A Resume is your life record, a snapshot of your career to date, and a brief introduction to potential employers. It is an opportunity to showcase your skills, experience, and achievements. However, while the format may be similar, the contents of a resumé are very different from a business plan. A business plan will serve as your blueprint to develop a commercial enterprise, while a resumé is a summary of your professional life to date. The following are some tips on how to write a winning resume.
Treat It Like You’re Writing An Essay
An essay is a form of academic writing in which you develop an argument or opinion and support it with relevant evidence. This is a similar approach when writing your resume. You will be presenting your opinions on key topics (such as job objectives) supported by your relevant experience. Your resume is not an objective examination of your skills; it is a form of marketing, designed to entice potential employers to contact you for an interview.
Make It Short
Your resume should be short and to the point. Aim to keep your resume to one page, and if you need to make a brief second page, do so without any further detail.
The resume format should not be confused with the content within. For example, you may have an enticing fact about a past employer or a new skill you have acquired. However, if your resume is too long, your reader may become frustrated and distracted, undermining your efforts to get the job you want.
Use The Present Tense
When you write your resume, use the present tense to describe your experiences and achievements. For example, rather than saying “I helped found a sports agency,” you could write “I founded a sports agency.” This is more engaging for prospective employers and enables you to showcase your achievements more effectively. You should also consider using the present tense to describe your future aspirations. For example, you could write “I see myself as a future CEO of a leading company.”
Include Relevant Skills
Even if you have been out of school for some time, you should still include your relevant education and training, along with your relevant work experience. This will enable your prospective employers to see your full value, and help them determine if you are suited to the position you wish to obtain. Your education and training may include anything from a professional certification to higher education. For example, if you are applying for a position in marketing, you may want to include your MBA, along with your relevant work experience. Your qualifications will be more relevant to the position you are applying for if they are directly related to the job you are trying to obtain.
Use Keywords In The Headings And The Body
When you write your resume, apply keywords in the headings and in the text itself. Keywords can help potential employers find your resume in a database search, and enable them to determine your relevance to the position you are trying to obtain. For example, if you are applying for a position in marketing and you have a background in graphic design, you might want to include keywords like “marketing,” “graphic design,” and “customer experience.” Consider using the keyword search tools offered by reputable employment websites and job recruiting software to find the perfect job quickly and accurately.
Avoid Plagiarism
It is not a good idea to copy someone else’s work and include it in your resume. Even if you have a legitimate reason for doing so (such as if the work was particularly good), you should still avoid using plagiarism. Plagiarism occurs when you present someone else’s work as your own, without giving proper acknowledgement. In a situation like this, you might want to consider whether or not you should be using copyrighted material at all. If you are using other people’s work, you should always include their names and relevant contact information.
Writing a resume is not easy. It can be a bit of a balancing act between being informative and being engaging. Also, while we would all like to think that our resume is the perfect roadmap to our dreams, it is unlikely that any resume will satisfy everyone’s needs. In the end, you are going to have to choose which resume template you like best, and then craft your perfect job search package to suit your needs. As long as you are confident that your resume is perfect the first time you write it, you can be sure that you will enjoy many successful job search days ahead!