A great resume will give you a shot at convincing the recruiter to move you forward. It also gets you through any automated system the company is using to filter resumes.
A great resume will
- Be relevant to the job you are applying (personalize).
- Project your strengths without explicitly saying them.
- Be very tight. Every section, every sentence, every word needs a reason to be there.
- Always be accompanied by a cover letter.
- cannot overstate the importance of a cover letter.
Resume is relevant to the job you are applying (personalize).
- Prioritize projects so it highlights what the job description says.
- Include any relevant projects where you remotely used the tools the job description talks about.
- Screening software and some recruiters see if the keywords in the job description matches the keywords in the resume.
Resume projects your strengths without explicitly saying it.
- I took Clifton strength assessment to understand what my strengths are and found a way to showcase them through what I did in the project sections without explicitly saying it.
- You can take yours here. https://store.gallup.com/p/en-us/10108/top-5-cliftonstrengths
- It is $19 and is totally worth it. The assessment not only gives you a path to crafting your resume, but it also gives you language to describe yourself, talk about your strengths and weaknesses.
Resume is very tight.
- Every section, every sentence, every word needs a reason to be there.
- This is to make sure you think through everything before you decide to keep it.
- Follow this rule in writing your accomplishments
Cover letter is very underrated
- I cannot overstate how important this is. I was told repeatedly by recruiters how my cover letter made their job easier.
- A good cover letter clearly shows how you fulfill all the job requirements like the example below. Source
Other references and notes
This is a great video that talks about all things resume. It helped me a lot.
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- Does resume match what they are looking for. Match the job requirements
- Top mistakes
- Resume doesn't match job requirements
- make sure the relevant skills are there
- Customize resume for what the company is looking for
- Add those keywords in linkedin profile
- change summary in such a way that it is what they are looking for
- add skills that are similar to what they job desc asks for
- Keywords are key
- Make sure you do this to get through the resume scanner
- Make sure you have place and state
- 10 second rule
- recruiters look just for 10 seconds
- single typep face
- use sans serif type face (arial, helvetica, calibri)
- keep atleast half inch margins
- no borders
- Keep it professional
- this is a job application
- keep it professional
- no pictures
- no non-professional activities
- Always proof read your resume
- both spelling and punctuation
- use present tense for present job and past tense for past job
- Have someone else read it through
- Resume is too long
- always single page for entry level page
- May be two pages for past positions and accomplishments (experienced person)
- Display both months and years for duration
- bonus - add the duration
- You didn't describe the accomplishments
- dont just explain about the job duties
- accomplishments should be highlighted
- Always include a cover letter
- opportunity to make a good impression
- explain the interest in the job
- T cover letter
- Don't mislead or lie
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