3 Ways to Boost Your Resume
The stress of job hunting to begin, or maybe even further your career, is already a tedious process and adding the creation of the perfect resume to the list merely adds anxiety to an already anxious situation. However, creating the perfect resume does not have to be difficult or stressful. There are ways to keep the stress to a minimum but like anything else related to minimizing stress, you will need help and a little guidance.
Your resume is overall what tells your story as it relates to your professional experience. Like any great story, you want to know the important details that lead up to the big happy ending but throughout the story you must also strive to keep the reader intrigued. You cannot overwhelm the reader with information or drag the story out, or you will run the risk of the losing the reader’s attention. To avoid an information overload, your resume should not list every job you’ve ever worked. It is important to remember to keep the information recent and relevant. However, it is encouraged to keep a master list of all jobs.
I’m sure by now you may be wondering, “How can I effectively boost my resume, without the added stress and anxiety?” I am so happy you asked so let’s get started!
When writing your resume, you must pose the following question to yourself, “why would someone want to hire me?” Your goal while being employed with any company should be to be so valuable that the organization would be scared to lose you. With that same thought in mind, you will gather information to compile or modify your resume.
Your first step to boosting your resume will be to make a great first impression. In the absence of your voice, you must present and market yourself as the ideal, well-polished employee that you know you are! You will create a brief narrative (professional summary) that highlights your overall performance which should include information such as, how you add value, how you produce results, and your skills and capabilities. Remember to add action words, descriptive adjectives are encouraged as well! Your professional summary should be clear, concise, and effective.
Upon completing your professional summary, you should highlight your specific areas of expertise. This section can be separated into list form, no descriptive information is needed. Your areas of expertise is simply a fancy way to list your strengths relevant to the position you are seeking.
After you’ve provided a summary of your capabilities and a breakout of your strengths, you can focus on boosting your resume to be more effective when describing your career or job accomplishments. The resume world is transitioning beyond listing duties of the position you’ve held. Try to quantify and monetize your job accomplishments and the complexity of your accountabilities. To quantify this information, always include numbers, dollars, and percentages to refrain from a pure descriptive of your job responsibilities. When the information is quantified, you are able to clearly display how you add value to an organization.
In conjunction with a strong narrative and quantifying your job descriptive, your final step in boosting your resume will be to showcase your key (significant) accomplishments. Completed projects or accomplishments with high visibility where you have excelled while holding a particular position should be brought out. Reflect on specific past accomplishments to illustrate the value you will bring to a potential employer. Use this section to articulate the outcomes you’ve delivered with specific examples. Sentences in this section should be concise and presented with bullets to make the information stand out.
Although this may seem like a lot of information to take in, the pointers to boost your resume will assist you in creating a more effective and marketable product. No one knows what you’ve specifically accomplished throughout your career but you. Use these tips to formulate ideas on how to better market yourself professionally. Remember, your resume tells your professional story where you voice is absent.
Originally posted here
