5 Tips to Write a Good Resume

Photo Courtesy: lliott P.

Your resume is your entry ticket to the world of employment. The better your resume, more are the chances of you getting an interview call. Conversion is another ball game altogether, but first you must ensure that you have an impressive resume to attract employers. Whatever experience you may or may not have, you need to present yourself in such a way that the prospective employers at least call you for an interview instead of rejecting you just by glancing at your resume. Here are 4 effective tips to write a striking resume:

1. Prioritize the Content

Consider what elements in your resume you would want to put at the top and which ones in the last. The order in which you list your key skills and achievements make a huge difference to the chances of your getting a call for an interview. If you do not prioritize the content of your resume, you may miss out on opportunities just because of the fact that your prospective employers overlooked it as it was mentioned at the lower rung of the list of your skills/achievements/experiences.

2. Be Concise and Precise

Make sure that your resume comprises of very concise statements and not very long sentences because your prospective employers do not have the time to read and understand long and full sentences—they may just skip important parts of your resume and put it down. Therefore, you must keep your resume short: use fragments, use phrases and key words. Instead of writing “I assisted the account manager and helped in streamlining the tasks of the department”, write:
• Assisted account manager
• Streamlined department functions

3. Use an Attractive Template

By the first look your employers are going to have of your resume, they are going to decide subconsciously whether they want to read it through or not. Make sure you use a template that is attractive and at the same time not clumsy or extreme. Too much color will put them off instantly, but instead, if you give your resume a crisp and attractive look, they will have a look at it and will feel interested.

4. Tweak Your Resume for Specific Job Applications

Your resume cannot be the same when you send them for different job applications. You will obviously be trying for various profiles across companies, and therefore, you need to tweak your resume each time and make it suitable for the requirement for each job profile. While your creativity may be important for one position, another might require good writing skills. You need to change the order, the wordings of key skills and so on in order to suit the profile you apply for.

5. Don’t fake your resume

All said and done, when you write your resume, you must be truthful. You may change the language and use certain power words to make your resume more impressive, but remember that at the end of the day, the honesty with which you write it, is going to be tested.