The job market can be really competitive, recruiters read more than 50 resumes every day. This naturally means you need your resume to stand out content-wise.
Directly from our HR’s department experience, here are 5 ways to boost your resume and make it stand out.
Pay attention to your goal statement
Many candidates don’t give much thought to this part of their resume – the first sentence after your name, where you write a summary or a goal. A very common phrasing is “I am looking for a job in …”. Our advice is to change the focus of this statement from what you are looking for/what you want, to what you would offer to the company.
Keep it simple
This seems like a common sense advice, but we found a lot of examples of resumes that include EVERYTHING. While this in itself isn’t bad, recruiters don’t have time to read long resumes and you have a better chance if you keep it short and to the point. Write short sentences, skip the skills and experience that are not relevant for the job you are applying to and delete any information that is not useful. Another good tip is to list your experience and education starting with the present and going back to the past.
Last but just as important, make sure your resume is readable – pay attention to the font and paragraph spacing.
Focus on transferable skills
This goes hand in hand with the previous advice and it’s quite simple: Make sure you add any skills from previous works experiences that are transferable. E.g. team work, time management etc.
Talk a bit about your hobbies
This part might be a little tricky because you can be tempted to write down all your hobbies like karate-chopping and cooking. While such a list might be a nice distraction for the recruiter it won’t necessary convince them you are a good candidate. Our recommendation would be to include only the hobbies that are relevant for the job or those that show off useful soft skills
Answer the company’s needs
Again, this should be something obvious but we don’t see it in many resumes. Read carefully the job’s description and, if possible, find out as much as you can about the company. Look at the keywords in the job description and see how you can make your experience and skillset as relatable as possible to our work need and corporate culture. Our prime goal is to find a candidate that addresses our needs, which is a good fit for a specific role.
In a nutshell, customize your resume for every job you are applying to. Your dream job is out there, waiting for you!