Below are some tips for writing an effective resume
1. Correct Information
Don’t lie or give half truths on your resume. If you are, than you are taking a big risk. You are very likely to get busted during the background and reference checks. Even if you any how get through the hiring process. There will always a sword hanging over your head. It doesn’t matter if you have been doing a great job, your dishonesty on your resume can get you fired down the road. Apart from this, your resume needs to be grammatically perfect and should have your most recent contact information. If you have changed your number don’t forget to update it in your resume.
2. Including “Career Summary” Instead Of “Objective”
Most objectives sound very similar, for example: To obtain a suitable position where I can utilize my X experience in the Y industry to launch new growth for the company and advance my own career to the next level etc. As you know you have only 25 few seconds to make a good impression on the hiring manage. So, such objective will not help you. Instead Career Summary is designed to give a brief overview of who you are and what you do. It will grab the hiring manager’s attention right from the beginning. Spend time developing a summary that accurately and effectively describes you as a perfect solution to their problems and needs. Develop a summary immediately gets their attention.
3. Use Action Verbs
Avoid using phrases like “responsible for.” Instead, use action verbs for example: Resolved questions and queries of 5000 customers as part of an customer help desk.
4. Networking
The majority of mid to senior level positions are filled through networking. So, contact absolutely everyone you know in addition to the recruiters for finding a Job. You can contact peoples from your network, like personal business contacts, people you have worked for or who worked for you, vendors and sales representatives you’ve dealt with in your previous job. Unless you got employed, your full time job will be handing out resumes to any possible source. Apart from HR firms, you can also upload your resume to different jobs sites like Monster, Careerbuilder, Naukri etc.
5. Provide Proper Specifics
Employers need to understand what you have done and accomplished. You need to provide him proper specifics of your previous job. For example: Recruited, hired, trained and supervised more than 30 employees in a sales department with X amount in annual sales. This will attract employer’s attention more than just mentioning worked in the sales department of X company.
6. Employer Specific Resume
Instead of sending a general resume to all. Try to make your resume employer specific. Study the employer’s company properly, their needs and requirements. Then try to provide them a tailor made solutions accordingly. Hiring managers, especially in technical fields like engineering, seek candidates that can help them solve a problem or satisfy a need within their company. Consequently, you can’t be a solution to their problems without stating how you solved similar problems in other companies and situations.
7. Highlight Your Accomplishments Instead Of Duties
Employers don’t care so much about what you’ve done in your previous job as what you’ve accomplished in your various activities there. They are looking for statements for example: Digitized 10 year’s worth of unwieldy files, making them easily accessible to department members etc. That highlights employee’s accomplishments.
8. Quantify Your Accomplishments
Include and highlight specific achievements that present a comprehensive picture of your marketability. Quantify your achievements to ensure greater confidence in the hiring manager. Focus on what you did in the job, not just what your job was. Include one or two top line job description first and then list your accomplishments. Accomplishments should be unique to you and avoid using the generic descriptions of the jobs you originally applied for or held.
9. Not Too Long Not Too Short
A resume generally gets scanned just for 25 seconds. Scanning is more difficult if resume is hard to read, poorly organized and especially if it exceeds more than two pages. Even if you have been working for many years, you should try to keep your resume to 2 pages if possible. Always remember employers are going to be more interested in the jobs that you have done recently. Use your space wisely to share more details about your most current and relevant work experience and cut down the descriptions of your earlier jobs to the bare necessities. On the other hand, your resume should be too short to barely impress the hiring manager. Choose your content wisely.
10. Format Your Resume Properly
Formatting your Resume is important. Selectively apply bold and italic typeface that help guide the reader’s eye. Use bullets to call attention to important points. Use a logical format and wide margins, clean type and clear heading. Remember its not just your resume, hiring manager has to scan, there are other’s resume too. So, format your resume wisely.
