Resume are like the first screening for any job. This is the first step that you take as a prospective candidate for any position. Needless to say, a resume and its contents may make or break your chance of getting a job. Regardless of how skilled or passionate you may be, if your resume isn’t articulated properly and sequentially, you have narrow possibility of success. Here are some useful tips that you should follow to write a persuasive resume.
How to write a professional CV
Don’t Write Everything
One of the common mistakes of writing a resume is that people tend to make it as elaborate work history. It can confuse the selectors. You may have worked as a content writer back in your college days but that has nothing to do if you are applying for the position of saying a software engineer. In your CV, mention your job experiences that are relevant to the industry you’re applying to and in line with the position.
Highlight the Highlights of Your Career
There is a marketing term called ‘keeping things above the fold’. It refers to highlighting the important stuff so that it gets noticed easily. Among all your educational and work experiences, you should highlight the best ones. The key here is to showcase your achievement better for express consideration into the position.
Add a Supplementary Link
It’s alright to curtail a few information and keeping things above the fold. But in some cases, the job may require you to state detail information regarding your past experiences about job, cultural activities or social work. To prepare resume for such jobs, it would be better if you can have some ideas about that industry.
In such cases, we suggest you to build a portfolio website. A portfolio website can showcase all of your achievements as well as give a glimpse of your personal self. More importantly, you can simply add a link to your website in your resume.
Simplicity is the Key
You will see people knocking some of the fanciest resumes out there in terms of design. But let’s be honest; fancy designs won’t get you the job. It’s always the content of the paper that matters, not the paper itself. We suggest you keep things simple and easy to navigate. Simplicity is the key here as it will not only look professional but will also help the employers to navigate to the important part.
Carefully Include Your Contacts
Gone are the days when we used to see addresses in resumes. There is no need for that anymore. However, you should include a phone number and a professional personal email as your contact in the resume. In addition to that, you should include all the potential places where you can be found on the internet like Linkedin and Twitter.
Make it Easy-to-Skim
When you are applying for a position, keep in mind that you are not the only one who is applying. There will be hundreds and thousands of similar applicants and it’s safe to assume that not everything that you write in your CV will be read.
The reality is, your CV will get skimmed and they will try to understand what sets you apart and what relevant skills you have to offer.
Based on that, we suggest you make your CV skimmable. Write concise sentences that can give a broader perspective in a short phase.
Working on the bullet points
This point is in line with our previous point that the content of the resume should be skimmable. You may have worked a long time in a place with a lot of achievements, but that doesn’t mean you should include all of it.
An ideal section in a resume should have about 5 to 6 bullet points. Now it is up to you to curate the contents in a way to fit the ideal standard.
Avoid Technical Jargons
Do not use technical jargons to showcase how much you know about our work. You might feel that it will set you apart from the rest and show the depth of your knowledge. But, you should understand that the first person to read your CV might not be someone familiar with the technicalities like a recruiter o a high-level official.
We suggest you to avoid using technical jargons while writing a resume. It’s better to design the CV in a way that it’s understood by all.
Include Numbers
There’s nothing like numbers to back up your claims. Whether it is to show how many clients you have served or your contribution to the development of your organization. Numbers and figures turn heads and give a recruiter a concrete idea about the impact that you can have on the company. With that said, don’t overcompensate with numbers. Keep things clean and professional. Remember that the recruiters are looking for a CV, not info-graphics.
Education or Experience
One might often think that education is what sets a prospective employee above the rest. It may be true in a certain sense, but it is almost solely limited to entry-level jobs. We suggest you to highlight your experience before your education. Your hands-on experience in a similar setup will go a long way to ascertain your credibility than your GPA.
Include Extra Skills
The pandemic has created a lot of free time for office goers. We hope you used the time wisely to rack up some skills through online courses. Show off your skills and certifications in your resume as they will be added to your skillset, particularly the ones that are directly involved with your industry.
Proofread
One of the common mistakes in any resume is well, grammatical errors. Avoid them at any cost. We mean seriously, this point can’t be overemphasized. No matter how good your resume might be, if it has a typo or grammatical mistake, it will only drive down your credibility.
Take a good look for 5 to 10 times before you submit your resume anywhere and make sure it’s compliant with all the requirements.
Bottom Line
A concrete resume is like getting half the job done in job hunting. So far we have suggested some effective and practical topics to write professional curriculum vitae (CV). We hope these tips will help you to better write your resume and secure that job you’ve been eyeing.
Source: United News of Bangladesh