A resume is an important piece of document that showcases your skills and experiences to a potential employer. A well-written resume is the key to securing an interview during your job hunt.
Therefore, it is crucial to fill this important with information that will portray you in the best light to a potential employer. You are about to learn the conventional table of contents of a resume, as well as how to craft one.
Basic Tips for Building Your Resume
There are some fundamental things to know while crafting your resume. Here are two of them.
Tailor your Resume to the Specific Job
To be considered a worthy candidate, you need to read the job description carefully. Do your best to understand the intricacies of the role and fashion your resume appropriately.
Don't just copy and paste a generic CV from the internet. Type in the relevant skills that make you a good fit. If you have a work experience history that is specifically tailored to the job, you can include it.
Combine the STAR Method with a Quantitative Approach
If you have been previously employed somewhere, you should use the STAR method to itemize your experience. STAR stands for Situation, Task, Action, and Result. You state a challenge you encountered, the circumstances surrounding the challenge, the steps you took to address it, and the outcome of your solutions.
Use numbers to draw attention to your results where applicable. An example of such is, "My financial marketing strategies lowered the bounce rate by over 35% and increased the conversion rates to 30% - 45%.
How to Organize your Resume
A resume should be complete and concise. It should contain certain key information in chronological order. Let's have a look at them.
Contact Information
Your full name, phone number, and professional email address should be at the top of your resume. These pieces of information should be clear, correct and bold. This is because recruiters will need this information to reach out to you if you are successful.
Consider the two email addresses "coolguy707@gmail.com" and "john.miteva@yahoo.com" The first address is not good because it includes numbers and slang.
The latter is better because it is simple, showcases the applicant's name, and makes it easy for the employer to contact the individual. If you have a LinkedIn account or any website that contains your profile, include links to them as well.
Professional Summary
It is a concise overview of your skills and experience related to the job. It should contain a summary of the results that you have delivered with the organizations that you have worked with.
If you are an entry-level graduate, write down the value that you can potentially add to the company, as well as what you want to do with your career. One paragraph is sufficient for this summary.
Work Experience
This segment is the most important part of your resume. List the jobs in an inverse chronological order, starting with your most recent work experience.
Under each job, include details such as the organization's name, the dates of employment, and your job description. Describe the experience that you gained and use statistical metrics to describe the results.
Education
In this section, you will provide a full detail of your academic history, starting from your most recent degree. For each academic award, you will mention the degree title, the Institution name, your starting year, and graduation year. If you took any specific course that might be relevant to the job description, mention it.
Skills
Mention the technical skills that make you a good fit for the role. Let's assume that you are applying for a programming role. You can include the fact that you are proficient with computer languages like Python, Java, or whatever language is applicable to the role.
Final Thoughts
In this article, we have been able to demystify the process of creating a resume. If you use the above format and guidelines, you have a good chance of being invited for an interview. The secret is to tailor your resume to whatever job you are applying for.