There are some basic rules that’ll put you ahead of the competition:
Make it one-pager:
Generally, a hiring manager spends only 10 seconds on a Resume and then switches for others. If your Resume is longer than a page, there is a huge chance to miss the opportunity to get a positive call from them. So, it would be better to keep all those important things and make it a one-pager Resume.
Avoid grammatical mistakes:
Some recruiters hate grammatical errors and reject a resume immediately. So, this is an important thing to keep in mind while writing a Resume. When writing your own Resume, you should always keep in mind that the sentence you are writing is proper and no grammatical mistakes are there. So, it’s better to get your content checked by a professional.
Avoid the first-person pronoun:
You should avoid ‘I’, ‘Me’, ‘My’ throughout the Resume. It looks awkward to see that someone wrote: “I built up a team of five sales representatives and I got awarded as the Best Team Leader”. You should write it like: “Built up a team of five sales representatives got awarded as the Best Team Leader”.
Save as .pdf:
Saving your resume as a PDF rather than a Word document makes it a static format that doesn’t change when the employer opens it. A .doc or .docx format changes its style in different pcs/laptops or in different versions of the .doc opening software. But a .pdf format remains static and does not change its style in different computers. If the style gets changed, it may look ugly and make a bad impression. So, it is better to save your Resume in .pdf format.
File name:
Do not save your Resume with a generic or random name like ‘hahdk23.pdf’ or ‘myresume.pdf’ because it’s annoying and sometimes recruiters could not find a saved file. Save your resume something like: ‘Harry_Potter_Resume.pdf’ so that it can be found easily.
Logical format/structure:
A logical template is the most important. How you lay it out really depends on where you are in your career path and what you’re looking to do next. It may be chronological, functional or combined but must look logical.
Neat and clean template:
Whatever you put on your Resume, it should look clean and have proper spacing. A clean design attracts people and properly added points or bullets to make the Resume more logical and visually appealing.
Choice of the font:
You can choose any regular font that looks professional, like ‘Arial’, ‘Calibri’, ‘Georgia’, ‘Montserrat’ or ‘Courier’ but you have to keep in mind that the font size differs for different font styles. So, the font size should be something that can be read from at least a meter distance. Lowest font-size: ‘Arial – 9’, ‘Calibri – 10’, ‘Montserrat – 9’, ‘Courier – 10’ may be used.
Quantify your excellence:
You can include your excellence at your previous job as simple writing but if you prove it through numbers, percentages or some supporting facts, employers can get attracted easily. For example, rather than writing “Successfully achieved sales target” as simple text in Resume, you can write, “Successfully achieved sales target 100% of the time and exceeded sales goal by 40% in the last 6 months”.
Mention your promotions in the same company:
Most of the time, people make this mistake. You should mention your promotions in the same organization so that it reflects that you are a confident person and capable of doing your job perfectly.
Don’t include the reference:
Just do not use any reference in your Resume, because it is the space to showcase your details. Sometimes, it is also annoying for the employer.
Don’t include everything you’ve done:
Writing a proper Resume or CV is a difficult job. You may achieve much success in your whole life and overcome many hurdles, but you should not include all of them if that one is not related to your professional career. Like if you are a professional with experience of 5+ years and you are including “Got 1st prize in a running competition in Std-5” then it will be valueless for the employer.
Great content! Super high-quality! Keep it up! 🙂