Making your resume stand out, part 1

As recruiters, we read a lot of resumes.?Sure, we offer advice on them, but we don’t write many. Unlike Mark Daniel from Real Life Career Advice, who met with us recently as a special guest on our podcast 2 Recruiters 1 Mic. Mark had some important considerations to share for writing a competitive resume.

With global experience whilst working in HR career development, Mark has had exposure to many industries and can substantiate his findings, whether you write your own resume or outsource the task.

Here is part 1 of 2 for how you can get the most out of your resume.

Cover Letter - Submit the Best You for the Best Outcome

This is prime opportunity to introduce yourself and tell the employer where you want to go and why, whilst giving them a taste of your personality - almost preamble to the first interview.

This letter also allows you to align to the elements in the role and to meet and apply the selection criteria if required. Another benefit for example – if there is a skill you don’t have, explain why here, in a positive light.

Using keywords from the job advertisement can also assist in aligning you with the role and company. Afterall, you want to be seen as relevant to the position you are applying for. Various organisations use Applicant Tracking Systems for the purpose of sourcing relevant people for the position they have available. This system allows the employer and the applicant to use associated relevant keywords as an initial screen, before it’s picked up by the hiring manager.

While they can seem appealing, there’s no need for things like tables, underlining, or photos, as populating data and fields with these can disrupt the ability of organisation’s system to capture all relevant information. You want and need employers to receive your entire story as you present it, so relying on your words, structure and what you choose to go into your cover will serve you better in that way.

Next week we will share further guidelines regarding aligning yourself to the role and company in your actual resume. Stay tuned.

We have a 2 Recruiters 1 Mic podcast episode on this very topic that you can listen to here.

Grow Advisors is a part of the Talent United group of companies.