There comes a day for each of us, when we decide, that it's time to change something in our lives and focus on developing our professional career. And then, the usual thought springs to mind: “How to stand out on the job market?” I’m here to answer that question – by writing a professional, but original resume!
Has it been a long time since you last participated in the recruitment process? Then it’s time to refresh your CV, and this article will help you do just that. I will present aspects, that will help you create a recruitment document, that will successfully distinguish you from thousands of other candidates.
An effective resume as a “business card” on the job market
Your resume is your business card and the most important document on the job market. Before you start writing your resume, consider the answers to questions, such as: “What are my abilities?”, “What can I bring to the company?” and “What position am I applying for?”. Believe me, the answers to these questions are crucial to creating the perfect resume, as they help shape your professional image and allow you to consciously present your candidacy to recruiters.
Authenticity of information
Your resume confirms your qualifications and competences. It is also a valuable source of information on your availability for work. An effective resume should not raise any doubts in the recruiter’s mind regarding your professional experience, education, certificates, courses and skills. Authentic information helps you stay confident during a job interview and allows you to prepare for it properly.
Suitability for the job position
Match your qualifications, experience and skills to the job position offered. When analysing your career path, consider all of your previous responsibilities and choose those, that best match the requirements in the job advertisement.
Information consistency
Make sure the information presented is logically organized. Think about the layout of your resume, so that it presents a clear picture of your professional career. Conflicting experience information, unexplained gaps in employment, or inconsistent (or missing) dates can make it difficult to understand your employment history. A neat and legible resume also affects the smoothness of the recruitment process and the job interview. The conversation then focuses on real competences, and not on specifying facts, that may have turned out to be crucial already at the pre-selection stage.
It is also worth noting, that for a resume to be effective, it must be consistent with you and the position you are applying for. Highlight your personality and create an original advertisement for yourself on the job market. Hard skills, qualifications and certificates are the foundation for achieving the goal in the recruitment process, but the result is determined by the full picture of the candidate.
Sections in the resume
The lead section of the resume is a field for introducing yourself, the industry you operate in, and your motivation to work in the position offered. It is a summary of your professional career to date. In this section, you can provide the recruiter with general, but valuable information about yourself.
In the “Professional experience” section, present your career path, including your position, place and period of employment, and professional duties performed. Try to focus on the most valuable information for a given role.
When filling out your education information, be sure to include the name of your school, degree obtained, and date range. Education is a confirmation of qualifications possessed.
Please also remember to provide information, that will allow to identify your place of residence and how you can be contacted during the recruitment process.
Share information about your skills. Do you know any foreign languages? List them along with your level of advancement, so that your application can also be considered for international projects. If you have documents confirming your knowledge of specific tools, certificates from participating in interesting courses, or other impressive experiences under your belt – show them off.
GDPR clause – the resume is complemented by a GDPR clause informing recruiters, that you consciously consent to the processing of your personal data for the purposes of recruitment processes. Currently, companies ask for such consent in their forms, but including it in your resume undoubtedly shows, that you were careful when creating it.
Structure of the resume
If you already have some professional experience under your belt, it’s a good idea to choose a reverse-chronological resume, that lists your current job position first in the “Professional Experience” section. Previous experiences are described below, until the professional history ends with your first employment. Use this structure to highlight your current job position and visualize how your career has progressed over the years.
Another type of structure is the functional resume, which you can use to highlight your skills, education, courses you have taken, certificates you have earned, and awards you received in a given field. In such a case, present your professional experience in the section below.
Common resume mistakes and how to avoid them
Linguistic errors and typos happen to the best of us; they can be found in a term paper, a thesis, an article, or even our favourite book. What does this mean? That they happen to everyone. While small mistakes can be forgiven, a resume written without due diligence cannot. A large number of language errors or typos creates a negative first impression in the eyes of the recruiter, and shows a lack of meticulousness, or even commitment in creating the document.
To keep your resume effective, remember to keep it updated. An outdated or inconsistent CV will present you in a negative light and raise doubts about the reliability and credibility of your application. Certainly, the recruiting team will be more favourable towards candidates, who care about the quality of their documents and their validity.
Information chaos manifested by too much data, diverse and too small fonts, and small spaces between lines make it difficult for the recruiter to understand the content and draw conclusions. You may be the perfect person to fill a job opening, but if you present yourself in a way that is unclear, you will close the door to the next recruitment process.
LinkedIn profile
Over the years, LinkedIn has become a community of employers, employees and candidates. It is a place for sharing reflections on work, exchanging knowledge and experience, and a platform for creating business relationships. Users share their professional life stories, upload photos and stories from private and professional events, and discuss the latest trends in the job market.
In the context of the recruitment process, LinkedIn is a valuable tool for both recruiters and candidates. How can you get noticed on LinkedIn?
- Complete all information on your profile (location, industry, job skills, education with dates, lead),
- Constantly refresh your digital resume,
- Share interesting posts from the industry (that you are also interested in),
- Brag about your professional and educational achievements,
- Add recommendations from colleagues and employers to your profile.
Remember, that recruiters very often check candidates' LinkedIn profiles to supplement their information about them. Always share content consciously, with the thought, that it may be of interest to a potential employer.
Check-list before sending your resume
The submitted resume should be carefully checked in advance, because once it has been submitted, there is no turning back. The first step will be taken, the first impression will be made, and the recruitment process will begin.
What to check before sending your resume?
- resume content (job titles with dates and skills assigned to them, as well as the currency and correctness of information contained in other sections),
- contact data,
- linguistic correctness,
- additional attachments and links.
In interpersonal relationships, it is said, that the first impression during a meeting is the most important, because it influences the overall assessment of a given person and decides the further fate of the relationship. Shouldn't this principle also be applied in the context of the recruitment process?
Let me know in the comments, if you have any questions or would like me to discuss any part in more detail.