Rewriting Your Resume? 7 Easy Ways To Give Yourself An Upgrade
In today's competitive job market, a first class resume is an
essential tool for winning an interview. The way in which you
present your skills, achievements and experience on paper will
profoundly affect the way in which a hiring company considers
your application.
An expertly crafted resume not only captures the attention of
its reader through careful attention to layout and formatting;
it also targets the specific needs of the potential employer by
matching and highlighting your abilities and background to the
key requirements of the position.
So what exactly is the 'perfect resume'?
It's well-nigh impossible to get recruitment professionals to
agree on this. For example, take the vexed question of the
'resume objective'. Some employers prefer to see a clearly
stated objective as evidence of a candidate's career focus;
others consider including an objective to be a restrictive
practice -- or worse, little more than vague waffle.
So in the pursuit of a truly personalized resume, it's hardly
surprising that effective practice differs from applicant to
applicant -- and what suits one job-hunter may not work so well
for another.
And while it's impossible to lay down hard and fast rules of
best practice in resume writing, it's a whole lot easier to
identify some of the habits that can turn recruiters right off
-- perhaps even sabotage a candidate's chances from the start!
In this article, I've collected some of these common resume
blunders -- so if you're looking to upgrade your resume, here's
a checklist of seven easy ways to start!
1. Don't rely on a 'one size fits all' resume
If your resume is going to get you the interviews you deserve,
it needs to focus on the particular demands of the job. So
unless your field is very narrow, it's likely that you'll need
to adapt your resume to each specific application.
To help you target your resume, try answering these questions: