Your resume is your tool for gaining that all important interview. Taking time to make your resume stand out is critical if you want to be in the running for getting an interview invite. This article seeks to examine some practical ways in which you can make your resume the most appealing, most interesting and outstanding document available.
1. Structure your resume properly
It is important to ensure that your resume follows a logical structure so that a potential employer can quickly find their way around it.
A good structure should have the following headings: - Personal Objective/Statement
- Education
- Employment History
- Interests/Hobbies/Pastimes
- Case Studies
2. Give specific examples
Your resume will stand out if the information within it is well summarised, succinct and provides specific examples of how you have demonstrated your skills. For each employment history think about specific projects or task completed and discuss them in a little more detail. List the line management responsibilities you had, size of the project you worked on in terms of cost or employees and what your specific role was and what the outcomes were.
Talk about any barriers you had to overcome in order to achieve your goals. This can be done within a few paragraphs and will immediately stand out to an employer much better than a general description of your job responsibilities. It also shows that you have taken time to think about your resume and displays your skills at selecting, summarising and presenting appropriate information.
I have prepared two examples to give you a flavour of how this can work, the first example is a general description of job responsibilities, the second example presents the same information in a more specific manner.
Example 1
1999 - Present Bloggs and Company Ltd.
Position: Team Leader As a team leader I was responsible for overseeing a small team in a call centre environment. This involved dealing with a large volume of daily queries relating to banking related matters and I would frequently be responsible for taking calls that staff members couldn’t resolve through normal channels. In the role I demonstrated initiative and good assertiveness skills to resolve problem situations as quickly as possible.
Example 2
1999 - present Bloggs and Company Ltd.
Position: Team Leader In my capacity as a team leader in a call centre environment, I was responsible for a team of twenty staff, which included involvement in job related assessment, disciplinary matters and day to day motivational strategies. One of the specific projects I worked on was to manage the call centre operations for our largest client Chase Manhattan, which was worth approximately $1.2 million to our organisation. We would receive approximately 500-600 calls from Chase Manhattan customers each day relating to account queries. My specific role within this operation was to develop the specific operational procedures for managing Chase customers, which were subsequently followed by staff members on a daily basis. This also involved protocols and procedures for escalation of unresolved queries to more experienced staff.
As you can see the second example provides more specific information of your role, your responsibilities and the scale of the work you undertook and is more informative to any employer.
3. Ensure your resume is printed on good quality paper.
Never submit a resume in handwritten form they should always be typed up and printed off on high quality paper. This appears more attractive to an employer who is having to shift through hundreds of resumes that are printed on cheap paper.
4. Use color in titles
Using color in your headings and titles suggests to an employer that you are willing to go the extra mile to make your resume stand out. It will be instantly appealing to a prospective employer amongst all of the black and white copies they receive especially if it is also printed out on high quality paper and the content has been well considered and presented.
5. Multimedia Resumes
Creating a multimedia resume is an ideal way of making your resume stand out from the crowd as it demonstrates commitment and your willingness to go the extra mile to ensure quality, all of which will be attractive to a prospective employer. Multimedia resumes contain an electronic copy of your resume, with interactive links to case studies or projects you have been involved with. In addition you can add flashy artwork and sound clips or video footage of you talking about some of your key skills.
Multimedia resumes provide a 3-D picture of you and your skills and if you include video footage, give the opportunity for employers to see how well you present before you even get to interview. With increasing access to digital video recorders and computers that can burn multimedia compact discs and DVD’s these are increasingly ease to make. I have seen a number of these in my time as a recruiter and they really do stand out amongst the boring hard copies of resumes that I have received.
6. Use bullet points to summarise key skills
Using bullet points to summarise key skills at each employer history is a great way to enable your resume to stand out. Employers like to be able to identify important information quickly and bullet points will demonstrate your ability to summarise important information.
7. Provide case studies.
If there are a number of projects you have worked on at a specific employer and are unable to give it sufficient attention in the main body of your resume, then consider attaching some separate case studies. These should be a one page summary of what project you worked on, what you did, what skills you demonstrated, the size of the project, the number of staff under your direct supervision and what obstacles you had to overcome in achieving your goals. Make reference in your main resume to the fact that a separate case study is attached at the end of the document. |
