Want to become a writer at Eat My News? Here is an opportunity to join the Board of Young Leaders Program by Eat My News. Click here to know more: bit.ly/boardofyoungleaders
Developing an effective resume is one of the important goals of any fresher who is seeking employment. There is no other component in an interview other than your body language and an effective resume that can impress the recruiter in the first place.
A resume is not just describing who you are, and it is far beyond a catalogue describing you. A resume is a tool to describe how you can benefit the potential employer and what are your records of accomplishments in those desired directions.
From the recruiters’ point of view, it’s an intermediate tool to match your skills with the company’s requirements. Having a solid resume is like having a strong foundation in your selection process and therefore your chances of conversion stand high.
Here are five tips to incorporate while drafting a resume as a fresher -
1. Align Your Resume with the Job Description
The primary thing you need to take care of while creating a resume is to set your objectives right. This can be done through an in-depth understanding of the job role and job description of your potential employment.
Try to relate your set of information with those stated on the job description. Your key objective must be to creatively match your skills, activities and accomplishments with the requirements of the employer.
For example, if the job you are applying demands interpersonal skills as a prime requirement, you could think of a group project or activity that you had worked wherein you might have coordinated with your team in accomplishing it.
2. List Only Relevant Information
Another important tip is to keep your resume crisp with only relevant information. Do not try to add in all your skills and all your accomplishments. Never go beyond two pages at any circumstances as it may give a feeling that you are not respecting the time of the reader.
State only those skills and activities relevant for the job and do take care to not describe everything extensively in words as you might have to repeat the same when the recruiter asks you something related to that.
Always set an initiative tone for contents you describe on your resume and then when the recruiter shoots the question, try to build your answer complementing your descriptions.
Also read: 3 Unfamiliar Yet Powerful Tips for Interview
3. Never Forget to List Accomplishments
It is often a misconception that adding too much information or listing down all your academic information and certifications are more than enough to make your resume comprehensive. However, no resume is complete without stating the outcome of those listed information.
Take extreme care to add at least three accomplishments of each skill, activity or experience that you are listing on your resume. This includes even for your ongoing/completed course, past work experience (if any) and even for any voluntary roles, you had taken up.
You can note more than three accomplishments and can select the best three according to the job description and requirement. Make sure that the only common feature throughout your resume from top to bottom is that you have stated accomplishments for each entry you made.
4. Customize Your Resume
Probably the first thing that pops up in your mind when you want to develop a resume is to find a template. Templates do save a lot of time and of course, are more convenient for making a resume from dust. However, I would suggest you to not completely rely on templates.
Adapting a template to initiate your resume is a good idea but never change your content for the template. It is always better to keep your content ahead of the design in resume. Design templates, therefore, can be a guideline for you and do make changes as per the content.
Use consistent fonts and colours while listing down information and never use colours like red in a resume. A typical recommendation would be to use two colours throughout the resume (one for headings and another for the main content).
5. Revisit and Innovate
Last but not least is to review your resume at least for a couple of times and make sure that you have not made any grammatical and formatting errors.
Do not forget to mention your name and contact information in all the pages of your resume preferably at the topmost portion. Never forget to add your LinkedIn profile URL and ensure that your LinkedIn profile is up to date.
Also read: New to LinkedIn? Here are 10 Tips to Help You
Try different ways to display different sections in the resume. For example, usage of bullet points or bubble backgrounds to help your reader save time.
Keep thinking of new innovative words and display methods of each section and try to highlight your key strengths indirectly throughout your resume. If you are required to print a resume, it is recommended to always go for the thick 120 GSM A4 sheet (letterhead material) over the regular 80 GSM A4 sheets.
Endnote:
One common thing you may or may not have noticed in all the above tips is to view your resume as an answer key to the requirements of the employer’s job description.
Never use a resume you used for one job posting again until and unless both job postings have a 100% similarity in their requirements. To keep changing and updating your resume as per the need is the best.
Written by – Arun S
Social