Top Five Tips to Give Your Resume the Much-Needed Boost

Resume is a marketing tool, which showcases the skills of a professional to the prospective employers. This is perhaps a decisive step in the pursuit of getting a job, so it should be fool-proof. There are a number of aspects that play an important role in boosting your resume, however customizing that to a specific job is the key. Let's see what all factors contribute in creating a successful resume.

Top Five Tips from the HR managers

The most repeated question to a HR manager is what they look for on a resume, which comes to their inbox? In 2008, many HR managers across United States have been interviewed by E-Mail to find some tips to creating a successful resume. The common answer to that cliché question is to keep the resume and covering letter customized according to the company and the Industry.

1. Customizing the Resume

In simple words, if you are looking for a job in the manufacturing, try to avoid the credentials of IT industry and vice versa. The common practice that we could see across the globe is creating one generic resume for the jobs across all the industries. This is fatal, when it comes to boosting your resume. Customize the resume as per your requirements.

2. Focus on Resume Objective

These are the commons things, which the candidate should give emphasis on.

* Give emphasis on background and skill
* Do not clutter the resume with 'too much' information
* Keep it short
* Be clear of the Job description and use resume writing tips to alter the resume accordingly.

3. Small Changes Can Make Big Difference

Let's take an example of a job opening for a copy writer for a text book publishing company. As the primary step, the job seeker should thoroughly go through the company's website and learn more about their way of doing business, products and more importantly about the job profile. The next step, which the job seeker should do, is to create a resume that emphasis on his/her accomplishments, skills sets and experience pertaining to the job profile. The resume should always be send along with a customized and well written Cover letter. While writing a resume one must encompass all the excitement and enthusiasm of the self, so as to entice the employer when they flip through it.

4. Give Emphasis on Your Accomplishments

If you are applying for the post of a Sales Professional, nothing else matters than the number of sales you have closed in your previous job. As sales rely more on numbers, it is important to have a good sales record to present in your resume. Show all your achievements on your résumé, even if you think some might not hold any value. In some case you will make the cut if you have won accolades for some thing like 'good presentation' and you are applying for a position which needs to have good presentation skills.

5. Inject Some Vigor in Your Writing

Routine resumes can take you nowhere. To add certain vigor to your Curriculum Vitae you can take the help of some resume software or even a professional resume writer for creating a successful resume.

Finally, the main focus should be on making your resume outstanding so as to make others believe in your capabilities.

The Three C’s of creating a resume

Irrespective of the job that you are looking for, you need to follow the three principles or three C’s of resume writing to get a good feedback. The three C’s refer to Clarity, Coherence and Confidence – the main ingredients of a great resume.

Clarity

Having clarity of all the aspects to be contained in a resume is very important. You must have a well stated and obvious objective. Also, you must include all the necessary information pertaining to your educational background and employment history. Everything that is required for the job should be visible. If you can present an easily readable resume, you stand greater chances of being considered for the position.

Coherence

You always write a resume with a purpose. Therefore, you must provide all the relevant information to get noticed. For instance, if you are now applying for the post of an executive, you need not mention what you’ve done in your college days or when you were struggling. Maintain coherence. Giving irrelevant information would bore the readers and they might not even notice what you’ve mentioned in the later part of your resume. Be professional and highlight your objective.

Confidence

Your resume should reveal confidence. Employers prefer those candidates, who are confident about their skills and abilities, and therefore it is extremely important to utilize the correct words and phrases to demonstrate your level of confidence in writing your resume. Nonetheless, you must be clear about the subtle difference between confidence and overconfidence. Confidence seems good but overconfidence is taken as arrogance. Avoid being excessively foregoing in explaining your capabilities and proficiency. Sentences that begin with “I am confident…” or “I am capable…” sounds better than something like “I am the only one…” These fine lines must be taken into account while applying for a job.

In a nutshell, you ought to be clear, coherent as well as confident in your approach, but within your limits. Your resume should be professional and very well written to match the expectation of the position that you wish to see yourself in.

Electronically Submitting Your Resume

In order for those large job sites like monster.com and hotjobs.com to work in your favor, you are going to have to submit a personal profile and a copy of your resume. If the website that you are using to find a job doesn't have a ‘fill in the blank’ template for your resume, you should be able to upload your resume as a Microsoft Word document.

In addition to having to figure out how to upload your resume to a job hunting website, you should also learn how to email a copy of your resume. It is not at all unusual for an employer to ask for another copy of your resume (they want to see if anything has changed since you first uploaded your original resume).

Follow the Directions

Don't zone out when a potential employer asks you to email a copy of your resume. Different employers have different ways in which they want your resume to be emailed. The most common methods for sending a resume are attached to the email, or as the body of the email. Make sure that you listen very carefully when they tell you how they want the resume sent. If they don't give you any specific instructions, you should ask. A perspective employer would rather have you ask questions when you don't understand something as opposed to you sending something incorrectly.

You should also make sure that you know exactly who you are supposed to send your resume to. Some employer's will have you email directly to them while others will have want you to send it to someone else. Not following these simple instructions can cost you the job.

Proof Before You Hit Send

Before you attach the resume to your email, you should spend a few minutes looking it over. Not only do you want to make sure that all of the information is correct, but you want to make sure that it is free of typos and other mistakes.

After attaching your resume and before you hit the send button, take a few minutes that you are sending your resume exactly the way you were instructed and that you have entered the correct address for the recipient.

Be Professional

Due to the fact that you aren't dealing with any people face to face, there may be a tendency to forget that a lot hinges on your professionalism. Make sure that all of your correspondence uses proper grammar and is properly punctuated. Treat all of your email correspondence just like you would a physical application.

Drafting Your Resume

You will find that writing your resume will be easier if you sit down and think of why you are working on a resume first. If you don't have a job than the reason for writing your resume is easy, you need to work, but if you currently have a job and are making a weekly paycheck the reason for seeking a new job are often more complex.

Reasons that People Look For a Different Job

The most common reason that people start to look for a new job when they already have one is because they don't like their current situation. They are not getting any pleasure from going to work and the only reason they get out of bed in the morning is so that they will have enough money to pay the bills,

Other people start to look for a different job because they want to grow professionally and they don't feel that their current place of employment allows them to do that.

Some people start looking for another job because they have very definite career goals and their current job is little more than something to do while they looked for something that would put them on the correct career path.

Once you know why you are looking for a different job, you will be able to address those issues when you are drafting your resume.

Why Employers Want Your Employment History

Although a potential employer will want to know how well educated you are, they aren't nearly as interested in your education as they are in your employment history.

The first thing they are going to be looking at is how long have you been employed. They want to know if you are someone who is going to be around for a several years, or if you are someone that will only stick around until a better offer comes around.

In addition to wanting to know how long you routinely hold a job, you should also make sure that you include what your duties were while you were employed by a particular company. For example if you spent five years working as a stable, you should tell them that you taught lessons and managed the barn and kept the books or else the potential employer is going to assume that the only thing you did was clean stalls.

When you are writing your resume make sure you include the contact information of the person who oversaw you. If a potential employer is interested in hiring you they will want to speak to your former employers.

Other Information

In addition to your employment history and a summery of your life, you should also make sure that you include a list of your important life experiences and provide information about your educational background.

How to Draft a Career Objective for Your Resume

One of the things that you should include when you are writing your resume is your career objective. All you career objective is, is a simple statement of what your career goals are. It sounds like something that should be easy to write but most of us find that it is the hardest part of drafting a resume. It is hard to break down your goals and dreams into a few words.

The Length of Your Career Objective

Most career experts say that your career objective should be fairly short, no longer than two sentences long. It should be very simple and easy for a potential employer to read.

What It Should Say

Obviously everyone's career objective is going to be unique to them. However, that doesn't mean that there isn't a standard formula you should try to adhere to. The best career objectives are personal, not generic. They should be warm and friendly, you want to think of your career statement as your resumes opening statement, it's an introduction to yourself. When you are drafting your career statement you want to give the person who is reading your resume the sense that you are very committed to your goal. You need to really believe in what you are saying; if you don't believe it, how is a person who has never met you going to take you seriously?

When you are drafting your career objective it is really important that you are very specific. There are two reasons that you need to be specific. The first reason is so that your career objective doesn't sound generic. The second reason is so that the person who is reading your resume knows what you are actually applying for and that you didn't just turn in a form resume.

What You Shouldn't Write

There are a few things that you shouldn't put in your career objectives. You should not say that your objective is to get the job, the person reading your resume already knows that you would like the job or else you wouldn't have turned in your resume. You also shouldn't write that your ultimate goal is to run the company, prospective employers like to hire forward thinkers but they seldom hire people to fill their shoes.

After you have finished writing your career objective have another person read what you wrote. Have them pretend that they have never met you and ask what impression they would make based solely on your career objective.

Three Mistakes Not to Make When Drafting Your Resume

There is nothing easy about writing a resume. It doesn't matter if you are writing your own or if you are helping a friend write theirs, the entire process is stressful. Between the importance of the document and the sheer volume of information that you need to deal with it can make you vow to never switch jobs again,

The trick to writing an impressive resume is to know what mistakes you need to avoid making.

Personal Websites

Personal websites are becoming something that most of us now have. It is natural to think that you should include the address of your personal website on your resume. As of right now, you really shouldn't include this information on your resume. While we are on the topic you should also take a few minutes to make sure that your personal information is set up so that it can only be viewed by your friends and family members.

The only time it is okay to include the address for your personal website is if you have set up your website to be strictly professional.

Font Size

There are two common mistakes when people are trying to figure out what size fonts they should use for their resume. Don't try to use a giant font size in an attempt to make your resume stand out from all the others. This makes it look like you are trying to mask a lack of information.

On the other hand you shouldn't try to use a smaller font just so you can cram more information on a single page. Most people have a hard time treading small font and will discard the resume if they think it is too difficult to read. When you are typing your resume you should use Times New Roman and a 12 point font.

When you print your resume you should use a white paper and black ink.

Proofread

You would not believe the number of people who write incorrect information on their resumes. Most of these people don't even realize that they have done it. The best way to avoid mistake like this is to read your resume before you submit it so a potential employer. Make sure that you double check all of your facts.

If possible have someone else read over your resume. A different set of eyes is going to be more likely to catch typos and other mistakes that you might have made.

The Must Get Ebook: How to Write a Professional Resume

The book "How to Write a Professional Resume" by Carla Vaughan is pack full with helpful and informative advice. The reason why we featured her book is because of her creditability and experience with resume and the human resource industry with many fantastic reviews. Clara Vaughan is an internationally acclaimed Resume Expert with 20 years of experience in personnel/ human resource industry. She was also the resume adviser of cvtips.com and interviewed by SHRM(Society For Human Resource Management) at:http://www.shrm.org/HRCareers/HRCareerResources/articles/Pages/shrm_060619.aspx.

For the price of $27 you get a 106 page E-book and 3 added bonus it's well worth the price. As gathered from her site this book approaches the daunting task of writing a resume with 6 simple steps:
1. Format- She talks of different resume formats and which to use for different purposes
2. Worksheets- The Ebook includes worksheets for you to grasp your strength as a canidate
3. Personal Inventory- This section questions how well you know yourself as it provides with what you need to write an excellent resume
4. Writing a Resume- Finally this sector helps you pull all your information quickly and easily together to create one concise, professional document.
5. Revision- This crucial part guides you through the best ways you can ensure your resume is target for success and written in a format that appeals to employers

The Ebook:How to Write a Professional Resume also includes 220 "Power Words" that add muscle to your resume, Blank Forms and Worksheet that you may use, Compelling cover letters to outline an effective cover letter with opening, middle and closing, and crucial dos and don'ts to help you refine your cover letters.

Above that the purchase also includes 3 added bonus:
1.Resume Writing Article Collection with titles such as: The 30 Second Scan, What Accomplishments to Include and What to Leave out, Resume Mistakes: Do Not Let this Happen to You, How to Make a Great First Impression, How to Write a Interview, Resume Writing Services- Why you Shouldn't Don't Go There, to help you understand what recruiters look for.
2. Career Search Article Collection with titles such as: your Career Philosophy: Will It Lead You to Sucess?, The Employer's Frame of Mind: 15 Secrets From "The Other Side", How to Impress the Employer, How to Change Your Resume When you Change Careers, Alternatives to Regular Jobs, How to Apply for Federal Work to help you make informed decisions.
3. The All-in-One Interview Guide at a value of $37 to help you prepare for your job interview. This bonus E-book comes in a PDF file with your download of How to Write a Professional Resume.

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