Stand Out and Get Hired: Insider Tips for Creating an Irresistible Resume
Your resume is still one of the most important tools any professional has when it comes to applying for a new role. While today’s employers and recruiters spend time qualifying candidates with online searches and social media research, the resume remains your best ticket to the next stage.
Written well and used correctly, this simple document provides a perfect insight into everything that makes you suitable for a given role, from your personality and experience to your education. However, while resumes have been around since the age of Leonardo Da Vinci, countless professionals still can’t create one that stands out.
Today, we will be looking at the steps you can use to improve your chances of creating a resume that’s compelling and eye-catching but ready to win you the ideal role.
Step 1: Start Strong
The average recruiter or employer will spend less than ten seconds scanning through the information on a CV/Resume before deciding whether to consider someone for a role. This means you must get to the point and grab your reader’s attention as quickly as possible.
Start with a strong opening in the form of your personal statement. Don’t just talk about your hobbies or what you like to do in your free time. Use your personal statement to summarise what makes you ideal for the role you’re applying for.
Look at the job description for your chosen role and tailor your opening statement to the key things your would-be employer is looking for. Outline who you are, what you offer, and why you’re perfectly suited to the role.
Remember, your statement should be short, sweet, and concise. If you’re unsure whether you are including too much information, ask your recruitment consultant for advice.
Step 2: Tailor your Resume to the Role
One of the biggest mistakes candidates make is using the same resume for every role they apply for. While your educational background and experiences might be similar on most of the documents you create, it’s always worth taking the extra step to tailor your resume to the exact job/role/position you’re applying for.
Describe exactly what you will bring to the table for each specific role. Highlight your experience and any background knowledge from working in similar positions. Remove any experience or education points that might not be relevant to your desired role.
If relevant, it might even be worth mentioning in your summary section why you specifically want to work with this company or business. Talk about what draws you to the position. If there’s not enough space to do this on your resume, you can use your cover letter instead.
Step 3: Leverage the Right Structure
Remember, most recruiters and employers spend a lot of time scanning through resumes rather than reading them in-depth. Some even use A.T.S. technology to help filter through large numbers of applications. With this in mind, it’s important to ensure you’re getting the structure of your resume right. Start with your personal details and summary using the advice we have shared.
Follow on with a description of your work experience, focusing only on the positions relevant to the role you’re applying for. For your work experience SECTION, follow the “STAR” format: Situation, Task, Action, and Result to highlight what you accomplished in previous positions. If you can include statistics and facts, this will help to make your resume more credible.
After your work experience, include a list of your achievements. Using the STAR format, explain exactly what you’ve accomplished in your career that makes you a great fit for the position. Finish the resume with an education SECTION, listing only the credentials you’ve achieved that are the most recent and relevant to the role.
Step 4: Optimize Your Resume
Once you’ve created the basic structure of your resume with the steps above, the next step is ensuring it’s properly optimized. You can start by using crucial keywords in relevant places. Keywords are useful in a resume because they highlight your understanding of the job description and role.
To determine which keywords you should include, talk to your recruitment consultant and examine the job description carefully, and look for key terms used throughout.
Another way to optimize your resume is to build in facts and statistics in your accomplishments section, which is an excellent way to boost your credibility.
It’s also worth considering using a cover letter so you have a little more space to talk about your experience in your industry and what attracts you to the role on offer.
Step 5: Don’t Overlook the Basics
Even the best resume can instantly become less appealing with a few simple mistakes. Before you send any resume to a company, it’s important to proofread the document and remove anything that might damage your chances of getting your role.
Double-check:
- The clarity: Two pages is the maximum length for a resume in most industries.
- The layout: Does your resume follow a structure that makes sense? Is it easy to navigate through each section, and is everything clean and easy to read?
- Relevance: Do you include all the right information and omit anything irrelevant to your target recruiter or employer?
- Details: Have you included the essential details, such as your contact information, your name, and anything else your recruiter might need to know?
- Mistakes: Proofread your resume a couple of times to ensure that you haven’t made any grammatical or spelling errors that could harm your reputation.
Make Sure Your Resume Works for You
The steps above will help you create a resume that appeals to your employer and boosts your chances of success. However, if you need extra help, it’s always worth speaking to a recruitment company. They can often provide resources and guidance to help you transform your resume and overall personal brand and presence.
At Professional Recruiters we are dedicated to filling the increasing need for quality recruiting services and we want to help you. At Professional Recruiters, we have been helping firms with their talent acquisition and job seekers find their ideal roles for over 46 years. We have placed thousands of candidates; if you want to find out how we can help, contact us now.