Your resume is a crucial tool for showcasing your education, skills, and experience to potential employers. A well-crafted resume can make the difference between securing an interview or not, so it's important to spend time perfecting it. This article provides some tips to help you create an attractive and professional resume.
1.Choose the Right Format
The goal of choosing the right format is twofold: to provide the maximum amount of information in the least amount of space and to ensure it is easy to read.
• Use a font that is attractive and easy to read.
• The font size should be legible; size 12 is appropriate.
• Pay attention to margins and spacing.
• The information should not appear too cluttered.
• Your resume should fit in one page.
• Check for spelling and grammar errors and avoid abbreviations and slang.
• Use formal but simple and direct language.
2.Include Essential Sections
Your resume should contain the following sections in this order:
• Personal Information: Full name, city of residence, phone number, email address, and LinkedIn profile. It’s not necessary to include your date of birth, marital status, or nationality. Use a professional picture (optional).
• Professional Summary: Write a brief paragraph of about three or four lines summarizing who you are, your strengths, and why you believe you are suitable for the position. Write your most relevant achievement, or something that you did that you are proud about.
• Professional Experience: If you don’t have work experience in your field yet, you can describe an internship, volunteer work, projects, or other jobs not related to your current education.
Explain your role and responsibilities in 3 or 4 lines and describe a quantifiable achievement using action verbs. For example, instead of saying “customer service job,” say “handled over 50 customers daily, achieving a 90% satisfaction rate.” This is the most crucial aspect that will help your resume stand out above the average, because most candidates only describe their functions, their resumes look the same.
• Education: Your degree/master’s title, university, start and end dates (or expected completion date), and GPA if it is noteworthy. Put any other. training if it is related to the job you are seeking.
• Skills, Competencies, and Software: Highlight the skills, competencies, and software knowledge that are relevant to the job you are applying for.
• Languages: Include the languages you know, even if you don’t have a certificate, and indicate the level. For example, English level: C1.
• Keywords: These are the most relevant words within a job description, typically found in the description of important functions and responsibilities. Increasingly, companies use automated screening software for resumes, making it even more important to integrate these keywords into your resume when you explain functions, responsibilities, professional summary.
3.Tailor Your Resume to the Job & Company
While the previous point describes how to create a general resume, it is advisable to tailor your resume to the job and company you are applying to. To do this:
• Research the company, its mission, vision, values, culture, products, services, clients, etc. This will help you understand the company and demonstrate your interest and motivation to be part of it.
• Analyze the job offer, identifying the requirements, functions, and skills demanded to tailor your resume accordingly.
• Use keywords from the job offer, remove information that is not relevant to that specific offer, and provide examples of quantifiable achievements that demonstrate your added value to the company.
Utilize online tool to scan you resume with Jobscan!
Written by Antonio Rodríguez, Career Coach at CoE Mentoring
Good write.