If you are not receiving calls for a job interview, the reason must be a poorly written resume. To get the attention of an employer, your C.V must stand out.
Read this guide if you want to be shortlisted by the employer of your dream job.
If your resume is weak, you won’t receive calls for weeks or even months. Not only this thing will damage your career goals but it will tarnish your self esteem and target your confidence. The people who frequently receive interview calls are the ones who crafted an impressive C.V. And now you will learn this skill too.
How to write a resume step by step
Pick a right CV template
A good template will increase the readability of your CV. Choosing a right template will make your CV standout from hundreds of other submissions.
A proper layout will catch the interest of the HR managers in reading your CV.
There are three common resume formats, chronological, functional and combo. And a lesser known format among fresh graduates is skildemic which emphasizes skills and educational background.
Choose chronological if you have an impressive work experience.
Choose functional if you want to emphasize on your skills rather than on work experience.
Choose a combo if you want to emphasize both, work experience and skills.
Nowadays people use modern looking templates when they apply for tech companies where creativity is highly regarded. These templates are eye-catching because of their creative layout and design aesthetic sense.
Start with your name, contact information and a professional title
The top of the resume must include the following information
Name
Personal Number
Email -Have a professional sounding email for job application.
Your City (Location)
Your professional title is your professional representation. It is a few word description of your professional identity. It is your professional worth. Some people prefer to mention their experience with their title but keep it short and concise. Mentioning experience with your title is a relatively new trend endorsed by the HR experts. It increases the relative importance of a particular candidate.
Write an objective statement
A resume objective must be written by candidates who don’t have any work experience.
Candidates can have an impressive introduction of themselves through the well crafted objective statement. In an objective statement you connect your goals and skills with the job and company you’re applying for. A well written objective statement bridges the gap between you and your employer.
Click on a link for details- How to write a good objective statement for your resume? With examples
Resume summary statement (optional)
Highlighting your skills and experience in few lines or bullet points to magnify your suitability for the job. It is the crux of your C.V and aligns your competencies with the job requirements and expectations.
Mention your impressive achievements especially if it relates to the job description.
Many big companies use automation (ATS) to skim through CVs. CVs that are created while keeping in view the keywords are more likely to survive the machine selection for further correspondence.
People who don’t have much job experience prefer to write strong objective statements instead of a summary statement.
Work-Experience and Educational Background
The two main sections work-experience and educational background are written in reverse chronological order. Maximum number of CVs are formatted in reverse chronology.
- Don’t forget to mention the achievements while writing these sections.
- If you don’t have work experience, highlight your academic background achievements, to emphasize that you are a high achiever.
Pro Tip: If you don’t have work experience and your educational grades are not that impressive, focus on highlighting your hard and soft skills. Mention any training and software learnings to make your C.V impressive.
No experience? Average academic background? Highlight your proficiency in hard skills that are directly required to perform a job…
Jobs where experience is not required, HR managers give huge weightage to good academic background and achievements during study life.
Pro Tip: If you are applying for a strategic management position and if your thesis topic belongs to strategic management, then mention your work inside the education section. Any project relevant to your job role has an added value for an employer.
Being an ideal candidate is a subjective opinion that doesn’t have any end. The more you appear suitable, the more your chances of selection increases.
WORK EXPERIENCE
Your experience section of your resume can act as your strength where experience is preferred.
It’s preferred to highlight your job responsibilities and don’t forget to mention your competencies and accomplishments. The job experience area is your opportunity to demonstrate to the hiring managers how you have provided value to the organization and how important you were for the previous firm.
Each of your experiences must include your company name and location, job title, job timespan. Your previous company reputation and your job role is significantly important for the HR professionals.
A good crafted experience section will increase your chances of selection.
Write Soft and Hard skills
Carefully mention Skills that are tailored to the specific job you are applying for. Because of the applicant tracking system the keywords used in your resume are highly important for your resume to get noticed.
Carefully read an ad and pick up the most important skills for the job you are applying for. Then add those skills to your skills section of the C.V. The more the relevancy of your skills to the job, the more ideal you become for your favorite employers.
Awards And Honors
If you think you have remarkable achievements to mention in your resume, you can create a heading of Awards and honors. Outstanding workplace performance and academic distinctions will be the part of this section.
Other sections
Other sections to include in a CV are Publications, Languages, Hobbies. These sections come at the end but they can have a huge impact on your personality. In the world of intense competition, sometimes employers have to choose employees based on the overall impact of their CV as many candidates have good experience and A+ educational background.
LANGUAGES
Employee knowing more languages is always preferable. For example, a civil engineer knowing the local/native language is preferable because he has to communicate with labor for construction work.
Even if not directly related to the job, being multilingual is a plus.
PUBLICATIONS
Publications are very important if you are applying for a researcher position. Publications are the backbone for some higher teaching positions. Any professional certifications can add credibility to your CV specially if your job requires technical skills or some job specific learning. If you have learned software that is relevant to your job role, then you already stand out from your competitors. Software learning plays a huge role in recruitment of tech companies.
HOBBIES
When it comes to hobbies candidates even edit their hobbies to make themselves prominent in the eyes of the employer. For example, when someone applies for a hotel marketing position, mentioning event organizing as your interest or hobby is a sign of your compatibility for the position. Having an interest or hobby of writing is a good option when someone applies for a research position. Hobbies and interest section improves your image in the eyes of the hiring authority.
General Tip: Proofread your resume. Any grammatical mistakes could overshadow your otherwise strong professional background.