Tips For A Successful Resume That Will Help You Get The Job You Want

What it takes for a person to have a full and happy life? Some would say love, others are looking for a quiet family life or even material stuff that would make them happy. Some people look for the perfect job and all they need in life is do the things they want and live for that.
So let’s say you are that kind of person, or in fact let’s say you are looking for a certain job. You found an ad that describes the perfect job, you have the skills and you are prepared – all you now need is a CV to send and if the employer likes you then you are in! The problem is that companies get thousands of CV’s, so if you want to make sure to get the job – your CV will have to stand out from the boring crowd. The resume is the first thing that the employer sees about you, so it has to be presentable and make a good first impression. There are certain things you might want to know before writing your CV, you know in order to write a good one. There are experts out there that share really good tips on how to be successful in this, so I did some research and found some info.
Make sure your resume includes your name and your contacts – email, phone number; if your cover letter somehow gets separated from your CV, your potential employer won’t be able to contact you and you wouldn’t want to miss that chance. Include this information in the header – that is usually the best place and it’s really easy to spot it there in case you get lucky and the employer wants to call you for an interview.
Try to structure your resume in the right way. You have to place the important things at the beginning and then pass on to less important things like hobbies for example. If you are freshly out of college then you can include your education at the beginning of your CV, as you probably don’t have much work experience; otherwise place this information at the end of your resume and start with your work experience first.  It is also important to make it readable – split into paragraphs otherwise it has a big chance to be set aside.
Avoid stretching the truth – we all are sometimes too self- centered, especially when we want to make a good first impression so we start babbling things that are not true just to embellish the truth. Even if you want this job very much, don’t exaggerate about your skills. Qualified managers that have seen and read lots of resumes usually spot fraud and can easily say what is true or not about your CV. In the end – if you get the job, you will have to prove some of the invented stuff from your resume and you don’t want to fail in that especially if the competition for that spot you got was harsh.
Highlight the important skills that you have, the ones that make you stand out from the crowd of resumes your potential employer reads daily. Remember that you have to convince the company and let them know why YOU are the person they would like to hire. Try to research some information on your potential employer and specify how your skills would comply with their requirements.
Quantify your success – this means that for example if you worked in sales – make sure to state the real numbers, like the number of clients you have successfully recruited for instance. Try to use statistics and percentage when it is possible – this way you deliver concrete results of your work and employers usually appreciate that.
Don’t overdo the design of your resume. Keep it neat and simple – easy to skim through and try not to use the special templates that you can just find in the Internet – show a little bit of imagination and design your own CV; it is of course not as important as the content but as I said before your resume has to make a good first impression, and be attractive.
Read your resume carefully before submitting it. Search for misspells and grammatical errors. As weird as it might sound but employers tend to dismiss resumes with lots of mistakes, simply because they would think you are not serious or careful enough, what if sometimes in the future of their company you won’t be careful with some transactions and lose a couple of millions? Look at your CV more than once and you can even have a friend read it, it is always better to have a fresh view over your work.
Don’t forget to include your awards or any extra activities you’ve had, or even volunteer work – this is your time to shine so let the employer see what a gifted person you are. But at the same time don’t include too personal information in your CV, like for example a personal blog that you keep as a diary or you have photos of your pets there – the employers won’t be interested in this information.
Do include references in your CV – past employers or professors if you have just finished college. Some companies contact the referred persons in order to make sure you are who you say you are and it definitely increases your chances of getting employed.
All in all just remember that a good resume is your chance to get a good job so just try to make it as good as you can.  Of course that’s if you pass the interview, but this might be the theme for another article. If you have some other suggestions we would be happy to hear them.