Tips on How to Write a Resume

Tips on How to Write a Resume

A resume is a brief summary of personal, educational, professional experiences used for job application. It is important for a lot of things, ranging from looking for a job to changing your career. The quality of your resume could hinder or help your chances of getting shortlisted for a job interview. The question remains; what are recruiters looking for? This article would help you with tips that you need to write a resume.

Get familiar with the basics

Every resume has the same basic elements; name, contact information, education, experience and skills. Most resumes have a short objective statement and an activities section. If you don’t have a lot of work experience, you can start with your name, contact information then your education activities, experience and skills sections. If you have worked before, each job should include the company name, your title, the city and state and the dates you worked there. Organize the information in each section and arrange them accordingly from your most recent employment to your first job. Your educational section should include your college or university name, your major, your degree, and your anticipated graduation date.

Keep the robots in mind

A lot of online job application use software that scans resumes to help recruiters who are searching for specific candidates. There are two tips you can try if you want to “impress” the robots. The first is to use standard fonts because robots can’t read fancy fonts. The second is to use the exact words and phrases from the job description to enable them detect it when filtering through the thousands of applications. Organizations put out ads with specific qualifications and notable keywords. Find ways to input them into your resume. This may seem like you have to customize your resume and make it company specific. As much as this seems like a lot of work, it isn’t if you want to stand out and be successful.

Sell yourself

Literally put yourself on the market. Okay not literally but you know what I mean. You aren’t expected to have tons of job experience but you have to show potential employers that you have the skills to be successful. Include your strengths, notable offices or positions you have served in, your achievements and every skill you picked up. You don’t need to write in detail or write about your day to day activities instead focus on the most important aspects that show your leadership skills, drive and your ability to work well with a team.

Proofread

Make sure to proof read and edit your resume after writing it. It is very terrible when you send a “well-written” resume only for it to have spelling, grammar or punctuation inconsistencies. Edit it thoroughly and consider asking for help from a second pair of eyes. Review your resume to ensure that it is error-free

Review resume samples

Read through as much resume samples as you can get that fit into different employment situations. These samples will help you and serve as a guide for examples that would work for almost every type of job seeker.

If you follow the above general tips, you should be able to put your resume in good shape, remember that it should fit into one page as it is not a CV especially if you have very little experience or it is you first resume. Don’t forget to include relevant keywords and most importantly edit properly.