Professional resume writers are trained professionals who use the recruiter or employer mindset to craft resumes. If you want to create resumes that have an impact like theirs, you too have to develop that mindset. This is no easy feat as many people who have attempted attest. It’s a laborious process that often intimidates and could delay the writing process for a while.
For most candidates, getting resumes right is a challenge. First, job candidates spend so much time on the resumes that they end up losing out on their objectivity. The other challenge that hinders their ability is them sticking to their experiences for too long. The candidates are practically unable to state what their clear skills are for a given job vacancy-rather, they dwell on explaining useless daily tasks no is looking for. As such, if you want progress in your career as far as work applications go, you have to think like the employer. Here are some of the basics:
1. Clearly show what you do
The best way to showcase this is by determining the top 5 skills the employer is looking for in the perfect candidate. The thesis or purpose of your resume will be to leverage yourself as far as these skills go. For instance, if it’s a sales job; quota achievement, prospecting and closing techniques are the skills you would want to leverage. Once you have determined what the employer wants, don’t sway away.
2. Remove what’s irrelevant
Hiring managers have no time to go through resumes. To make up their minds, they choose who to interview in an instant-a few seconds. They rarely read a resume in full. The more useless information there is in the resume, the less likely the hiring managers will want to interview you. The secret to hacking this is having the resume have information that is relevant to the matters at hand. The only way to do this is by doing away with all the information that is considered useless. The less irrelevant material there is on the resume, the closer you get to the interview. Don’t include information that doesn’t offer much to the employer.
3. Market yourself
Many candidates don’t make an effort to market themselves to potential employers. In the end, they sell themselves short of their worth and this is detrimental to their progress. Every skill you add to the resume let it resoundingly sell you to the employer.
To do this, need to package every skill, experience or academic qualification as something the employer wants and is looking for. In a nutshell, packaging yourself in a ‘this is what I have achieved thus far and am going to do this for you’ kind of way is the best strategy.
According to most resume experts, most candidates are resumes have nothing to sell. They don’t have an impact on the reader and the effects of this could be catastrophic. To say the least, selling your skills is packaging them and then giving them need or relevance to the organization you want to work for.
4. Look out for common mistakes
All resumes have common mistakes some of which are annoying. Avoidable ones like spelling, grammar, alignment, typos and punctuation are inexcusable. What is saddening is that, most employers dumb good resumes because of them. As a job candidate, to avoid presenting yourself lackluster, you need to get rid of such mistakes. To create a resume like a professional, first get the above right and then proofread thoroughly to get rid of the simple, yet costly mistakes.
Katleen Olson is a graduate student at Williams College where she is majoring in history. She also works as a college essay writer at a professional writing service.
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My name is Marie Benton from Southeast Missouri State University. I found your article informative and the topics you covered are ones that are professors teach us, especially when it comes to the common mistakes. I do have one question though. You talk about marketing yourself to your future employer. What techniques would you recommended to market yourself and where in your resume is the best place that employers will look for that? Thank you.
Marie: Your resume is your main maketing tool, so be sure to incorporate specific examples of accomplishments for each position you’ve held. Don’t just list job responsibilities. Second, you need to make sure you get your resume into the hands of hiring managers by doing some homework to determine who is who within companies where you are applying.
My name is Jessica Seyller and I’m a senior at Southeast Missouri State. I found this post really helpful because I’m currently working on updating my resume (graduate in May!) I’ve stepped up my game over the past year and gained more internship and volunteer experience that is relevant to the field I want to work in. I’ve narrowed it down some, but what would you recommend doing if I have too much relevant experience I want to show a future employer?
Jessica: You sound like a rare situation–a student with “too much” relevant experience. This is a good thing. At this stage of your career, include all relevant internship and volunteer experiences on your resume. Prioritize those that are more current, giving them more space, while consolidating others in short bullet points.