In the Artificial Intelligence in Recruiting Industry Report, it is projected that by the end of 2020, two-thirds of all staffing firms will adopt AI-driven ATS (Applicant Tracking Systems) to streamline candidates for a job position while 79% of enterprise staffing (with more than 100 recruiters) will have done the same.
In such a scenario, an incredible resume alone will help you get shortlisted for the best jobs. So here goes the 5 essentials of an incredible resume that you should implement in your resume:
1. An incredible resume means an accurate profile title
Most professionals tend to make the unknown mistake of exaggerating their profile titles to be considered eligible for a job that they are not qualified for. They tend to glorify their profile titles to not only get the said job, but to demand a better pay.
While this may seem like an irresistible temptation, it is best to overcome this dilemma as it does more harm than good. The years that you have spent building your professional reputation will disappear like quicksand if you deliberately choose to make this blunder.
Moreover, even if you do find success in cheating the recruiter in the first go, a background check will reveal your deceit (even if unintentional) in no time. What this means is that not only will you lose out on a potential employment offer, but you’ll also lose credibility.
Example, if you’re a junior lifestyle editor in a thriving magazine, don’t use “Senior Lifestyle Editor” as your profile title as this will simply be seen as an attempt to cheat the recruiter.
And trust us, it does not end well.
2. An incredible resume means an impactful summary
A summary that only seems to give an account of your career trajectory leads to the making of an ill-composed resume that fails to impress the recruiter.
Without impressing the recruiter, your job application is bound to collapse like a house of dominos.
There is a thin line that separates an effective summary from a poorly structured summary. You need to be mindful of this line and try to cross over to the realms of summary perfection if your plan is to get the job that you have been chasing like a bloodthirsty hound.
Point is, you need to show the promise of excellence and demonstrate that the skills you have cultivated over the years have not been for nothing.
Instead of stating that you are proficient in x, you need to show how your skills in x led to success.
This success can look different on different professionals based on their skill sets and functional industry.
For example:
- Success for a marketer can mean increasing brand awareness and sales
- Success for a business developer can mean closing deals with clients and getting funding
- Success for a writer means the ability to generate engaging articles that leads to organic growth for the company’s website.
Point is, your summary needs to show how your expertise led to certain results.
By doing this, you would be able to show that your skills are not sand castles that will disappear the next day. Instead, you’ll be able to show that your skills are like the wall of china that has survived centuries of storm.
In other words, you need to show that the success you have accomplished in your previous organization can easily be transferred to the new.
If you perfect your summary, you would have made the foundation of an incredible resume.
Here’s an example of what an effective resume summary looks like:
3. An incredible resume means a clear presentation of your skills
You cannot be a Marketer in today’s world without being adept at digital marketing. Similarly, you cannot be a Doctor without knowing the basics of medical excellence.
In other words, it is your skills that make you a doctor, or a marketer, or a vocalist. Without your skills, you won’t be the professional that you are today.
So to make an incredible resume, you should focus your energy on highlighting your skills on resume.
Your skills should be unmistakably accurate. The trick is to single out all your core skills and technical skills (if you’re a professional in tech or have viable tech skills) in your resume so that it’s the first thing that a recruiter notices while evaluating your document.
So the third essential to making an incredible resume is making a distinct ‘key skills’ section in your resume where you can categorically illustrate your key skills.
4. An incredible resume means great readability and relevance
If your resume is hard to comprehend and fails to make sense, you are already losing the job marathon that you are running.
Not only should it be relevant and readable, but it should be effective too.
Stop now and focus on the below-mentioned points to elevate your resume to perfection:
- Instead of using paragraphs, use one-liner points to talk about your roles & responsibilities. After that, group similar points under unique subheadings. Doing this will enhance the readability of your resume.
- Use power verbs to begin each one-liner point. Doing this will make your resume look more professional and create impact in ways moribund words fail to do. Example of power verbs: Orchestrated, Formulated, Directed, Managed, etc.
- Strive for relevance. Don’t just state that you did ‘this’ as part of your everyday roles & responsibilities. Show how your actions led to results. And if possible, quantify your achievements wherever possible.
5. An incredible resume is unique and tailor-made for each job
A resume is not simply a piece of paper, but it is also your license to employment. In other words, it matters, and you need to be extremely particular about the specifics.
If you have a habit of sending the same resume to different organizations, you’re doing it all wrong. Bid goodbye to the treacherous days of handing out your resume like confetti.
It demands to be customized and tailor-made for each job that you are targeting because quite frankly, the demands of each job are unique and distinct from each other.
So the fifth and final essential to writing an incredible resume is customizing your resume according to the needs & demands of each one of your target jobs.
Do this, and you’d have done the needful to write an incredible resume with higher shortlist chances than one that doesn’t.
Conclusion
Now that you are familiar with the 5 essentials of an incredible resume, all you have to do is implement them, Here’s an overview of the 5 essentials we have covered in this article:
- Profile title needs to be accurately presented.
- An impactful summary is the hallmark of an incredible resume.
- Presenting your skills using a seperate section will boost your resume’s effectiveness.
- Great readability and relevance are keywords to making an impeccable resume.
- Customizing your resume according to the jobs that you are targeting is the secret sauce that can lead to higher shortlists.
Author’s Bio:
Aditya Sharma
On a quest to help professionals across the world land their dream jobs, Aditya lives and breathes Hiration — an AI-powered online resume builder and platform to help job-seekers find their way in the treacherous job market — where he’s a Co-Founder and the unofficial CPO (Chief Problem-solving Officer). He likes to code away his days and nights when he’s not busy disrupting the career space..
Image Source: BigStock.com (licensed)
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