With a tight job market and increasing competition, getting your resume read is harder than ever. You need to not only demonstrate your experience but also make sure it’s the right one for the job.
The first step is to understand what employers are looking for in a resume. To do that you need to know some of the most common reasons why recruiters would choose one candidate over another.
When seeking employment, it is critical to tailor your resume to the job in question. This will make sure that the person reviewing your application can find what they are looking for.
Curriculum vitae (CV)
A CV is a document that describes your work experience over the course of your entire career. It consists of your name, address, contact information, education, job and work history, and any research paper you might have written.
The CV is a summary of your entire career, and should generally take up one page at most. While some people feel the need to write long essays about themselves, most recruiters find them to be too long and unnecessary.
Click here to find a perfect CV template for you.
Keywords
Keywords are a concise way to explain your skills and experiences. Employers are interested in keywords that describe your experience, but they also want to see your name and contact information.
Make sure your keywords are relevant to the position you’re applying to, but also something that describes you. The goal is to help the employer see the skills you have that make you a good fit for the position.
Recent Work Experience
This section of your resume should show the specific duties and responsibilities you had during your most recent job.
It doesn’t have to be a full year’s worth of duties, but at least six months. While most people seem to think that employers want to see everything they’ve ever done, they’re really looking for recent work experience.
Additional Information or Optional Objectives
Some resumes only have two or three bullet points. While those can be good for someone just starting out in their career, they usually won’t be useful to most employers. Most employers want to see enough information to determine if they want to read any more.
In this section, you can add any information that won’t fit in the previous sections. This includes any research or writing you might have done as an undergraduate.
Make Your Resume Clear and Concise
The hiring manager or HR officer will not spend much time reading your resume. In order to get hired, your resume must be clear and concise. It should be no surprise that most resumes are limited to two pages.
When there isn’t enough room to tell your story, create a resume that is clear and concise.
The more time you can save the hiring manager, the better. In the event that you have relevant education and experience, you may also include them on your one-page resume. Keep your resume to one page to save the hiring manager time.
Bottom Line
The last sentence of your resume should summarise the main points of your document and provide the recruiter with a general impression of who you are and why you want to work for them.
The bottom line should be no longer than one or two sentences.