Treat your resume as your way into a new and exciting future. With the right resume, you can finally get the job of your dreams and develop yourself professionally in ways you’ve always wanted. Preparing your resume is the first step to the next stage of your career.
Job applications can be a long-winding and tiring process, however. It’s tough out there, and you’ll often encounter fierce competition. It’s essential to ensure your application stands out above the rest. For that purpose, we have created a beginner’s guide to ensuring your resume gets the attention it deserves.
What is a Resume?
Essentially, your resume is what you make it. It’s a way to represent your background, skills, and accomplishments all in one document. Your resume is an opportunity for you to summarize your work experience and education to show that you are qualified for a particular job.
A resume should be professional, tailored, and well-written. When you apply for a new job, your resume is your ticket to an interview, so you want it to stand out. Your resume’s purpose is to impress your potential employer by successfully highlighting your positive attributes and achievements.
Why is a Resume Important?
Your resume is the first thing potential employers will see when you’re applying for a new job, so you want to make it work for you. Unfortunately, in this day and age, many positions are competitive, and you need to make your resume stand out from a large number of applications.
It’s your opportunity to prove you have the relevant skills and experience to do the job. If you don’t make an effort with your resume, what will that tell your potential employer? Use on your resume, the same levels of enthusiasm and attention to detail, that you intend to bring to your new job.
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How to Make Your Resume Stand Out?
Always tailor your resume to each job description, with specific detail. Highlight your most relevant experience and transferable skills. Think outside the box if you haven’t got experience in the same field. If the new job asks for analytical skills, for example, directly mention how you gained these from previous roles.
Describe Accomplishments
Rather than giving a brief job description of your previous role, talk about what you actually achieved. Your potential employer will likely know what the main duties of your previous job, entailed. Instead, explain what goals you accomplished on a personal level. Use figures and numbers where possible.
Use the Summary Section Strategically
Many people like to put a personal profile or summary at the top of their resume. Make the most of this by including specific and interesting details. If you want to make your resume stand out, don’t bore the reader at the beginning with vague descriptions like “gained many skills.”
Ignore Irrelevant Information
Don’t flood your resume with irrelevant information that your potential employer will just have to wade through to get to the point. It’s useless to impress them by padding your resume, which describes your previous experience not relevant to the position. Prove that you understand what they want.
Buzzwords
Using specific keywords in your resume can help, especially if it’s automatically put through a filtering system. Some companies do this if they receive a high number of applications. Therefore using buzzwords like “develop” and “manage” could be beneficial but always make sure you expand on them with relevant examples.
Keep it Professional
Don’t make the mistake of badmouthing your previous employers. If you did have a negative experience, imagine how you can spin this to prove you learned something. Focus on your work experience and don’t discuss hobbies unless really relevant to the job, or a life skill such as languages.
Tell a Story
Your resume should follow a logical structure and tell a chronological “story” of your career development over the years. Think about how your resume describes your experiences in your past roles up until now. What skills have you gained, and where has it led you? Try to engage the reader.
Use a Cover Letter
According to most HR departments, over half of the job applications sent without a cover letter, end up in the trash. It’s, therefore, crucial to write a tailored cover letter to support your resume. This is your opportunity to explain why you are suitable for the role, even if you don’t have much experience, so don’t waste it.
Focus on the Industry Requirements
Rather than sending a generic resume, it’s better to start from the job description and ideals of the company and build your application from there. Ensure that it is wholly aimed at what they want. Do some research into the company and its core values and make references to these.
How Can We Help?
Here at Markpointe, we take care of recruitment so that you can spend your time on your operations. With our combined professional experience and resources, we make every effort to provide your company with the best candidates. We’ve worked with companies from single-person start-ups to businesses with thousands plus employees.
Our experience is tailor-fitted to your industry, and we are devoted to helping you achieve your business goals. The dynamic recruitment process at Markpointe covers businesses of a variety of stages and sizes. Whether you’re about to scale your new business, or need to hire a new executive, we can offer our support.
Closing Thoughts
With Markpointe, both candidates and businesses receive all the support they need during the recruitment process. We have expert skills and experience in matching candidates resume to their ideal roles. We pride ourselves in delivering the right results every time, and we guarantee client satisfaction.
Take your career or your business to the next level today. We offer a variety of professional services catered to making sure you achieve your goals. With our hands-on experience in managing businesses, we can help you to be more productive, and successful in your career.