Resume Writing | The Perfect Resume

Would you like to improve your resume and increase your chances above the rest? Resume Writing is a talent of The Perfect Resume Professional Writing experts! Here are their hot tips!

Be memorable!

There are a lot of ways you can improve your chances and create a resume that is memorable. The best trick is to grab the recruiter’s attention within the first third of the page in a good way! Include a catchy statement, add recommendations to your resume, use a great design. Click here to see our easy to use resume templates for a modern style. 

Enhancing your resume for scanning purposes

It is well-known recruiters receive hundreds of applications for a job opening. They don't have all day to read each resume from end-to-end. In fact, a recruiter spends on average 6 seconds to determine whether or not a candidate is suitable for shortlisting. Use the following resume writing tips to increase your chances: 

• Use bullet points with the first one the punchiest of them all.
• Write concise statements about your responsibilities and achievements and back it up with quantifiable facts and figures to increase your credibility.
• Eliminate long sentences.
• Ensure you have enough white space.
• Avoid conversational language and narrative formats, which take longer to read.
• Use strong, action-oriented sentences.
• Keep your resume short, sweet and to the point. The length should be no more than two pages.

Close career gaps

Today, if career gaps are not tolerated. If you had more than one year off, you need to seek professional advice on how to minimise the impact. This is a harsh truth. If you took the time off to strengthen your children’s emotional, physical and developmental needs. Put this in the cover letter to inform the recruiter, and close the gap by adding your voluntary experience etc. 

Eliminate spelling and grammatical errors

You can tell a lot about people’s communication skills by looking at their sentence structure and composition. Ask a family member or friend to proofread and check your final copy. You can also engage a professional resume writer to do this for you (click here). 

Use a structured layout

• Remember your resume isn’t a novel.
• Include well-organised and topical information.
• Put your most recent position first, and go in reverse chronological order.
• Leave off irrelevant positions and experience.
• Convert your resume to a PDF. This ensures no changes can be made and the formatting remained as you intended. MAC users, do not use Pages to create your resume. Most corporate organisations cannot open these formats. Please note, there are also inconsistencies between Google Docs and Microsoft Word. With so many variances of versions, whether the employer uses Mac or Windows, a PDF is a safe bet.

Tailor your responses

• Use specific keywords highlighted in the position description to increase your chances of passing Applicant Tracking Systems.
• Demonstrate your interest and show you put time into the application.
• Focus the content entirely on the job requirements.
• Eliminate unnecessary information.

Improve the design

• Make your resume your personal marketing brochure, but don't go overboard on graphics, fancy fonts etc. The resume design should be structured, easy to read and focus on the content over the design elements. 
• Pay attention to the aesthetics of your resume. Have you structured one job one way and your previous job another? These small imperfections are sometimes the first things recruiters notice. 
• Ensure the layout and formatting of your resume is easy to understand at a glance.
• Don’t use fancy, annoying fonts or too many different fonts. Keep it simple. 
• Stand out amongst the sea of boring black and white resumes with a splash of colour.
• When printing and handing it to a recruiter at a job fair etc. print your resume on thicker or glossy paper to help yourself stand out.
• Add a letterhead with your email and one mobile number in an easy to find place.

If you are finding the resume writing process a little overwhelming, don't worry, we have you covered. Simply submit your resume for a free review and we can give you constructive feedback to guide you along. Click here to take us up on the opportunity for a free resume review. 

Feel free to share this blog and the image below with your family and friends so they can benefit from the expert's secrets as well! Or read other educational blogs to improve your resume writing techniques. 

You can also view other blogs to improve your resume writing