Your resume is integral to your professional life. It gives recruiters all the information about who you are and how much of an asset you and your skills could bring to the workplace.
Its no wonder then that people have to take their resume seriously too. Whether if its you entering the job market for the very first time or contemplating a job switch, your resume plays a introductory and critical role in many aspects. It can mean the difference between you getting shortlisted or not.
There are often people who are very good at what they do but their resumes fail to accurately and faithfully reflect it. That’s where these resume building tips come in handy.
Accomplishments > Responsibilities
Lets start with the bare basics.
Your resume should focus on your prior accomplishments. This is true for first timers too as they can list their academic and extra-curricular achievements to convey the right tone about who you are and what you’re capable of.
As an aside, merely listing what you were responsible for on your previous jobs wont help your employer decide whether you are actually capable of fulfilling those responsibilities or not.
On the other hand if you mention your accomplishments because of your role in the company(s) you worked for, that approach is much more likely to get you called for an interview.
For example if you worked as a salesman, it doesn’t matter what kind of clients you handled. What the recruiter could be interested in knowing is the increase in revenue that you brought in for your organization.
This is just an example. So when building or modifying your resume, follow the golden rule: Accomplishments > Responsibilities.
Know What You Want
If you just present your resume with a litany of roles that you are qualified for, this presents a problem for you more than it does for recruiters.
For starters, the recruiter is confused about what you’re good at. The phrase, ‘jack of all but master of none’ is important to note here. They may end up consigning you to a role that you may or may not like.
For first time job seekers, it helps if you are skilled and multi-talented. But as you progress in your career, you need to lay down your focus area and your expertise for the same.
You have to know what you want, have a clear vision of the job of your choice and tailor your resume to show that. You have to figure out what you’re looking for in a particular job and what the people hiring for that job want.
If you’re looking to write that perfect ‘About Me’ blurb in your resume, check this out.
Take Credit for Your Work
No one likes a humble brag. But it does mean all the difference in your professional life.
Projects within companies involve several people performing their roles for the ultimate success of the project. And as a team, you are allowed to claim credit for projects that took off nicely. That stuff needs to be in your resume pronto.
It doesn’t matter if you were the lead in the project or if you had a major stake in the project, as long as you had a role in a successful project, mention it.
Instead of  saying that you “Assisted on product X in company A”, a better suggestion would be – “I launched product X in company A.”
The hirers actually keep an eye out for details such as these. As mentioned before, they look for what you’ve achieved not for what you maybe helped or assisted in achieving.
Don’t Try To “Fit In”
People think often times that their resume should be professional. Nothing wrong with that view.
But here’s what works better for you – letting your resume reflect who you are. This means that you should be unique and don’t formulate a resume the way that dozens of others would be doing.
You don’t help the HR in the company in any way by being just like the thousand other people with the same resumes.
By showing recruiters whats different about you from the hundreds of other people qualified for the job, your chances of nailing that vacant position go up exponentially.
Don’t be afraid of having a unique resume – it is your greatest strength and not a weakness.
Have more tips for making just the right resume? We’d like to hear all about them in the comments below.
Nice tips, especially the first one.