8 Easy Ways to Write a Successful Resume

Are you worried that your existing resume is not good enough for your probable recruiters? Well, it’s a well-known fact that an attractive resume can open doors to a wealth of opportunities. A resume that’s been written and fashioned proficiently is enough to brand yourself and sell your biggest accomplishments and strengths. Not to mention the ability of a nicely-crafted resume to get hold of a job interview.

Even before you reach the office of your employee, your resume settles on his desk. Hence, working on your resume is inevitable. A resume proves that you are just the one that your employer’s been looking for.

One who’s looking for a job should be careful about beautifying their resumes to make it stand out from the crowd. If you don’t have a resume, you won’t even have a possibility of success in landing a great job. Through a well-written resume, you get to sell your skills that would otherwise go unnoticed on a boring resume. Having said that, do not make that resume too fancy and full of jargons. That’s a big turn off and this goes without saying.

Scroll down to find the easiest and best ways to write a successful resume.

Work on the Basics

A resume that’s not to the point can be a red flag that every applicant needs to heed. For any resume to engage the attention of the recruiter, the basics or the top part of it should be crafted well. This includes your name, contact number, your online presence starting from links to your website or LinkedIn profile to your social media profiles and your email address. Always make sure that you add a professional address on your resume. An email id like “princess@rediffmail.com” is a big no-no.

This part of the resume should have an objective that summarises your experience, skills and training in maximum 2-3 lines. Ensure that it is as crisp as possible.

Attune it According to Job Descriptions

It’s highly possible that your recruiter would lose interest in your resume if the job description asks for excellent communication skills and it’s nowhere mentioned in your resume. Make certain that you add keywords you find in the job description because your hiring managers might just be filtering resumes on the basis of that.
By customising it according to the job description, you are indirectly or directly telling the employer that you are the best fit for the job role.

Emphasise on Your Work Experience

Whether your entire resume does the magic or not, your work experience sure could if put down in an apt manner. Your professional experience should be in reverse chronological order, starting from the latest job.

For every role, write down the below-mentioned information:

• Company Name
• Start and End Dates: Write “present” if you are still working there.
• Job Title
• Job Description/Responsibilities
• Achievements

Keep a note that, while you work on this, don’t make it too lengthy and add information that’s not really going to benefit you in getting the interview.

Mention Technical Skills

When dealing with this part, list down the hard skills that are mostly computer-centric, scientific or mathematical. This would again depend on the kind of job you are applying for - if it’s an IT sector job, then, of course, you need to add all the domains you know to work on.

Having said that, a novice or a fresher would not be expected to have anything more than hands-on experience in working with Microsoft Office. This segment should be aptly highlighted to show impact.

Be mindful to never copy and paste. They are certainly looking for experiences that are authentic.

List Soft Skills

It’s always great to hire someone who has a good mix of hard and soft skills. Your hard skills might catch someone’s eye, but your soft skills would make a difference.

Soft skills are nothing but your innate talents that help you deal with everyday tasks at work and assist you in performing your duties well. Although a lot of them might not be the type that can be added in your resume, one can add the ones that could show you would be loyal and valuable resource to the company and your department.

Try and Stand Out

The job market is tough and hence, standing out is the only way to make it through. To achieve the same, you need to get into the heads of your prospective employers and think of it as a marketing tool. Take a good look at your job listings, discover all the relevant keywords and utilise them in your resume.

Proofread

Believe it or not, that’s the most fundamental thing that you need to do to land an interview. You would not want your recruiter to be impressed by your hard skills but instantly disappointed to find incorrect spellings and errors. Be it any role, your resume is going to count and the first thing they’ll see to gauge your communication skills. You would certainly not want to ruin your first impression by putting in typos and errors in your resume.

Miscellaneous

Besides all the above-mentioned ways to write a good resume, there are certain points that many tend to forget or ignore:

• Make use of caps, bolds, italics
• Make it legible
• Add only recent jobs that go no later than 10-15 years
• Divide the resume into subheadings like experience, education, skills, etc
• Use a professionally designed template
• Give a professional name to the file
• Don’t use jargons and cut the clutter

Candidates with no prior work experience should emphasise more on their achievements at college. Lastly, go through the resume after it’s all done and you are good to go. Before you know, you would find yourself the job that you have been yearning for.