So, what does make a great resume? A good resume is piece of art and a pleasure to read. Since resume is a written art, there are no specific rules on drafting a resume. However, the document should convey that you have excellent public relation skills and are genuinely interested in the welfare of company employees. It should also communicate that you value empathy and sensitivity. Read on for tips and techniques on how to write an effective resume.
What makes a great resume
Here a few things that go into making a great resume:
Career Highlights
These include the number of employees you have successfully trained and your role in retaining employees as well as improving their satisfaction levels. You might also want to include the policies the policies or procedures you have developed with positive outcomes. Systems/applications you have developed to improve efficiency. Difficulties/obstacles while in a past position and how you managed to overcome them.
Knowledge and Skill Sets
This includes basic skills such as reading, writing, accounting and knowledge of other disciplines such as tax laws and other fields of sciences.
Key Designations
It’s a broad term so, being specific with the titles and designations you put on your resume such as specialist, assistant, staffing manager, analyst, personnel supervisor, etc.
Additional Responsibilities
Tasks such as in-depth research and/or providing on-the-job trainings. Bristol Associates suggest that to help your resume stand out and make it great, you might also want to dwell and give special attention to the following key points:
- Use the right keywords. Closely examine the job posting and find out which keywords are common in the competencies provided. Use them in your resume.
- Use bullet points. Unless you’re writing a thesis or academic paper, avoid creating long paragraphs. Also, employers receive hundreds of job applications for a single vacant position, so make sure your resume is reader-friendly. Using bullet points is the best way to do this.
- Put the most important information first. This applies to both the entirety of the resume as well as its individual sections. In general, your resume should highlight your work experience as it’s the most important part of your document.
- Use action verbs such as “coached”, “formulated”, “created”, “managed” and “planned”. It never hurts to refer to a thesaurus.
- Keep the layout and design neat and simple. Use fonts that are friendly to the eyes of the reviewer. Use capital letters only if it’s necessary.
- Delete irrelevant and redundant information. Unless your hobbies and interests support your candidacy for a certain position, skip them in your resume.
- Use numbers and specific figures. In describing past achievements, make it appear solid as much as possible by providing specific numbers and figures.
- Do not copy and paste. Several sample resumes templates are provided online. These templates could give you an idea as to what you should put on your resume but be careful in copying them entirely.
- Avoid slang. Using slang word is a no-no when creating a great resume for jobs. You might want to avoid jargon terms as the recruiter might be confused about what you want to convey.
- Proofread. One tiny typo error and your chances of getting the job may just slip. Look for someone else to proofread it for you.