A resumé is a very crucial document. Those one or two pages (it really shouldn’t be longer than that) need to sum up your entire professional life as briefly yet relevantly as possible. It’s this one document based on which a potential employer can decide to interview or even hire you.
So what could you do to ensure your resumé is the best portrayal of your professional self?
1. Update / Modify your Resume Regularly
Regularly update your resume. Once-a-year is a given, but if your scope of work has changed or if you have handled any new projects worth mentioning, update your resumé instantly. Add new roles, responsibilities, tasks, etc chronologically – the best of us forget to mention some of the most important assignments we’ve worked on.
2. Designation and Education
One of the first things an employer would want to look at is your current designation and education. The designation usually helps someone understand your present scope of work and gives a clear indication of salary and responsibility. Try to list down your past-to-present designations chronologically in the beginning of the resume. Do the same to summarise your education. Write down your degrees, institutes/universities and graduation dates. Always remember, the most recent details go right on top.
For example:
Work History:
2011-12: Manager, Digital Sales – The Red Studio
2010-11: Assistant Manager, Sales and Marketing – The Times of India
Education:
June 2007: M.Com, XXX University
June 2006: B.Com, Pune University
3. Careful with the Job Descriptions
It is important to be able to summarise the responsibilities of each job you have held - clearly and briefly. A few lines describing what you did, your major challenges and tasks would be useful to the recruiter/ employer. Write fewer lines for older jobs but slightly longer lines for the last two jobs you’ve had. You could even add a Highlights, summing up any key achievement or client in one sentence.
4. Concise is Best
When sifting through numerous resumés, recruiters may not be able to or want to pay attention to lengthy profiles. The best bet is to have an informative yet concise one. Start by writing down everything you want to include in your resumé. Then use bullet points to present the information.
According to Nithya David, Proprietor of Upstream - Human Resource Solutions – “While re-writing your resumé you need to keep in mind that your first paragraph should capture your entire career. The trick is to make it short at the same time effective. Also, it’s always better to redo your resumé for a specific job profile, most of the time people use the same resumé for every opportunity...”
5. Use The Right Keywords
Ask yourself, “what do I want my employer to see me as”? A leader? Manager? Team player? Maybe a combination of these?
Based on this, it’s easier to jot down the most relevant keywords that can portray what you’d like to present yourself as. If you want to head the Digital Team in an advertising agency, play around with words like Digital Manager, Responsibility, Creativity and so on. The right keywords would also help your resumé be picked up quicker in search results on recruitment sites.
6. Include Links
The best thing in today’s digital world is share-ability and readability. You can use the advantage of a simple link to portray who you are and what you can do best for the company. Share your LinkedIn profile’s link on your resumé as a start.
7. References
Always list 2 to 3 people as references. Make sure this includes at least one person you were reporting to, one team member who was at the same level as you, and one person who was reporting to you. If you were in a client-servicing position earlier or dealt with any third parties or vendors, provide a reference. Even if your prospective employer or interviewer doesn’t contact them, it leaves them with a feeling of confidence that you have had healthy working relationships with people across various levels. It will also make you ensure that you work as an effective team leader and colleague.
So what’re you waiting for? Put our tips to use, get to work on that resumé and land that job you’ve been waiting for.
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