Want Job Alerts? Join UsTop 5 Tips to Make Your Resume Professional
Landing a job interview is not an easy task. As soon as a job advert for your dream job is put up, lots of people act to grab the chance. But how do you stand out from all the other applicants? One of the most suitable ways is having a professional resume for your application. An excellently written resume will not only grant you an interview, but it may also be your gateway into landing that job you wish for.
Here, we highlight top-notch tips that will catch the eye of an employer for the chance you seek.
Choose a suitable format to use and resume introduction
As you embark on writing your resume, you need to decide what format you are going to use. A professional resume requires cohesion. Depending on your personal circumstances, you may use the formats; chronological, functional, or combination. Make sure that you use a legible font and remain consistent in your formatting style.
Having a resume introduction is important. A killer resume introduction works to convince an employer to keep reading your application. You can tag it as; resume objective, resume profile, resume summary, or resume personal statement. Resume summary or resume objectives are the most recommended.
Detail your Contact Information
In your resume, you will need to include your name and contact information. This helps the concerned parties know how they can reach you in case of anything. Details should include;
- Your name. Type the name using the largest font compared to the rest of your contact information. Stating your middle name is optional.
- A valid and appropriate email address.
- A functional telephone or cell phone number.
- An optional link to your online portfolio. This one is suitable especially for creative jobs.
- An up-to-date and summarized LinkedIn profile.
- It is optional to give a mailing address.
Have an education section
This is an essential component of a resume especially for recent college graduates or those with very minimal work experience. If you have no work experience but had an excellent school track record, honors, excellent grades, club participation(s), or any others, highlight them. If you have various years of professional experience, then it is important that you keep this section short and to the detail.
Highlight the institutions attended, their location, graduation month and year, scholarships, and academic qualifications (degree, diploma, and so forth). GPAs should only be included for college graduate resumes. If you are a recent graduate, then you can include the relevant coursework.
Highlight your professional or work experience
This is an important part of your resume since it best represents your qualifications. Have a “Relevant Professional Experience” section. If you do not have any previous professional experience, then you can highlight details of any volunteer work done, relevant schoolwork, or extracurricular activities.
You need to fill in this section with the most recent experience being at the top and the least recent at the bottom. For each of the job, highlight your title, the company’s name and location (city or state), and the period of employment (month and year). If you still work at a particular company indicate “present” as the period. For the duties performed, use action verbs and have three to five bullet points for each job.
Highlight your relevant skills
Hiring professionals are on the lookout for candidates that possess pertinent and job-specific skills. Your resume should include the skills and attributes that are relevant for the position you are applying for. Even though listing the skills may not necessarily confirm that you are skilled, it grabs the attention of the one vetting the application. Leave out anything that is not relevant for the resume to be precise. You should be ready for your skills to be assessed and sine practice makes perfect, you can start getting ready for assessment weeks ahead of the interview.
Include your technical, soft, and hard skills. Hard skills are gained from education, training programs, and hands-on job experience, while soft skills are traits that determine your interactions with others and how you actually work. Technical skills are based on system(s) expertise like machinery operation, software operation, programming languages and so on. Highlight skills using consistent bullet points.
Conclusion
An excellently written professional resume is what will get you soaring to greater heights. Use the tips highlighted here to beat your opponents. You will not go wrong.