A job resume plays an important role in deciding your career prospects. A poorly designed resume can lower your chances of getting a good job. On the contrary, a good resume may place you above your expectations. It is thus vital that you take time and efforts to design, phrase and improve your resume by including your different stages of career progress as well as different important aspects of your qualifications.
Composing your resume is not as daunting as you think it is. It is not akin to drumming up points for an essay, it is merely the inventory of your academic milestones.
Yet there is a lot of speculation and much has been left to conjecture. The passing times have also altered the perspectives of employers. You need to know exactly what to add and what not to add to your job resume, so you can make your first impression click with the reader.
Tips to Improve your Resume:
1. Sub Headings to Include:
You may include various different subheadings in a resume to give it a complete and organized look. Here we have listed out the various important subheadings in a resume and what these should include:
Qualifications:
It should describe your career in a few words listing out your major qualifications and degrees.
Career Objective:
Reveal to the recruiter what you wish to achieve in your career through one line on career objective.
Achievements So Far:
The recruiters need to know what you have achieved in your career so list this out in your achievements so far.
Experience:
Reveal your on-field experience in a gist here.
2. Don’t exaggerate:
Everyone aspires for that one dream job and when you come across such opening, you may be tempted to exaggerate to be doubly sure you get the job. You could not be more naive if you think you can add brownie points to your CV and get away with it. Exaggeration is as good as lying as you are telling things that are not actually true about your career and skills.
Background checks are common practice now and two phone calls would flip the script, no matter how well-crafted it is. Write about what you are, not your idea of the academician you!
3. Use jargon:
If you are applying for a job, the recruiters just want to know your skills and not your vocabulary. This is actually where people do not pay credence to verbosity but want to know how good you are at your trade, so be precise, use the terminology. If your recruiter needs to go through the dictionary to understand exactly what you wish to convey through your resume, it is really a waste of his time.
In some rare professions, the language used may matter. These are professions like writing, teaching, editing and advertising. These are fields in which language and creativity matter equally. So make sure you use the right jargon in your resume and keep it to the point.
4. No typos:
You cannot afford to be callous about the correctness of the information here. Be careful what you write on this sheet of paper. Resume helps you get selected for a role that puts food in your fridge and money in your wallet. It may just be a matter of two pages for some but for you, it defines your life and career.
If you can appreciate the seriousness of these two pages, you will surely double-check for silly typos or spelling mistakes. Neglecting these mistakes can actually decide where you reach in your career.
5. Grammar:
The CV does not have to sound like some classic English Novel or unique spiritual book. The language of the resume needs to be simple and the tone formal. Ensure you write in the correct tense and subjugate with the correct terms. Grammatical errors are not only misleading but also unbecoming.
Read everything from an outsider’s perspective. It will help you frame your resume in the correct and simplest language. Grammar errors often happen because people try to write complex sentences that have no proper beginning or end. Limit the word count of each sentence to increase its preciseness.
Simple and short sentences that make complete sense are always preferred by employers as they are easy to comprehend. The meaning of the sentence changes when you stretch it beyond the regular limit.
6. Be formal:
The tech-savvy modern generation is extremely keen to shed away the old school ways. While the traditional office settings demanded a formal and professional approach, there are many modern offices that preach the converse. They start their employee search by posting requirements on Facebook and appreciate their employees with simple messages on Whatsapp groups.
Yet, if you wish to play it safe, be formal in your resume. Maintain a sober, formal demeanor, the CV is no place to goof around. Be careful about the tone you set when you speak of yourself and your milestone. Otherwise, you may end up sounding like a giddy, boastful teenager.
Use words that do justice to your trade and prove your competency rather than making you sound like an overambitious jerk.
7. Be precise:
Precision matters a lot in most formal communications. Since the resume decides the future of your job life, it is best to stay precise while writing the resume.
Write clearly about your achievements and goals. Do not beat around the bush. Articulate carefully, be confident about what you write and the version of you that you want to portray in the CV.
Writing long-winded sentences will not do much good in driving the point home. Use fewer words that create a lasting impression of you if you seek positive results.
8. Upgrade Your Resume:
As a fresher, you may have to include your school and college achievements in your resume to give it a look of completion. As you start gaining experience, you must learn to replace your school and college achievements with useful career achievements. People who are wise and selective while stating their knowledge and experience create a good impression with their resume.
People want to know about your achievements so state your career achievements wisely. You need to list out experience that is related to your career and field. Winning the running race in your third standard is really of no significance in job resume. So do not include your such things.
Be wise to pick and choose what helps to further your career. Leave aside those that do not greatly help in your job search.
9. Contact information:
People often fail to understand the significance of updating their latest and most relevant contact number in the resume. While some people provide a whole list of contact numbers, there are others who do not provide any sensible contact information.
You may lose out on some significant career opportunities simply because you are not updating the right contact information. Do not make this mistake.
You might have several contact numbers but do not turn your CV into your Facebook page information. Add only the number you keep aside exclusively for official purposes. That is where your emails, texts and calls will be landing.
If you have to, then include both your home phone number as well as your most dependable personal mobile number.
Official email:
The need of an official email id has increased in the recent past. As many of the modern firms do their employee search on the internet, an official email id becomes necessary. You need to be wise while selecting an official email id. Avoid funny or geeky names that make you look more like a joker than a professional.
Your email id can either be just your name or name and your career interest. For instance, an email id like sulakshana.writer@yahoo.com will help the reader get an idea that you are in the writing field.
10. Photograph:
Be it an old school recruiter or the most modern employer, they all expect you to attach a photograph with your resume. So make sure you include a passport size photo with your resume. You must also make sure you update your resume photograph with passing time.
Remember that your looks alter with age and attaching the same photograph you used in your graduation exam hall ticket won’t be quite helpful.
Adding your picture to your CV is a must. People need to see which specimen is capable of achieving what they have mentioned as their achievement.
4 Words To Supercharge Your Resume:
As per professionals and experts, updating your resume on a regular period is a very important step and can help you in your hiring process. You need to append all the vital skills and achievements into your resume to make it look impressive.
The one thing that you need to take care of is to check the length of the resume. As employers would neither be interested in lengthier resumes nor will they have time for it.
Your resume acts as a front of you in the application screening process, so making it look effective is an essential step. Your resume speaks more about you in the interview process. So boosting up your resume will help in a positive way.
Here are the 4 resume words that help to make your resume get the needed attention and recognition.
- Spearhead– taking initiative
- Enhanced – motivated, intensify
- Consolidated– bring together
- Executed – implementing as per plan
You need to clearly understand the meaning of these words and use it rightly.
Conclusion:
A resume is what gives the recruiter an idea about your career achievements, your qualifications, your skills, your abilities, and your career expectations. Knowing all these facts is extremely important so that you land in the right job. A stable job plays an important role in your career progress.
