Careers

How to write an impressive resume for job hunting success

Posted on | April 18, 2015 | No Comments

Resume writing for first jobA well-written resume is your ticket or launchpad to a successful career. A comprehensive resume will greatly increase your chances of landing a good job as you can market your skills, strengths and academic qualifications to your prospective employers. Writing your first resume might be easier said than done as you may not have much to write about to impress would-be employers. Often recruiters flip through CVs during their leisure hours and to attract their attention your resume should stand out amongst the heaps of applications that the employers get every day.

Imagine your selectors as a finicky child at his meal hour. To make your CV interesting, break it down to separate paragraphs and give it a clean lay out with just the essential information that may be of interest to the employer. Once you do this, you have a greater scope of getting a call for the interview.

Here are some handy tips to put together a resume that your employer may find engaging.

Personal details
A resume should include your name, address, age, telephone number and email

Education and qualifications
First impression is indeed the first impression– and sometimes, the best impression. Employers may spend less than 45 seconds to rate a resume. So make sure to put all the essential details like your degree, subjects covered and university and plus A levels, GCSEs and other relevant details in a concise manner.

Interests and achievements
Make sure to list out your interests and social activities briefly and highlight your hands-on experience in community causes, charity events etc, which will give a positive impression about your personality. Avoid solitary hobbies wherever possible as employers will be more interested in the people skills of the candidates. Remember to highlight hobbies that could be relevant for the job that you have applied for. For instance, an interest in current affairs will surely be a big plus if you are applying for the post of a journalist. If you have any hobbies that are unique, such as mountaineering or sky diving, it will have a greater impact on your profile as it shows your willingness to challenge your limits and to handle difficult situations.


How to start writing a resume
Writing an ideal resume does not involve any hard and fast rules as it can be written in your own unique style. However, make sure that the resume you write is matching to the position you apply. It is not a good idea to send the same resume to all the job openings that you come across. Take your time to delve deeper into each job posting to see whether you have the attributes to be the ideal candidate. It will certainly give you a better chance in getting selected.

Specify your careers and personal strengths
The highlight of your resume should be your career goals and personal strengths as it precisely gives the employers a clear idea about the goals and aspirations of the prospective candidates. Give a detailed description of the colleges and the courses attended and your scores. If you have attended any internship programs it can be highlighted along with specific information of the nature of job handled. Hands-on experience will surely be the trump card in any job market, which will give you a distinct edge over the rest of the applicants.

Highlight your Skills
As you are applying for your first job your resume will be rated solely based on your skills and leadership qualities while in college or school as you have no past employment experience to support your candidature. Make sure that your resume reflects on all your leadership qualities and skills that your employers will be interested to know. You can list out all your awards, skills, volunteer projects or leadership roles in community or university organizations, extra- curricular activities, professional certifications, language courses and the like.

Proof read
Resumes with “typos” will leave a bad impression about you. So make sure that your resume is clean and free of careless errors such as missing sentences and grammatical mistakes. You can even use an online resume check to spot out any errors before submitting it.

Once you have put together an attractive resume, half your job is done in getting into your first job. Send the resume with a brief and well-written covering note. Interview calls shouldn’t be too far away!


The CareerXChange Editorial Team

Category: Career Tips

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