t so relevant to the job in hand should be included in the “related experience” section. For older job seekers, it would be best to leave the dates behind as it can drastically decrease the hiring chances (most employers seek young workers).
Tailor the Resume
A crucial step for getting the interview is tailoring your resume. Wait, what does that mean? It means that you should introduce all over your resume specific keywords that the hirer has used in the job description.
But, why is so important? Well, because before the recruiter takes his time to read a resume, he might use an ATS software to make sure he finds only the most relevant candidates. As the process is automatic, failing to include the proper keywords might leave you out of the equation.
Why are You the Golden Ticket
Recruiters are looking for candidates with impressive achievements, so let them know what makes you their golden ticket. Therefore, from the very beginning of your resume – above/below the headline, make sure you highlight/praise with your greatest achievements. Just make a “wow statement” and then move along to other important skills, experiences or other relevant achievements.
Forget About the Objectives Section
Of course, it’s important to set objectives in your life, but when it comes to writing an outstanding resume, just leave them for yourself. You see, having an objective section will just inform the recruiter about what you want or expect from them, an aspect that they don’t really care of. Therefore, you’d better use all that space to write a great summary that will tell them how awesome you are in your profession.
Use Power Words
You must show that you know your profession, that you’re confident, that you’re great in what you’re doing, and you shouldn’t fail to prove it. Focus on your achievements and measure your performances with numbers, percentages, or figures whenever possible. Organize your achievements in bullet points and start each one with a power word.
Use the Design in Your Favor
As Audrey Denver, HR manager at brillassignment.co.uk, states, “No matter the industry, you can always improve your resume a bit more, making it unconventional while keeping its quality high. When you’re writing your resume, it’s crucial to leverage everything you can, and this includes your designing skills.”
So, feel free to color, shade, to add boxes, charts, images, and tables. And you can go further with the design especially if you’re a graphic designer. If you lack inspiration when designing your resume, there are lots of creative templates to get your inspiration from.
Conclusion
There are so many things you can do to improve your resume, you just have to seek and use them. If you really want something, you should know that there’s always room for better. So, never stop improving yourself, add new skills, build extra knowledge and experiences, and keep updating your resume using different angles. Do that and everything should be more than fine!