Last Updated on June 1, 2020

Do you wonder what skills are must to write effective resume?

Resume writing is not a special skill that you can not do yourself. Resume writing has become easy due to online formats. Nonetheless copy and pasting these formats does not help you land your dream job. Let’s dig into the 10 tips to write effective resume:

Understand the Job Description & Use relevant Keywords
Do not Complicate your Resume with Sub-Sections
Stick to one page & avoid over-stuffing the Content
Use a professional picture
Do not Overstate Facts
Align the margins & Similar Font Sizes
Proof read & Edit your Resume
Include Listings & Timeline for Experience
Match your skills with the Job Opportunity
Alter Resume according to the Job

Understand the Job Description & Use relevant Keywords

Do not apply to the job without knowing about the Job Description and Company Profile. Use Keywords in your resume for example for social media manager you can use “Facebook Ads”.

Add a number of skills that you have expertise in. Also mention your area of expertise and area of interest in the Bio or the summary section. This will create a more in depth resume and the recruiters will consider you as someone who cares about his CV/Resume.

This is similar to writing an executive summary for a business plan, as:

“The Executive Summary is actually the easiest part of the entire process. It’s only 1- 2 pages long and should be a neat outline of what you intend to achieve. But it’s very important to get this part correct. It will set the tone for the rest of the plan. So it has to read well and smoothly.”

Discussed at Finimpact’s detailed guide about writing a business plan.

Do not Complicate your Resume with Sub-Sections

The most effective resume writing tip is to use only relevant subheadings. You can use these subheadings: Work Experience, Education, Extra-Curricular Activities (Voluntary Work & Other).

There are some obvious and mandatory sections that are must in any resume recipe. Such as Bio/Summary, Career goals/objectives, Education, Qualifications, Experience (If you have only then, otherwise not), Certifications (If you have acquired some only then, only mention those which are well-known and recognized not ordinary ones), projects, skills, technical skills, programming languages (for IT people only), hobbies, etc. Do not add references section, it is not considered in today’s world.

Stick to one page & avoid over-stuffing the Content

The best resumes are short,to the point and precise. You do not have to include your fathers name and irrelevant personal information. Use bullet points to be precise. Thus, single page bullet points will help you to avoid “over-stuffing” the content.

Use professional picture

Nowadays it is a common practice to use a Professional picture inside your resume. Why? Because your appearance matters to the employers. Pro tip: Use a picture in which your face is visible with solid backgrounds.

Appear in a professional dress, not a casual outfit.

Appear in a decent and appealing face impression, dont try to look to serious, or too frank. A little smile can add a lot of impression and attraction in your picture.

Do not Overstate Facts

You want to be honest with the your employer we get it but too much honesty will never help you. Do not add irrelevant jobs which you took during your summer break. For example adding “Salesperson” for the position of Graphic designer.

These small mistakes in the resume are one of the reasons why you are not getting the call for your dream job. Align the margins & Similar Font Sizes. The simple under rated trick for resume is aligning the margins and using similar font sizes. Nobody wants to waste time reading a resume that have no order and does not look good in the first appearance.

Pro tip: Use Times New Roman ,text size 12 for paragraphs or bullet points and text size 14 to 16 for main headings.

Proof read & Edit your Resume

It does not hurt to proof read your resume and making it perfect. Edit your resume as much as you want but keep it simple. Yes, it is time consuming but to get the job you have to do some sort of hard work right?

If you are not able to review it, maybe because it is your first CV or you are not enough experienced, try reaching a resume editing service. They can help you find any error or mistake in your resume and will cover it without any trouble.

Include Listings & Timeline for Experience

Effective resume have listings and helps the reader understand your skills and experience. Include job experiences in a chronological order to write effective resume.

Match your skills with the Job Opportunity

A effective resume contains your expertise and skills relevant to the Job Opportunity. Do a SWOT analysis of yourself to help you stand out from the rest of the candidates.

Try researching and collecting insights about the skills from a variety of online sources such as:

1. Glassdoor

2. Payscale

3. LinkedIn

4. Quora

5. Toptal

6. Indeed

Alter Resume according to the Job

Not all clothes fit all occasions same goes for your resume. Similarly, your resume can not fit all the Jobs you are applying for. Alter your resume by adding or subtracting the information from your resume.

Pro Tip: have multiple resumes ready in your folders/PC to deal accordingly. Like, if you are applying for multiple positions, at a time you can distinguish the skills, and experience in relevance with the job mentioned.

Ending Notes:

The above article is based on the tips and skills needed to polish your resume building and presentation skills to the recruiters and companies. This piece of research is based totally on the opinions, by experience recruiters, hiring managers, and talent hunters of Resume Writer US and Perfect Resume UAE, who have been working in the HR sector for over 20 years.
The above article is totally based on their experience and observations, and that will definitely help one in getting more exposure while applying for a job.

Author: Sara Rehman

Hello. I am Sara Rehman, a digital marketer and a passionate blogger who shares her expertise on various topics from food to movies, entertainment, lifestyle and what not. Do not forget to review my work and leave a comment on my posts to stay in touch.

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