The first step to landing your next job is writing a tight resume with all the relevant components to impress upon the HR departments of prospective employers. While crafting a good resume has always been a skilled art, it has become even more of a challenge these days with the emergence of software bots that filter out many resumes before they are ever viewed by a pair of human eyes.
In this post, we aim to give you some insider tips to help you bag an interview for that job that you really want. Read on to find out more!
- Check Out Successful Examples
The first place to start when putting together a winning resume is to search for examples that have been successful in landing candidates an interview. You should aim to find resumes which fit the sector for which you are applying. For example, the resume of a graphic designer will naturally look to give off a different impression to that of an accountant.
- Find an Attractive Template
If your resume does not look the part, it is unlikely to attract the attention of a busy recruitment manager tasked with sifting through scores of resumes. To make it stand out, you should use one of the many good-looking templates that come as standard with word processing programs like Microsoft Word.
- Keywords
As mentioned before, most HR recruitment processes used in major companies today use software to eliminate “unsuitable” resumes before they are checked by a recruitment manager. If you feel that you have the requisite skills, experience and qualifications for the jobs that you are applying for, but you are not receiving replies, you may want to start adding keywords into your resume to improve the chances that it will get past the bots. The keywords that you choose should be taken from the skills and abilities section stated in the job description.
- Add Numbers
There is nothing more impressive to an HR manager than a resume with a wealth of accomplishments. One way to qualify the accomplishment on your CV is to use numbers as “proof”. If you have increased sales by a certain amount in a year, do not hesitate to give exact the percentage.
e.g. In 2020, my team and I increased sales by 67%.
- Use a Good Font and Keep It Short
Use a simple and attractive font – a recruitment manager will thank you for it as they read through the stack of resumes on their desk. In addition, make sure to keep your resume a maximum of two pages. Recruitment managers spend an average of 30 seconds reviewing each resume so additional pages will not be read anyway.
Writing a good resume need not be a chore. You do not need to reinvent the wheel to get the attention of a recruitment manager – follow conventions and borrow ideas from successful examples of resumes and you should hopefully land that sought-after interview sooner rather than later!
