As you probably already know, software engineering jobs are in demand, but there is also a pretty saturated talent pool. The competition is so strong, you may think you have the best resume, but one minor mistake could get yours thrown out of the pool and you’ll never know it. There isn’t one specific key to writing an effective resume to get you hired in the software engineering industry, but there are some steps you can take to give yourself the best chance at landing the job you want. Here are some things to consider when constructing your resume.
1. Highlight Your Website or Blog
We aren’t just talking about social media accounts here. If you want to be a software engineer, but don’t have your own personal website, it’s time to get one immediately. Even the best resume writing service won’t be able to highlight your attributes if they don’t have something tangible to point to. This is one of the best ways to showcase your talents and abilities and let your work speak for itself.
2. Don’t Be Generic
You don’t have to create an entirely new resume for every job you apply for, but you do need to at least tailor it to the specific position. When writing an effective resume, you need to make the employer see that you know what the position entails. If the job description asks for qualifications with documentation, systems analysis, data usage, product specifications, work processes, etc., detail clearly in your resume how you have done that. If it asks for special skills like liaising with, or training users, show how you’ve worked with users in previous roles. Follow the job description for clues as to what needs to be a priority on your resume.
3. Craft a Good Cover Letter
Some of the best cover letters are short, sweet and to the point. No recruiter is going to spend time reading a cover letter extending any longer than a few short paragraphs. A cover letter writing service can help you pinpoint what needs to be written in the letter to ensure you catch the reader’s attention. If you don’t have a good cover letter, there’s a chance your resume won’t even be seen.
4. Use Proper Keywords
Many recruiters will scan your resume and cover letter for keywords related to the open position. If you don’t have any present in your resume, it will likely get pushed to the side or trashed. Keywords can be difficult to identify, but they are critical to include. Again, use the job description to help you find the keywords. Consider hiring one of the best resume writing services if you struggle with the keywords. You definitely don’t want missing keywords to be the reason why you don’t get a shot at the job you want.
We know creating the perfect resume can be difficult, so if you have any questions along the way, feel free to get in touch with us at any point in the process!
What You Should Know About Hiring a Professional Resume Writer
Crafting a perfect resume is a skill most people don’t have, and that’s okay! It’s never a bad thing to try to put together your resume yourself, but where most people go wrong is by not seeking out second opinions on their resume’s quality. Writing an effective resume takes time and precision, so if you don’t have those luxuries, hiring a professional resume writer may be your best option. However, before you do so, make sure you keep these points in mind so you aren’t disappointed when you speak with a professional resume writer.
Determine Whether You Really Need a Professional Resume Writer
You’ll have many factors to consider when it comes to hiring aprofessional resume writing service. If you don’t have a clear sense of what position you want next, even the best writer won’t be able to craft your resume to perfection. Get really clear on exactly what you want to do. A professional resume writer is good at highlighting your current skills and applying them to the type of job you’re seeking. Our writers work at creating your “story”– what you’ve done in your career and how you can do this for them. To do this effectively, you will need to gather as much information from your past that will be relevant to the next role.
How Professional Resume Writers Can Help
Professional resume writers will craftresumes that get you hired in just about any industry you’re skilled in. With that said, if you’re well established in your industry and are looking for a pay raise, increased responsibilities or other promotions, you’ll definitely benefit from a professional writing your resume because they can help you seamlessly transition your experience into the next role. Even the smallest mistake in your resume could be detrimental to your chances of being hired because of the competition you face.
Know What You’re Getting Into
You can’t just go to a professional resume writing service without any information and expect them to work magic for you. The best thing you can do is write your own resume first and submit it for review and feedback. Most services will be honest with you because they don’t want to waste their time if you don’t need their expertise. If they do recommend you hire them, it probably won’t be cheap. Depending on the type of resume you want to create, it could cost several hundred dollars or more. You just have to ask yourself whether it’s worth it to you if it helps you get the job you want. Most of the time, the answer is yes. There are many keys to writing an effective resume, and even one little mistake could send your resume off the tracks with a potential employer.
How to Craft an Eye-Catching Executive Resume Brand
If you’ve followed us for a while, or just have ample knowledge of how job searching and the professional world work, then you know the importance of crafting a personal brand. This is how you appeal to other professionals, especially those who may hire you to work for them later on. The main issue for anyone attempting c-level personal branding, however, is figuring out how to go about it efficiently. In this blog, we’ll give you a few tips on how to brand yourself efficiently and catch the eye of recruiters in an instant!
Include Your Accomplishments
While this goes without saying, your accomplishments within your industry will be some of the most important elements of your personal brand and should not be ignored. The key aspect here is how you incorporate them. You don’t want to splay them all out like playing cards strewn on a table. Rather, you can frame them in a way that appeals more readily to employers.
For a few ideas on how to do this, you can always rely on a team of the best executive resume writers in your area or do a bit of independent research. While you should strive to keep your entire resume brief, you can add a bit of color to your stories by describing them in the form of a (very) brief story—three lines maximum, to be precise.
Think About How You’ve Contributed to Your Industry
This part of brand construction may prove a bit challenging, but it is the perfect method of showing any recruiter or hiring agent how you are a valuable employee. By creating your personal brand, you are effectively telling other professionals a story. Make it appealing by getting to the meat of the action! This means displaying your contributions to the past companies you’ve worked for. It may help to follow the C-A-R formula for these contribution stories, ‘C-A-R’ meaning Challenge, Action and Result. Think about what was being asked of you at the time, how you completed the task at hand and what happened afterward.
Research as Much as Possible
Oftentimes catching a glimpse of others’ work and ideas can help inspire you. If you’re stumped as to how to start or flesh out your personal brand, looking at how others have constructed theirs can give you a boost. We don’t mean lifting someone else’s work entirely, however! Writing an effective resume means showcasing your own strengths and individualizing yourself. Copying someone else entirely defeats the purpose.
As you surf through your Google results and check out what other people are doing, be sure to evaluate your own methods and ideas. How can you apply what they’re doing to your own strengths and accomplishments? Think about how you have influenced your previous employers in ways no one else did. This will help you figure out how to brand yourself well.
Additionally, it may help to get in touch with a professional resume writer to learn what you can do to better market yourself. You may come away with a new perspective toward your career and professional potential that you’ve never considered before, one that will wow employers on the spot!
Five Tips for Personal Brand Creation and Maintenance
So you’ve learned the importance of a personal brand and have made the decision to start working on your own…but what’s next? This is a very common question that has been asked by several senior level professionals just like you. As it turns out, building a personal brand is hard, but it can very much be done! Here’s how.
1. Think About Yourself
Every employee, and especially every senior level professional, has something significant to offer a company. You will have to tap into just what your skills and positive personal traits are before you begin crafting your personal brand. In fact, this is the first step of c-level personal branding. It may help to approach this issue from the perspective of an employer and figure out what traits are most desirable in any employee, then work backwards to hash out what makes you unique from every other applicant out there. Craft a story about yourself for your hiring audience to read.
2. Start Pruning Your Presence Online
While no one will admit to Googling themselves, it will actually help you figure out one of the most important parts of branding yourself—your name. Keep track of how you’re mentioned online and whether it’s in a negative or positive context.
3. Be Mindful of Your Internet Activities
Now that you have an idea of how you’re perceived online, you’ll have to make sure to keep these perceptions under control. Don’t post anything you wouldn’t want potential employers to find later on. If you’ve already engaged in online activities that you wouldn’t necessarily want employers to discover, you will generally have the option to delete them—but be careful!
You can never completely erase something from the Internet once it’s there. In the meantime, you can do any necessary damage control by carefully considering what you post and only letting pictures and other forms of media slip through if they contribute to your efforts toward personal branding for senior level managers.
4. Build a Website
Thanks to the advancement of the Internet, building a website is easier than ever! “Why do I need one?” you may ask. For starters, so many business interactions now take place online…from consumers to businesses to potential employees and those in charge of hiring them. A website is a wonderful way of presenting yourself to the world in a quick and aesthetically pleasing manner. Don’t think you have to go big and flashy! Just a paragraph about yourself, contact links and a well written resume will do.
5. Look to Older, More Successful Brands
You can find other people who’ve built personal brands by connecting with those who are in either the same industry or are alumni from your alma mater. Connect with these people as soon as possible for tips on how to better construct your personal brand. If you play your cards right, these new associates should prove valuable!
On our site, you’ll find information about building a personal brand, writing an effective resume and much more! Once you learn a little more about yourself, you may choose to get some additional help to push your executive job search to the next level!
You’ve probably heard that statistically, employers spend an average of eight seconds scanning a resume. Obviously, that’s not a lot of time to make a lasting impression. If your resume is cluttered, unorganized and the text and font are clunky, it just might get passed over. Here are some tips for writing an effective resume that will ensure your resume gets the attention it needs.
Clear Sections
Your resume should have clearly demarcated sections. Top rated resume writing services might suggest using italics or a bold fold to differentiate between those sections, such as Education and Work Experience. There should be a break in the reader’s mind between different types of information.
Alignment
Align your text to the left. Since the eye naturally returns to the left, this is the most natural and readable format. However, align dates and locations to the right, which helps to separate that information and makes it easy to scan. Speaking of formatting, keep it consistent. Don’t start using “creative” formatting techniques in order to squeeze everything into one page. It’s more important your resume be clean and readable than be limited to one page.
Use Numbers and Symbols
Whenever possible, use numbers and symbols instead of text. They will grab the eye and be easy for the employer to quickly refer back to. Keep bold text and all caps to a minimum. You want to use these sparingly in order to truly highlight important information.
Fonts
Choose one, or two at the most, and make them clean and simple. Keep in mind your resume will likely be going through an applicant tracking system, which will not pick up special fonts or graphics. So not only are these cluttered and hard on the eyes, but it might prevent your resume from getting into anyone’s hands to read. Top rated resume writing services suggest sticking with plain, classic fonts.
Bullets
Do use bullets. It breaks complex pieces of information into readable chunks and makes it simple to reference back to these points. It also draws attention to your accomplishments, information you really want to highlight.
Use White Space
Using plenty of white space is much easier on the eyes than large, dense chunks of text. It creates a clean, well-designed look that’s appealing to the reader.
Writing a clear, effective resume can be a daunting task. If you want to be sure you get the attention of your desired employer, you might consider using a professional resume writing service. Allowing an expert to help you craft a successful resume will dramatically increase your chances of landing your dream job.
Networking is just as important as writing an effective resume.
The types of jobs you can get in 2016 are vastly different than what were available decades ago, all thanks to technological advancement. Furthermore, just as the careers available to prospective workers have transformed, so has the way we seek out jobs. Simply sending in applications to openings found on job listing resources no longer seals the deal. Networking is now the ticket to landing most jobs, which means you have to have connections to get desired positions. A large majority of lucrative jobs can no longer be found by scoping the classified section or browsing Craigslist. You have to know someone who already has experience in the industry and ask them to put in a good word for you. If you don’t have the right connections, this problem is easily solvable.
Try Going to Gatherings Related to Your Desired Field
One of the most important steps to attaining C-level personal branding is to get to know people already working in the field you’re aiming to enter. The type of event doesn’t matter so long as you’re out there and meeting people. It never hurts to do a little research before you go to an event, just for the sake of having an idea of who the guests will be and a sense of the best people to introduce yourself to. Bringing your resume can be a good idea, especially for career fairs.
Don’t Count Out the Connections You Already Have
The people you already know can be just as valuable a resource as any while you’re on your job search. This counts for literally everyone you’re familiar with. Write them all out and consider which ones will be the most helpful in terms of assisting with your search. Even if the manner in which they can help you is more indirect, such as them not actually working in that specific field, but knowing someone else who does, can aid in your search. Don’t hesitate to contact them, tell them your situation and ask them to put in good word for you, whether it is with their boss or an employee they happen to be well-acquainted with.
While the process of networking may be a daunting one, it can be infinitely valuable to you if you’re searching for a career. In fact, it’s just as important as writing an effective resume, and should be learned and mastered just as well. Both of these tools can be the key to creating C-level personal branding and landing the job you’ve always wanted, which makes the effort to learn how to perfect them worth it. For help with either of these job hunting tools, you have quite a few resources at your disposal. As the best resume writing service, Professional Resume Services can help you with either.
Writing an effective resume may require making some changes.
It’s not enough to just have a standard resume. What is important is writing an effective resume, one that is designed to get you into that all-important interview. If you are not getting the interviews and opportunities you want, it’s time to rethink your current resources. Here are five strategies for giving your resume a makeover.
Strategy #1- Forget Your Objective
It’s customary to state your job objective at the top of the resume. However, those offering top resume writing services suggest this is futile and meaningless to potential employers. An employer is not as interested in what you are looking for as what you can give them. When an employer first sees your resume, you have an average of six seconds to catch their eye so make it about them.
Strategy #2 – Take a Marketing Stance
When writing an effective resume, rather than viewing it as looking for a job, consider the process as an opportunity to market your skills and experience. Focus on offering potential employers what you have in order to increase their profitability rather than trying to earn a paycheck for yourself. Make it about delivering value to them.
Strategy #3 – Highlight Your Professional Skills
Your skills are what are going to get you the position you desire so make sure to clearly identify the skill set you bring to the position. Use your strong points to entice a business recruiter in a way that makes them feel like they need what you have to offer. Impress them with what you can do for them.
Strategy #4 – Identify a Specific Job Title
Don’t leave out this essential bit of information. The targeted job title should be listed along with your contact information on your resume. This is your chance to draw recruiters or interviewers in. Putting it with your contact information is the ideal spot since it makes it more apparent and eyes are naturally drawn toward this area. If you are uploading your professional paperwork, including a targeted job title makes it more visible in online databases and search results.
Strategy #5 – Start off with a Performance Profile
Resumes and cover letters should begin with your ability to do the job. This means you need to do your research to identify what the specific needs of the company are and market to those needs. To create a performance profile, look at the requirements for your desired position and rewrite them as skills you have to offer. This does not need to be a long paragraph; try to keep it to five lines maximum. It’s also acceptable to use a bulleted list for emphasis. This also adds some visual appeal and will attract the reader’s eyes.
Writing a professional resume will help you stand out.
Most people already recognize the need to stand out from the other candidates by wiring an effective resume that showcases their skills. However, many of those same people have no idea how to accomplish this goal when writing a professional resume. The following tips will help you find new ways to make sure hiring managers notice your executive resume cover letter over all the others.
Dress Up Your Cover Letter
Every great resume begins with a cover letter that addresses the hiring manager and lets them know why you are considering the position. Unfortunately, this can be an area that many people struggle with, making it difficult to set yourself apart from the other candidates. It shouldn’t simply be a summary of what is included in your resume; instead, it needs to be a personal message to the hiring manager to help them see you as the ideal fit for their business culture.
In general, your executive resume cover letter should answer the question of why. This is your time to tell prospective employers why you are considering a position within their company and why you are the ideal candidate for the job. It can be useful to find a connection between something you have to offer and what they are looking for. Many hiring managers make the decision to request an interview based largely on the contents of the cover letter.
Create an Outstanding Resume
Once you have a cover letter that makes a great first impression, you need to focus on writing an effective resume that sets you apart and shows employers why you are the smart choice. When writing a professional resume, make sure to only include the relevant skills and experience, as well as a concise, narrative work history. This information will give employers a clear view of what you bring to the company.
Instead of listing work experiences that are unrelated to the new position, consider adding a section for non-work activities. This can give them a better idea of your personality to help them determine if you are a good fit for their company cultures. Therefore, it’s important to show them who you are, rather than simply what you can do.
As you consider your options for your future career, it’s essential to find ways to make sure you stand apart from the hundreds of other resumes that cross a hiring manager’s desk. From your executive resume cover letter to writing a professional resume, it’s up to you to show a company why you are the best fit for the job, especially over the other candidates who have applied.
