A resume is a window into your entire professional career. Employers all over the globe use resumes during the hiring process to evaluate the applicant and match their skills to the job. Your resume must encapsulate your abilities and achievements, highlight your relevant experiences, and be easy to read to land you an interview for your dream job. Below are four tips that will help your resume stand out:
1. Customize Your Resume for Each Position
Tailor the profile section of your resume differently to each job you apply for. It’s always best to carry out this customization throughout your entire resume if you can. To stay prepared, you can also create different versions of your resume to cater to the varying job positions you intend to apply for. This will eliminate the amount of customization you will have to do for each job.
2. Include Keywords
Did you know that most recruiters spend an average of 7.4 seconds skimming through your resume? This is because they will mainly be searching for relevant keywords. Keywords can show your hard skills, such as cybersecurity or financial reporting, and softer skills like teamwork and collaboration.
It is important to keep referring to the job description and customize your resume with related key phrases and words accordingly. Including keywords will also enable you to meet the requirements of any automated applicant tracking system the company may have employed, maximizing your chances of landing an interview.
3. Focus on Transferable Skills
If you are an entry-level applicant or applying for a job unrelated to your previous professional experience, focus on your transferable skills. These skills could have been developed in the past through any leadership roles, societies in your college, internship experiences, or previous jobs and can demonstrate your professional growth. For example, you could highlight the time-management skills you’ve acquired through a project in your college or your understanding of corporate culture through an internship.
4. Prioritize Work Experience Over Education
Recruiters and hiring managers want to compare your abilities and skills to the other candidates. Your relevant work experience will always outweigh your GPA when it comes to standing out for a job position. It should, therefore, be detailed at the beginning of your resume.
However, it is still important to include an education section later in your document. In the “education” section, you should consist of the college you attended or your highest level of education. If you graduated with honors or awards, ensure that you include those in the awards section. To become a competitive candidate, try to have only those achievements, educational qualifications, work experiences, and skills relevant to the employer.
Endnote
Having a good resume is the first step to landing an interview. You need to create a professional resume and tailor it accordingly to maximize your chances of getting a job. Properly polishing your resume will help you get more responses, callbacks, interviews, as well as job offers.
