Want that Job? Work on your Resume

It is plain knowledge that the resume is probably the most important factor in determining whether you get an interview call or not. Getting an interview is your final opportunity to show the client that you are indeed the perfect candidate for the available job. But to get there you need to make sure you have a resume that stands out amongst the hundreds of other applications.

Job openings are advertised by companies of all sizes in newspapers and on classified websites with a career section. This is done primarily to avoid foul play and hiring unsuitable people through personal contacts. It also helps ensure that the company taps into a richer, more diversely experienced candidate pool with a higher likelihood of finding the right person for the job.

HR personnel can only spend less than a minute on each resume before deciding if it deserves a second appraisal or not. Each job opening receives hundreds of applications especially in the case of large companies and jobs that are of a more general, less authoritative nature. Resumes are efficiently sorted based on several criteria including usage of words and formatting. Education and past work experience are also key in more senior positions. A tiny fraction of the initial resumes ever make it to the second review and even fewer candidates get called for the final interview stage of the hiring process.

Be thorough while checking your resume for mistakes. Since you have been working on your resume for weeks it is easy for you to overlook simple errors that may be visible to the person reviewing your application. Get your resume rechecked by friends and family. Use a simple yet professional layout and font, taking care to arrange your strengths and accomplishments in a way that is easily noticeable. Remember that you want your appraiser to consider you as a serious candidate within a minute or so of reading your resume.

Spend a few hours a day to come up with different versions of your resume depending on the kind of positions and jobs you are applying for. Keep in mind that the closer your abilities and career experiences match with the employer’s requirements the higher the chances of you getting an interview call. Employers are not interested in unrelated particulars about your past. They need to be sure that you can add something extra that none of the other candidates can bring to the job. Convey only those skills that are related to your job be it a job in sales or in accounting.

Once you’ve successfully completed your resume, step back and involve yourself in other tasks, like preparing for the interview, for a couple of days. This will give you a break and a fresh perspective when you revisit your resume. Submit your job application only once you’re entirely convinced that you’ve fulfilled all the employer’s requirements. Your future depends on it.