Making your resume stand out in today’s crowded job market is a challenge. Your resume is all important as it will get you through the front door for an interview or it will be placed on the pile ready for the reject letter.
We all want an impressive resume during a job search. One that generates buzz and makes you stand out from the crowd of other candidates who are applying for the same job. There are several ways to accomplish this based on your particular situation.
Tailor your resume to the job
“Tune your resume to this specific role, with substantiating detail that shows why you are a great fit for the position,” says Laura Smith-Proulx, a certified executive resume writer and LinkedIn profile expert.
One way to do this is by including all of your skills and experience are relevant to the job you’re applying for. Hiring managers have specific ideas about what skills and experiences candidates need to do well and your resume should mirror the description they’ve included in their listings or ads.
In a pile of bland candidates, the most captivating resume is the one that seems to match all of their requirements, including necessary technical skills, work experiences, and degrees, certifications, or licenses. If your previous work experience is not relevant to the job description, you will need to get creative and frame your current skill set as being transferable into the new role.
Include A Profile
At the top of your resume, you can include a “Profile” which makes your resume stand out from the crowd. This can be tailored easily for each job to which you are applying, and is a good spot for emphasising your keywords. The profile should include your key strengths, abilities and experience, relevant to the job to which you are applying, in just four lines. It should be concise, pertinent and to the point. It might include sentences such as: Multi-skilled project manager with 10 years of experience leading complex technical projects or versatile administrator with extensive experience of MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
The profile should market you as being the ideal person that a potential employer is looking to hire for a particular role.
Advertisement for Yourself
Professionals agree that each individual needs a personal brand, and If you’re going to have a brand, you need to advertise it. Create a one page highlight of what you could do if hired, just like any ad, use well thought-out tag lines that quickly get the recruiter’s attention. Post the ad everywhere your future employer may be looking, hand them out at industry conferences, and mail them directly to the hiring manager at perspective companies.
Show initiative because it can certainly shift the recruitment in your favour.
Design
Part of showing your personality is adding your personal flavour to your resume. By creating a design that you like, add an interesting cover page and relevant images. Think about making your resume a work of art, try adding info-graphics setting out your skills and abilities in picture form.
A well designed resume will stand out and if it is logically illustrated it will impress, because the way you present information is crucial. Make an effort to think visually, for instance if you want to present your acquisition of skills and experience consider creating a timeline. Use images, text and even video to take the reader on a journey as these components will help create a stand-out resume.
Aim at being engaging and ensuring you capture their attention.
Be Passionate About The Business
One of the best ways to attract the attention of prospective employers is to show them that you not only know a lot about their company, but that you are passionate about what they do. Be creative, do your research, talk to current employees and If you represent your knowledge of the business in an engaging way it will show you have a passion for what they do. Show your dedication to the company in your resume and you are definitely one step ahead of your competition.
Your resume is your first impression with prospective employers, you need to make it count.