Finding employment can be a challenge at any time, but since the Coronavirus crisis the job market is especially tough. With more people than ever applying for positions the competition is high. In an inbox full of resumes you only have a few seconds to make your best first impression. Make sure you grab your future employers’ attention and follow these five tips for a standout resume:
Outline your top skills right at the top of your resume. Do this in a little blurb under your name as this will be the first thing an employer will see. Make sure it well describes the type of worker and person you are, your best skills and how you will fit into the role.
Your resume should be appropriate for the job. If it’s an admin role application, lose the colours or pictures – employers are focused on text rather than design elements.
Make the resume a reflection your personality and skills. While it is important to remain professional with your resume, it should also reflect the person the resume is marketing. This can be done in the ‘personal summary/ key skills/ interests section of the resume. An example would be a resume for a hospitality role which reflected a high level of customer service, i.e, great communication, interpersonal skills, patience etc.
Keep your resume neat and tidy. Make sure everything is aligned and use no more than three font sizes. For example:
Avoid fancy borders and use a maximum of two colours.
Ask someone else to look over your resume to spell check and proofread. This is one of the most common mistakes and it can be easily rectified. No matter how well you craft your resume, if you mix up your whether with the weather, it could cost you that interview.
If you want help, our team can spell check and proofread your resume.
Request a call back for support with your resume.
If you think you’re almost ready to get to work on your resume, consider these final dos and don’ts:
DO – Keep your resume to one or two pages. Hit them with your best shot on page one and let them know the rest on the other page. Remember to customise the resume to the job application, which may also eliminate some of your extra information.
DO – Keep your resume simple and succinct. Just give enough information to get you noticed by an employer.
DON’T – Put your street address on your resume. For safety reasons, especially if doing resume drops. You never know who is going to see your resume and personal information, so add your suburb only.
DON’T – Put your photo or age on your resume. These are not a necessary requirement of a resume. If you were going to audition for something that required an image and your age was an important factor then yes, but for a resume to give to employers, there is no need.
So you have your five tips for a standout resume, plus your dos and don’ts, now all you need is a template. As luck would have it, we have a resume template ready for you. It’s a proven formula which many job seekers have used, resulting in employment.
Good luck, you got this.
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