7 Rules to Write an Effective Resume

Goal or Problem

Many people can write a good resume but a good resume is not necessarily an effective resume. My article below will explain how to write an effective resume that lands you in an interview.

Idea

Anyone who owns the skill of writing an effective resume is not just skilled but he is truly blessed. In 90% of job, education or other career applications, you will not get to face the employer without initial screening. The initially screening is usually done on nothing else but your resume. Now your resume can never land you a job alone. Many other factors count in such as interviews, specific skills requirement but an effective resume can certainly bring you much closer to your dream job.

The good news is that writing an effective resume simply depends on your perception regarding the job and your own profile. If you can change those perceptions you can learn to write an effective resume. Here is what you need to know in order to do that:

1. Customize: Writing a resume that can land you a job, starts with customization of your resume. What does this mean? This means that never ever submit the same resume for every job. Your resume needs to be tailored according to the job requirements. Now this mainly depends on your perception of the employer and the job, so think about what would the employer want to see in your resume and then start writing your resume e.g. if you have some work experience under your belt and you are applying for a job that requires so, start your resume with your professional or work experience. On the other hand, if you are writing a resume for a college application (other than MBA), you should start with your education.
2. Make it Concise: Now this does not mean, the shorter the better. I mean a half page resume for a senior level position might only be as good as not applying at all. But you have to understand that in most cases, you are not the only one applying for this job and an employer may have to even go through piles of resumes to shortlist a few. So chances are that, if your resume is long, it might not even be read before going into the garbage. Now all employers have different set of rules regarding the length of the resume that they would require for a particular job, but a concise one page resume is usually always welcomed by every employer.
3. Content: Many people and specifically people who are just staring to make their resumes are often confused by the format and what to include and what not to include. This is a tricky question e.g. in several countries including mine; almost everyone includes an Objective Title at the beginning of their resume. This may include data ranging from which position you are applying for, career aspirations to become successful in your field. When I started to feel that I need more space on my resume, I got down to think what would be least important to the employer and that is when I realized that just because everyone includes an objective, doesn't mean I need to. In practice, it is the most useless bit of information on a person's resume. Now without it, my resume lacked a beginning and it felt like I was jumping onto details. So I created a title of Career Profile in which I included, in just a couple of bullets, my career summary ranging from the industries I have worked in to my education and most prolific trainings.

   The data your employer will always need is your work experience and education. What else you want to include depends on you and the particular job your are applying for. You can include data such as Trainings, Tools or Applications you have worked on, Social Work that you may have been doing, any good references that you may be able to provide, languages you can speak, management skills that you may have attained, co-curricular or social activities that you were involved n during your past job or education etc.

4. Design It: Yes that's right. Just because its a professional document, doesn't mean that it has to be boring. Now with most companies, you cannot go too creative with the design or it will be taken as unprofessional. But you can still make sure that the design of your resume appeals to the aesthetic sense. You can make your resume in a tabular format, highlight the headings and make them dark blue instead of black, add some very light shade to the background etc. If you are applying for an advertising job or design job, you may even take the liberty and design your resume like a poster or include an ad campaign on the back your resume. Such a resume will be able to stand out and has much more chance to catch the employer's attention than any other resume.
5. Personalize it: In most cases, people applying for a particular job will have somewhat similar profiles. For example, if the opening is for a restaurant chef, most of the people applying will already be working as chefs at different places. In such a case, you can make your resume stand out by highlighting your key strengths e.g. writing a brief intro of a recipe that you invented. Chances are that when the employer is bored with reading resumes, he/she will have a look at your resume and suddenly start taking interest again.
6. Highlight Achievements, Not Positions: Again, people with similar profiles often apply for the same positions. Chances are that by the time your employer gets to your resume, he/she will not be interested anymore in your position but rather in what you did while being at that position. Let me give you an example here on how you write the same information more effectively:

   a. Worked on aligning the hiring process between Operations and Human Resources Department
   b. Achieved reduction in average hiring time by one week through process alignment between Operations and Human Resources Department

   The second line explains what you achieved while doing your job and is much more appealing to the reader.

7. Don't write anything without backing it up with example: This is specifically true for soft skills. Never just write "Has strong negotiations skills", instead write it as "Negotiated the reduction in costs by 70% with the vendor". Soft/Management skills are much more believable when written as examples.

I believe the above 7 rules can help you land in an interview.