About my resume
In order for you to get the job of your dreams, it usually involves the sending of your resume to either a recruitment agency or directly to an employer. It is vital that you represent yourself in the best way possible. The following will give you some tips on how best to construct and use your resume.
Formatting
Think about how your resume should be laid out, unless you are going for a creative role where layout and creative input are required try and format your resume in a font that is legible, well spaced and do not use too many options like bold text, change of font, italics or underlining. The cleaner your resume looks the easier on the eye it is to read. The use of white space and therefore margins is good but do not make them too big or you will use up valuable space which will make your resume far too long.
Order of resume
Think about who will read your resume and ensure that you are consistent with the layout of your resume. For instance, recruitment consultants, read many resumes daily so you need to capture their interest immediately. The following is a suggested order for your resume to maximise your opportunity.
- Your full name
- Contact details – Address, all phone numbers and all email addresses
- Eligibility to work - If you have a visa, what type do you have?
- Nationality and language capabilities
- Current salary and package and your future expectations
- Notice period if you are currently working
- Ability to drive and whether you are prepared to use your car to get to work
- Education – Start from high school and list all academic qualifications, what schools or universities you attended and when. List what qualifications you have and what grades etc.
- Professional qualifications – starting with the most recent, list dates and qualifications you have with what grade and gained at what organisation
- IT skills – detail what systems you can use and at what level
- Work achievements – Bullet point and date the most important achievement in your career, starting with the most recent first
- Career history – start with your most recent job first, naming the organisation, where the job was located and the dates you worked for the company, also give your job title with a brief description of your duties and responsibilities. (We will talk about this in more detail later on.)
- Names and contact details of at least 2 work referees
- Interests and hobbies. List them if you think they are relevant to the job you are applying for
Your resume is a living document and not a document that once created should be sent out for every job that you come across.
Clearly, all of the factual information that we have previously illustrated in the order of your resume section is information that cannot change and should always be detailed with honesty. Never lie on your resume, you will always be found out!
What you need to think about is how much detail do you put in your resume relating to your duties and responsibilities. One of the ways of getting around this is to create 2 documents. One would be an operational document that will illustrate all duties and responsibilities you do on a day to day basis that shows what your general capabilities are and how you go about your work.
The 2nd document could be an achievement based document that is bullet pointed, therefore shorter and shows what you have achieved rather than how you have achieved it.
What you must then do is consider what job you are applying for and therefore what information would be most relevant to give you the best opportunity of getting an interview. You can cut and paste from the two master documents to create the most suitable resume for the job that you are applying for. Think about this every time you send your resume out!
You should always send a covering letter explaining why the job is of interest to you and why you think you are the candidate to be considered for this role. This will show the recruitment agency or prospective employer that you have read the advertisement and understood it.
Before you apply for a job, do some research and certainly review the company website or the recruitment agency website. You can then use their common language when sending in your letter and resume.
NEVER do the following!
- Never apply for jobs that you have no experience of or any understanding of
- Never apply for lots of jobs in various market sectors for the same recruitment agency or prospective employer. It shows lack of understanding and commitment on your part
- Never submit resumes or covering letters with spelling mistakes or grammatical errors
- Never apply for jobs that you are clearly over or under qualified for. Believe in your own ability to follow a career that will give you the opportunity to grow and develop using the qualifications and experience that you have gained
- Never submit a resume with gaps in them. Cover your whole career history from when you left school. Leaving information off your resume makes the prospective employer or recruitment company less inclined to contact you
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