Introduction
A good resume is an integral part of your job search. Putting your best foot forward is really an important step to land you into a good, satisfactory job and believe it or not, knowledge alone cannot help you in this process. A good resume is much more necessary than you think it is, to get you a good job.
A resume is your professional history that specifies your work experiences, skills, knowledge, interests, hobbies and provides a first favorable impression upon the hiring manager.
A resume is a key to your first face to face interaction with your employer. If a resume is not convincing enough then it can make the hiring manager overlook your resume despite you being a relevant candidate for that job.
It simply means that writing down your skills, experience appropriately as well as convincingly is important to get you an interview letter and takes you a step forward to show your knowledge and experience personally.
If this made you think that competition for a job profile starts even before giving an interview, then yes, it does. You will be competing with the other candidates even before the interview, through your resume.
Here are several ways to make your resume a tough competition and can help you to stand out amongst the other competitors:
SKILLS
Many job seekers emphasize on hard skills and neglect soft skills.
Hard skills are the acquired skills that qualify your competency for a specific role whereas soft skills include personal qualities or traits which specify how you work, on your own and with others.
Hard and soft skills have equal values in the consideration of a perfect candidate. Soft skills like good interpersonal and communication skills, creativity, teamwork can help you in resume writing, interviewing and communicating effectively at your workplace.
Hard skills like coding, proficiency in MS Excel, Photoshop, Digital Art, etc can make a good impression. However, do mention the skills in your resume which are the main requirements of the job you are applying for.
HR (Human Resource) Managers do lookout for candidates who possess soft skills like problem-solving, leadership, effective communication skills, flexibility, integrity and work ethic.
KEYWORDS
In general, job descriptions posted by the hiring managers have important keywords. You need to start reading the descriptions thoroughly and look out for the keywords. Then try and add those keywords in your resume. HR tends to look for those keywords while searching for the relevant candidate.
You can also try and go beyond the job description and start by doing some research on the company. Start with their website and then carry on Google Search to find relevant information about the company you are going to apply. You will get to know about the values and cultures of the company; like if they are into charitable work and you also were indulged in charity then you can add it to your resume. This would make an effective impact on your selection process.
Customizing your resume for each job you apply can be a little tiring but it definitely will make your resume appealing.
FORMAT AND FONT OF YOUR RESUME
There would be many resume formats and designs available online which you definitely can try. Try to choose a resume style that is more professional and convincing. However, you can show your creativity by adding different patterns or designs to your resumes if you are applying for the position of web designer/graphic designer, fashion designer, fashion photographer, TV reporter, fashion magazine reporter, musician or chef.
About the font, try and use an easy to read font of about 11pt. and keep increasing or decreasing size for different headlines accordingly. But make sure that you use a simple and same font throughout the resume.
RELEVANT EXPERIENCE
It is not important to mention ALL your working experiences, especially with a shorter span of time, in your resume. Choose and mention the experiences which are related to the job that you are applying for.
Also, if you are transitioning into a different working field then adding your previous work experience (which was different from this new field) would be inconsiderable and irrelevant; in that case, you can include your skills and knowledge related to the desired field which will help you to qualify for the job profile.
If you don’t have relevant work experience, start by taking gigs in websites like Fiverr, Upwork, Freelancer etc. Like if you want to make a career as a graphic designer, start be taking graphic designer jobs from these websites. If you are interested in making a career as a teacher, just by taking a job as a teacher in your local school or work as a volunteer teaching assistant.
Don’t forget to mention your contact details in the resume in case the HR Manager wants to contact you. You don’t want to miss that!
Here, we have assorted some cool resume designs templates which are exclusively available for our blog readers.
Choose the style that suits your need and download them. You can buy the resume bundles in both MS Word format(.docx) and PSD format from our store.
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