Aren’t you sure what to include on your resume? You are not alone. A good number of people drop dry when developing a resume.
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Did I think that having bullet points on a resume was the best thing? Yes, it took me some time to realize that a resume should reflect my brand and tell my career story.
Indeed, write your career story to catch an employer’s attention. People in a position to hire go through tons of resumes. Therefore, craft your resume to seize the heart of a possible employer.
What is the best way of writing a resume? What contents need to be on a resume? How can I arrange them? Here are the contents you need for a resume.
Start With a Brief Summary
A summary of your accomplishments is the best way to start. It should be in paragraph that consists of three sentences. Hiring managers desire short sentences.
First, include information about your significant accomplishments. Second, mention something about your personality. Third, outline your future ambitions.
Your summary must be short and precise. At any rate, don’t include long or vague sentences. I recommend sentences with no more than 15 words.
List Your Accomplishments
Unless they see your accomplishments, they may not be interested. Sometimes we do not list all our accomplishments. List all your accomplishments in each career you’ve held.
Often, I get asked this question, “What if I don’t have anything to list?” Look out of the box if you do not have anything. What about a home project? What about that volunteering activity?
The fact of the matter is that you need to list something. Ironically, you don’t want to leave this area open. It shows the possible employer that you have accomplished something.
List Important Information at the Top
You only have limited room on your resume. Don’t list unnecessary details on a resume. Leave those details for the interview.
Instead, list what is important at the top of the page. Your summary, accomplishments, and contact information should be at the head of the list.
Identify Your Transformational Skills
Now that you have listed your accomplishments, how do you relate to others? Employers want to hire someone who can relate to others at the workplace. What are the most desired skills?
Problem Solving: Can you be trusted when problems arise? The norm is that a problem is going to happen. How would you solve it is what most employer want to know.
Helping Others: What will you do when others need your support? Are you going to ignore them and focus on your project? What other skills you have that others can benefit from?
Team Player: Can you work well with others, even when you disagree with them? A good number of employers are looking for someone who can be a good team player. No doubt, they want an employee who can break barriers instead of building walls.
You may have more skills; I recommend listing the most desired ones. In my opinion, three skills would be more than enough. You can use the opportunity to give more at an interview.
Tell Your Career Story
What is your story? Tell what you have been through to get to where you are today. It is not enough to list your work experience in a bullet point.
Start with your current career, stating what you did that helped you to get there. Follow through the list of all your jobs within the past ten years. If you are a fresh college graduate, list any internship or a volunteer work.
Get a Formal Design
There are numerous resume designs on the internet, find one that you like and work with it. You can pay someone to craft a resume for you, just make sure they are crafting your story, not theirs.
If you downloaded one, tweak it to suit your story. Whatever you do, don’t copy and paste from the sample. Create your own; tell your story not just copying someone else’s.
Check the Resume in Details
Once you have finished developing the resume, check any little detail for small mistakes. The chances are these small mistakes could happen and jeopardize your credibility.
Grammar: Check your grammar when developing your resume. Bad grammar reflects a negative image.
Flow: Have you developed a resume that flows? Is your work experience listed from the most current career down to the oldest one in the past ten years?
Spelling: Make sure that your spelling is correct before you submit your resume.
Build Your Brand
Develop your resume to brand your name. It should all be about you and what you are capable of doing. Your personality is so valuable to an employer.
What good does it make if you are capable of doing your job but don’t have a good character? Build a good character and reflect it on your resume.
Question: What is the most important information to include on a resume? You can leave a comment by clicking here.
Please note: I reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive or off-topic.