Kevin Nelson 4m 881 #resume
The views of this article are the perspective of the author and may not be reflective of Confessions of the Professions.
Getting Your Resume Noticed
If you are very skilled and experienced, there are probably many other people like you looking for a job on the job market right now. And if you are a student who’s just graduated, or a professional wanting to switch fields and try something completely different, this could become even more challenging for you. Either way, it’s important to create the right first impression on the HRs – and the best way to do so is to make your resume stand out.
How do you do so? With the help of these 8 hints I’m going to give. They are quite simple, but they will help you make a better impression on the employer.
1. First 8 Seconds Matter.
Usually, HRs skim through resumes instead of actually reading them, paying more attention to the opening profile and to the summary section. That’s why your goal here is to make them as strong as you can. To do so, concentrate on facts and your strong skills and avoid mentioning things than most people tend to write.
2. Flash a Smile.
A photo is a great way to make a stronger first impression: it shows HRs the person behind a resume. However, this happens only when a photo is chosen correctly. It has to be professional yet personal, so don’t forget to flash a smile!
3. Choose the Right Font.
Details matter – sometimes even more than you think. That’s why you have to pay attention to the font you choose for your resume, sticking to more recognizable and readable ones instead of fancy ones. You don’t have to be super creative about it: one of the standard fonts like Verdana, Arial, or Times New Roman will do.
4. Pay Attention to Formatting and Spacing.
Your resume has to be easy to read, this often depends on line spacing. Don’t make it too big or too small – instead, focus on a golden middle. It also has to look consistent, so you should ensure that the formatting remains the same throughout the text.
5. Make Lists of Skills.
It’s important to mention all the skills that are important for the job you’re applying to. However, if there are too many of them, don’t make one big list that would be hard to read. Instead, break all these skills into smaller lists: for example, “language skills”, “computer skills”, and so on.
6. Not All Social Media Matter.
Of course, these days many people have accounts on all or almost all social media, but this still doesn’t mean that all these accounts are important for your resume. If you are applying for some kind of a creative job, you should include links to your Instagram, Behance, and Flickr accounts in your resume. However, for most of the other jobs, they aren’t necessary. Twitter matters only if it’s professional. LinkedIn should always be included.
7. Remove Visual Elements from Your Resume.
While your photo is a good way to make your resume stand out, that’s probably the only image a resume should contain (unless you are a designer or some other creative person looking for a creative job). The unnecessary visual elements make a resume hard to read and sometimes even confuse Hrs.
8. Check It for Mistakes.
Typos and small mistakes tend to slip into our writing and don’t seem to matter much most of the time. However, when it comes to resume writing, these small things could actually ruin the impression you’ve been trying so hard to create. To prevent this, check your resume for mistakes thoroughly and then run a second check in a special service (for example, Grammarly) to ensure that you didn’t miss anything.
And, of course, you could always use help of a resume writing service to make your resume really stand out. Such services not only check a resume for mistakes, but also help you improve it, structuring all the necessary information, excluding the unnecessary details, and helping you create a strong opening paragraph as well as the cover letter that will catch your potential employer’s attention. So, if you doubt that you are able to write a strong resume on your own, spend some money on the resume writing service.
As you see, when it comes to resume writing, details often matter just as much as the content of your resume. So be sure to pay attention to them, don’t forget to highlight your skills and make your resume more personal and appealing at the same time.
Of course, while these tips could really help you, there are actually much more of them. Maybe you know more tips that can help in writing a resume? Or maybe you’ve even developed some tips of your own? Either way, feel free to share them with us in the comment section below!
About the Author
Kevin Nelson started his career as a research analyst and has changed his sphere of activity to writing services and content marketing. Apart from writing, he spends a lot of time reading psychology and management literature searching for the keystones of motivation ideas. Feel free to connect with him on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Linkedin.
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