It’s the first thing that people see when a person applies for a job, and no it’s not their smile or their eyes. It’s their resumes. Yes, a person might be in the office to accept them, but they’re usually not the person making the hiring decisions. A resume is always the first thing that an employer sees from an applicant.
As a result, it’s that resume that has to stand out and show that the applicant has what an employer needs to get that all-important interview. So, how does a person create a winning resume?
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Be Confident
Trainers at call centers almost always browbeat new employees with the phrase: “They can hear you smile.” It’s debatable as to whether or not people really can, but people definitely know a strong resume when they see one.
Why? Because, when a resume is written greatly informs a potential employer as to what a person’s personality will be like in the interview. The greatest indicator of this, conscious or not, is the use of passive voice.
Passive voice is something that people usually are told not to use when writing a novel, but it’s just as important when it comes to writing a resume. One that reads along the lines of “Mike Smith was employed from 2017-2019 by “Doe Developments” gives employers an “off” feeling. The reason why? This sentence uses the passive voice.
“Doe Developments employed Mike Smith from 2017-2019” is active and confident to a potential employer. Although it’s true that using active voice isn’t always easy, there are ways of doing it, and using them is worth the extra effort.
Be Concise
No matter how much experience or how much education a person has, there is rarely a need to write a five or ten-page resume for almost anyone. When should a resume be three or more pages long? Only in certain cases where the person in question is an executive or is in some other form of complex career that requires a lengthy resume.
For the rest of the population, the days of a one-page resume are over. Two pages today are fine, which means that being concise and to the point is an important part of keeping it to that length.
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Be Professional
This doesn’t mean that a resume can’t show some personality; in fact, a resume is supposed to hint at a bit of a personality along with all those skills and past jobs. What a resume can’t do, however, is to be too laid back and friendly. Remember that a resume shows a person’s background on paper, the friendly disposition can wait for the interview, if necessary!
Have Tailored Resumes
This sounds like what most people do: have a resume writing service tailor-make a resume for them. Shouldn’t that be the end of the story? Not quite. A winning resume means having more than one. A person is usually applying for positions in a variety of fields. Sometimes, they might even be applying to a number of specialized fields within a larger one.
Jane Doe, a college student, is looking to apply for a summer job in her chosen field of computer science. She might, however, have to settle for a position in customer service, as well, seeing that Jane has worked as a waitress before.
Having the same resume, in her case, for two very different jobs means that she should have one for each field, which is a wise approach. So, having resumes tailored to each of those fields just makes sense.
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Write a Cover Letter
It may be asked for and it may not, but it’s as handy to have laying around as a resume is. For those times when a company does require one, having a cover letter is important, and they should always be written according to the needs of the prospective employer.
Does this mean that a person has to potentially write dozens of cover letters? No, but again, having a general one for customer service and another for computer science, for example, make sense. After that, a person can tweak them a bit for each employer.
Have it Proofread
This should go without saying, but a lot of people think that since a resume is only a few hundred words, it doesn’t need to be proofread. No matter how short it is, always make sure that grammar, punctuation, and spelling are all correct.
Have a Professional Go Over It
This one is last on the list to have done, and one can easily find professionals at a writing service with good edusson reviews to help with this stage of the process. It’s better to have someone who has had experience in writing resumes go over one, but a fresh pair of eyes is a fresh pair of eyes.
It surprises a lot of people when another person points out something they’ve forgotten or something else they never would have thought of. So, it’s always best to have a professional go over a resume before it starts making its rounds in the job marketplace.
