Unlock Your Career Potential: 7 Tools and Tips for Crafting the Perfect Resume
Image sourced from Pixabay The above picture is of a resume sitting on top of a work desk.
Are you an active jobseeker? With enough determination and persistence, you’ll find employment and the journey to career fulfillment will begin. But the key to unlocking your career potential starts right at the beginning, with your resume. These 7 tools and tips will get you off to the best start.
Utilize Free Resume Templates
The most important factor in crafting the perfect resume is structure. Using free resume templates can save you time and provide a more professional layout. You can find many of these free resume templates online. They are very easy to use and often highly customizable.
Our top tip: The company you’re applying to work at may see hundreds or even thousands of similar resumes. A bit of customization goes a long way to making yours stand out from the rest. However, avoid emojis, highly stylized fonts, and bright colors. These do not create a professional image.
Choose the Right Format for Your Resume
There are different formats you can use when compiling a resume. For example, a chronological resume lists your work experience chronologically. Then there’s a functional resume format, which highlights your skills and achievements rather than focusing solely on employment history.
Consider your work experience and goals when choosing a format. You could do a combination of the two, with equal emphasis on both work experience and relevant accomplishments, if that seems more suitable.
Our top tip: If you don’t have much work history, focus on academic qualifications, and skills. Experience does not necessarily predict success. Indeed, studies have found no concrete correlation between the two. However, if your academic qualifications are minimal, be sure to list your work experience.
Tailor Your Resume to the Job Description
Are you applying for several different job openings? Tailor your resume for each application, as necessary. Free templates come to the rescue once again, ensuring you don’t leave out any crucial information.
Our top tip: Analyze the job descriptions and identify the core requirements and necessary skills or expertise listed for the position. Make a list of keywords that sum up what they are looking for. Incorporate these naturally into your resume.
Bonus tip: If you’re applying for multiple jobs that are vastly different from each other, it could indicate that you’re unsure of your career goals. Check out our job search strategies for tips on how to land your dream job.
Incorporate Action Verbs and Strong Language
Incorporate action verbs and strong language to make a bigger impact that gets your resume noticed. There are many ways to say the same thing but with an entirely different tone. Some words or phrases simply sound more confident and assertive than others.
For example, say that you advised teammates, compiled a report, coached a team, mentored junior colleagues, or designed a new workflow. Doesn’t that make you sound more capable than saying you “helped” co-workers or “made” a report?
Our top tips: If you are not a savvy wordsmith, don’t fret. Go online and search for synonyms for words you want to use. This will prevent you from using the same words too often but still get the message across.
Focus on Achievements, Not Just Responsibilities
Your resume should include your skills, work experience, expertise, and achievements. Highlight specific achievements. Don’t simply list your previous job’s duties. While there is nothing wrong with mentioning the responsibilities you had at your last job, this should not be the focus.
Our top tip: Emphasize the achievements that make you the best candidate for this job. Add a section to your resume detailing impressive professional qualifications that make you right for the job in question.
Bonus tip: Don’t be afraid to list non-traditional online work as part of your work experience and achievements. This can show that you have the self-discipline to carry out work duties without being micromanaged.
Include Relevant Skills and Certifications
Relevance is key to crafting the perfect resume. You may have several accomplishments that you could list, but are they truly relevant?
Have another look at those job descriptions for the vacancies you’re applying for. Identify the skills required for the job. This will tell you which of your past certifications or training is relevant, and which is not.
Our top tip: Sometimes, you need to think outside the box. Perhaps your work history and qualifications do not match what is being asked for. However, the underlying skills required ( for example, logical thinking, technical drawing, etc) may be similar. Be sure to point that out.
Proofread and Seek Feedback
Proofread your resume before sending it off. We can’t stress this enough. It’s easy to miss simple typographical errors or omit crucial details. And once you’ve sent the resume it’s too late to change it.
Read through your completed resume, more than once, and be sure everything looks good. Better yet, install a proofreading app like Grammarly on your devices. The free version offers lots of value, checking grammar and spelling, and offering advice on how to correct mistakes.
Our top tip: Seek feedback from your peers. Ask them to imagine they are in charge of hiring at the company you’re applying to work at. Would they want to schedule an interview based on what they’ve read? Because they're looking at your resume more objectively, they may have some interesting insights.