How is my resume/CV looking from an HR perspective?

A question that I am often asked by friends and colleagues??

Let’s start by pointing out that a resume is different from a CV and this is how:

Curriculum Vitae (CV), Latin for “course of life”, is an in-depth document which describes the whole course of your career in full detail and might be multiple pages long. A resume or résumé (French for “summary”) on the other hand is more of a brief version of a CV that offers recruiters a short overview of your work history.

The most important thing about a resume or a CV is to reflect your personal character while highlighting why you are the right person for the job you apply for. It also has to leave a lasting impression on the reader and help them create a mental profile that they can match to the announced job opening.

On average, it takes a professional recruiter 30-45 seconds to review a resume, unless something within it catches his/her attention and that is your ultimate goal as a candidate - CATCH THE READERS ATTENTION! If you do so the recruiter will take the time to read it carefully and stop at each point to think “Can this be the right person”? At that point he/she is likely already considering to give you the chance to talk and prove that you are the best person for the job.

People working in the marketing would definitely agree that creating interest for your product is the hardest part. In this case, you are the product and employers are the market. Now let’s take a look at how you can peak someone’s interest in your resume.

1-      Carefully review the job opening:

• ?Fully absorb the job you are applying for and use their job announcement as a guide for tweaking your resume. For example, use similar wordings, highlight activities that you did and they are looking for, etc.

2-      Capitalize and utilize your journey:

• Show your achievements in former projects and organizations.
• Focus on career progress and roles you’ve held.

3-      Brand yourself:

• State you real career objective and try to show how this job can help you achieve it.
• Use the power of your former employer reputation.
• Develop a shorter and more memorable name.

4-      Delay the filtration phase:

• Some recruiters filter by geographical location, marital status or other personal information so let’s leave it until the end, after they are already interested in giving you the chance for an interview.