The talent war is heating up. Everyone is looking for a new & better job opportunity.
As the search algorithms become more complex and more skill-driven, how can you make your resume shine and stand out in this competitive market?
Here are some tips that can help your resume outshine other resumes and help you get a better chance at landing your dream job.
- Customise Your Resume
Generic resumes are a big no. Companies want to look at what industry/ job specific skills or competencies you have to succeed in the job.
Tailor your resume to the field or the industry you are applying for. By customising your resume to the job specifications/skills, you immediately highlight that you are qualified for the job.
To create a tailored resume, you will have to start with doing some background research about the job requirements. Study the job requirements from the jobs posted online. Look for related skills and qualities that are sought by companies. This will help you highlight your skills, competencies and achievements making your resume a powerful one.
- Keep it Short & Crisp
Hiring managers receive about 250 resumes on an average for a corporate job opening. Out of which only 4-6 candidates are shortlisted for interview.
Keep this in mind while creating your resume. Recruiters don’t want to see the laundry list of all your KRAs. What they are interested in is your relevant work experience, skills, achievements and education (some companies are not very particular about education too).
List only those job responsibilities that are relevant to the job you are applying for. Provide details of the work experience that is pertinent with the position you are interested in. Highlight your achievements and if possible, provide numbers, statistics and percentages.
Add a very short summary, that provides a snapshot of your unique skills and capabilities. You should be able to customise this for the position that you are applying for offering solid reason to consider you for the role.
Keep the length of your resume to a max of 2 pages. Anything beyond that is a waste of your time as well as the time of the hiring manager.
- Provide Quantifiable Achievements
Rather than saying you overachieved your targets, presenting your accomplishments using numbers gives the recruiters a better picture. It not only highlights your accomplishments, but it also reflects on your result oriented and focused attitude.
Provide statistics, percentages and numbers wherever possible. A study shows that candidates who used numbers in their resumes saw a 40% boost over the competition.
- Use Job Specific Keywords
Most companies today use ATS (Application Tracking System) to streamline the recruitment process. These ATS tools collect, sift and sort thousands of resumes based on the keywords to determine the best fit candidates.
Using job specific keywords helps increase your chances of getting through to the interview. List down keywords for skills, strengths, qualities based on the job description/specification for the said role. For eg. if you are applying for a digital marketing role, using keywords like SEO, SEM, Content marketing, will provide your resume a better chance to get selected.
Use .doc, .docx format as opposed to .pdf format to allow easy scanning.
- Highlight Your Soft Skills
Pandemic has shifted the spotlight on soft skills that are needed for anyone to perform better and succeed in remote/hybrid work environment. Emotional quotient is not a good to have skill anymore. Recruiters are looking for candidates who are good at collaboration, good listeners and have a high emotional quotient. Adaptability is another important skill that employers are looking for post pandemic.
Highlight your skills with solid examples where you can. For eg. How did you adapt and take important decisions during the pandemic? Or any new skill that you picked up during the work from home routine?
- Focus on Latest Technical Skills
There are many resume builders available online to help you create a resume that is in line with the latest trends and far more structured.
As a good practice, take time out to update your resume once a year to add new skills and remove outdated information from your resume.
Always proofread your resume before submitting it. Check for spelling and grammar errors. Update your contact details.
Creating an effective resume that helps you get closer to your dream job is worth all the time and effort.
Use these tips and get working towards creating your powerful resume.
