The job market is competitive. And it is even more competitive today than ever before. This means that you need to up your game and quit playing around. You can’t just put skills or experience on your resume haphazardly. If you do that you are writing your resume as though you are the only person applying for the job. That is the farthest thing from the truth. You are competing against many applicants who are just as qualified as you are. So what do you do? You compete. You show that you are the best candidate for the job. How do you do that? You make your resume speak for you and make you look impressive. Just follow the tips below to help you create an impressive resume that will compete against the other applicants.
Organization: The way you organize your resume may seem like a simple thing, but it can change the impression that your potential employers get when they read your resume. Organize your skills by listing the most applicable skills to the job first. If you are not sure what skills will be most applicable, then list your strongest skills first. Do the same with your experiences. List the most applicable or the most impressive experiences first. This will put stronger focus on the most important skills and experiences in your resume.
Keywords: Use keywords throughout your resume to put emphasis on the skills or ideas that you want your potential employers to remember about you when they are deciding about interviews and the job. Don’t overdo them though. If you use keywords too repetitively, then it will turn off employers and possibly annoy them. Keep a good balance. If you are unsure, then have someone read over your resume to see if you have used to many keywords.
These are just two very simple ways that you can make your resume more competitiveand more impressive to potential employers, which will lead you to getting an interview and hopefully getting that job.
A resume is used to show off your best qualities to an employer. It shows your skills, work experience, and accomplishments. With all that information, how do you emphasize your best features? You can tailor your resume and pick only your most impressive entries, but you can also use keywords that will help you stand out and impress your potential employers. Keywords will do a few things: they will keep your resume focused, they will make certain traits stand out to employers, and they will make your resume different than your competition, making you stand out even more.
Keeping your resume focused: Keywords will keep your resume focused because everything you list or say will go back to reinforce those keywords. This will make your resume coherent, consistent, and focused.
Make certain traits stand out: Instead of your potential employers looking at many traits that are desirable, using keywords, especially those found in the job posting, will make specific traits stand out so that they know exactly what they can expect from you as far as skills and expertise go.
Make you stand out among the competition: Not many people know to utilize keywords in their resume, so if you do, then your resume not only stand out, it will be picked up by scanning machines used by recruiters and employers to week out non-candidates.
So now that you know how keywords can improve your resume, you need to know how to utilize them.
Pick out about three keywords you would like to use. A few good ones could be, Customer Service & Relations, Operations, Information Technology, Sales & Marketing, Staff Leadership, Finance, tc. The keywords can be anything that make you stand out and emphasize the things you are best at, but they should also relate directly to the skills/qualifications outlined in the job posting.
Insert the keywords wherever appropriate into your resume. Keywords can be incorporated into your career summary, your skills (keyword) list, your professional experience, and accomplishments. Make sure that potential employers see these keywords and have a clear understanding of your areas of expertise.
Using the appropriate keywords throughout your resume will help to ensure that YOU will be the candidate called for the inteview.
One of the most important things employers are looking at in job candidates is which candidates care about the company and will help the company succeed. You want to be able to show potential employers that you are the person they have in mind. Creating a targeted resume is a great way to do that. A targeted resume is different than a traditional resume because it is created with the specific company in mind as you write every aspect of the resume. This will impress your potential employers because it will show them that you not only are thinking about their company, but that you also did your research and know what you are talking about. Follow these steps and you will be on your way to creating a great targeted resume:
Do Your Research: Take some time and research the company you are applying for, and even the specific job you are looking at. This will make it easy when it comes to actually writing up your resume.
Start With Your Objective: Start your resume by writing an objective that uses the company’s name and expresses that you want to help said company succeed. This will give the great first impression that will keep your potential employers interested in what you have to say.
Make Sure Your Experience Matches Your Objective: Now that you have an objective to guide you, you need to make sure that every entry in your work experience shows your potential employers that you can live up to what you stated in your objective. This also goes for your achievements and accomplishments. Try to choose work experience entries that are similar to what you are applying for.
These steps will help you create a targeted resume simply and effectively, a resume will help you land the job and impress your potential employers.
When you are writing a resume you are in the mindset of showing yourself off and you want to make sure that your potential employers know all the impressive things about you that can get you the job. Unfortunately, adding all those impressive skills, experiences, and accomplishments could fill up your resume with too much information and make it uninteresting to your potential employers. So how do you know if you have too much information? Here are some ways to tell if you have too much information and help you fix your resume so it doesn’t have too much information.
Does your resume read like a letter? If your resume has commentary that adds interesting information making it read like a letter, then you have gone in the wrong direction with your resume and you need to edit so that your resume doesn’t have that extra commentary. If you feel the commentary is necessary, then add it to your cover letter.
Does your resume go longer than three pages? If your resume is longer than three pages, you may have too much information. For technical resumes or even some senior executive resumes, it may be more acceptable, but for the typical professional or executive 2 or even 3 pages is best. The reader doesn’t want to browse through your novel to get to the good stuff. Keep it clean, concise, relevant, and focused.
Does your resume give skills, experiences, or accomplishments that do not apply to the job? If they don’t apply to the job description, leave them out. There is no reason to have things on your resume that won’t help you get the job. So edit them out and get back to the things that are applicable and impressive for the job.
These tips will help you edit your resume so you have the right amount of impressive information to get you to the interview– and hopefully the job!
If you are writing your own resume, it is easy to concentrate on the text and content over everything else. You know that your resume needs to “sell” you to potential employers and you need to list your skills, experience, and achievements to do this effectively.
Although the content and listing your selling points is essential for any resume, it isn’t the only thing that you need to give consideration to in order to give yourself the best possible chance at being successful when applying for jobs.
When a job is advertised, there will be a large number of applicants, especially if the job is a good one and pays well. To stay on top of the competition, you must have a resume that stands out above the rest.
If your resume looks dull, messy, or boring, then the likelihood is that the person in charge of processing the resumes received won’t even read it. Your resume should have a clean, crisp layout that will catch the reader’s eye, prompting them to select it from the stack. How your resume flows and reads to potential employers is as important as the content itself.
If you feel that you don’t have the skills to create a layout that will highlight your value, then it may be worth looking into hiring a professional resume writing service. Professional resume writing companies have writers on staff who will help you design a resume with a layout that flows well and showcases your skills in the most strategic manner.
Contract and Freelance Resumes – How to Highlight Your Employment History
If you have worked full-time for only one employer at a time, the Employment History section of your resume is going to be pretty standard. You list the names and locations of the companies you’ve worked for, your job titles, and a description of your duties. It is pretty straightforward to write and easy for a recruiter or hiring manager to see your career progress.
However, writing your employment history when you’ve been contracting and freelancing is a bit different from full-time, permanent employment and can be tricky. If you are a contractor through an employment agency, while you may work at Company X, you are actually an employee of that employment agency. Some contracts specify that you cannot list Company X on your resume, which means you must list the employment agency and a description of your duties that also describes the company. So, for example, if Company X is a software design company, you may list one of your duties as software testing for a software design firm without specifying Company X. Other contracts may allow you to list “Company X contract through ABC Employment agency.”
Freelancers often compile the Employment History section of their resumes by listing a title such as “Freelance Website Designer”, the dates during which they have been freelancing, and something along the lines of: “Client list includes: Companies A, B, and C. However, you must be careful. If your freelance agreement specifies that you cannot list an individual company for which you have done web design, then don’t do it. Also, do not misrepresent your work and state on your resume in separate entries that you worked at each company as a web designer. Listing the companies this way can be construed as you were a full-time employee when you really were a freelancer. You must make it clear that it was freelance work and not ongoing work.
Before you start writing, know what your contract and freelance agreements allow/do not allow you to publicize on your resume. If you’re really struggling with the format and word choice, consult with a professional resume writer who is skilled in creating resumes for contract/freelance clients.
When you start to look up hints and tips on resume writing online, you will find a number of websites and support guides that claim to help you write the perfect resume. Most of us are aware of the fact that your resume is extremely important and can be make or break when it comes to an employer deciding whether to invite you in for an interview. Most of us know what to include on a resume when it comes to job hunting, but it also means we fall into the same traps of including information that we don’t need.
Out Of Date Information: A lot of us just use the same resume when it comes to applying for different jobs. This is fine as long as the information included in the resume is generic and not too specific. For example, if you have a list of objectives on your resume, then you need to make sure that it matches the job you are applying for because it if doesn’t this is going to be detrimental to your job application.
Head Shots: Don’t include photos in your application because they are simply not needed. Whilst people shouldn’t judge on appearance (and probably won’t admit that they do) it is easy to do so, so you really don’t want to give them an excuse to write off your application purely on the way you look.
Personal Information: Information such as your date of birth, where you were born, name of your partner, etc. is information that they don’t need and simply serves to make your resume longer than it needs to be. Make sure that the information on your job application and resume is only the information that needs to be included in order to help them make up their mind as to whether or not to invite you in for an interview.
Why You Left Your Last Job: Unless your last job was temporary or for a set contract, don’t include any information regarding the ending of your last job on your resume. If your potential new employers need to know this, then they will ask you at the interview stage. There is no need to include this on your resume.
Unfinished Information: Any decent word processing program with have a resume template that you can use to create a professional looking resume on. This is great, but make sure that you don’t leave any of it incomplete (ie “your name here” instead of replacing it with your own name).
This is just a short look at things you should leave off of your resume in order to give yourself the best chance of job success and to help you create the perfect resume.
Everyone needs a resume. However, not everyone is very good at building a very good resume and get overwhelmed. It can be boring trying to get it just right and it never seems to be right. That’s where a professional can help. Professional resume writers can sit down with you and discuss your resume needs. They can then build an excellent professional resume that will reflect your jobs skills the most.
Yes, there is a cost involved, but you have spent many years cultivating your job skills and expertise. But, with so many looking for jobs in today’s world, it would be in your best interest to invest in yourself so you won’t get lost in the shuffle.
Because resume writing is what they do, they will be able to create your professional resume into something that will stand out from the crowd and get you noticed. It’s not the same as it was several years ago and a generic resume was all you needed. Today, however, potential employers are looking for that “thing” that will set that particular resume apart from the others. If they don’t see it, the resume gets tossed aside.
Doing research on the internet will give you multiple resources in which to find a resume writer and possible job openings in various venues. It can be overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. Consider investing in yourself. It is the most important thing you can do to make a change for 2012.
