10 Effective Tips to Instantly Boost Your Resume

Have you been on the job hunt for a while now? And, perhaps, despite submitting application after application, you’ve still not had any luck. 

We know the process can begin to feel disheartening, but don’t give up just yet. By making a few simple tweaks to your resume, you can seriously increase your chances of landing your dream role. 

Here are 10 tips you can use to instantly boost your resume and boost your chances of success: 

1. Cut It Down 

Your resume should never be longer than two pages, but if you can cut it down to just one page, that’s even better! 

Recruiters don’t have much time to read through each individual application, so you should aim to get your key selling points across as concisely as possible. Just cut out any unnecessary information or fluff and aim for a short, sweet, and punchy document. 

2. Ditch the Clichés 

Recruiters read hundreds of resumes and are faced with the same cliché phrases time and time again. 

 The likes of “Always gives 110%” and “Determined go-getter with an amazing work ethic” might sound impressive, but they prove absolutely nothing to recruiters.

 So, ditch these overused buzzwords and focus your resume on hard facts, achievements, and skills instead.

3. Add Facts and Figures 

Showcasing your achievements on your resume is a great way to prove your value, and the best way to do this is by adding facts and figures. Quantifying your achievements shows how you can add real impact to an employer.

 For example, rather than merely stating that you’ve got digital marketing skills, you could say, “My SEO strategy increased traffic to the company website by 34% in six months.”

4. Remove the Jargon 

While you might be clued up on all the industry-specific terminology, acronyms, and jargon, you should avoid using these too frequently in your resume. 

Remember, the recruiter or HR personnel reading your resume might not understand what these mean and, therefore, won’t understand how they add value. 

5. Utilize Bullet Points 

Bullet points can be helpful for breaking up big chunks of text and aiding the readability of your resume.

Use them to list your key skills and responsibilities in your employment history section, as well as anywhere else you feel it’s appropriate. 

 This will make it far easier for the recruiter to navigate through the document and digest the information. 

6. Simplify your Design 

You might think that choosing a quirky or bold design will help you stand out, but overdoing it can be quite distracting and take the focus away from the all-important written content.

Therefore, it’s best to simplify your design, so it’s easier for the recruiter to scan through and find all the information they need. 

7. Perfect Your Top Quarter 

The top quarter of your resume is the first thing a recruiter reads and should contain a punch professional summary and core skills list.

Be sure to spend time perfecting these sections – if recruiters don’t like what they read, they might move straight onto the next application.

Aim to make it short, snappy, and attention-grabbing. These two sections should put forward your key selling points, capabilities, and achievements and entice the reader to read further.

8. Focus on your Hard Skills 

While soft skills (teamwork, communication, flexibility, etc.) certainly have their place in the workplace, it’s more important to showcase your hard skills on your resume. 

Hard skills (coding, speaking a language, medical knowledge, project management, etc.) show the employer you’ve got the technical skills required to succeed in the role. 

For this reason, try to prioritize space for your hard skills and, where possible, back them up with qualifications, certifications, and examples to show recruiters why you’d be a good fit for the position. 

9. Tailor Every Resume 

Every resume you submit should be tailored to the specific position and company you’re applying to. To do this, research the company before you begin writing and use the job description to help inform your resume content.

Your aim should be to match the job requirements as closely as possible. Every sentence in your resume should prove your suitability, while anything that’s totally irrelevant to the role should be deleted.

10. Ask for Feedback 

Lastly, if you’re feeling disheartened and can’t understand why your resume wasn’t successful, it’s a good idea to ask for feedback. 

Most recruiters will be happy to oblige, and this can help you to improve for next time. So, get in touch with the recruiter for the last role you applied for and politely ask for some constructive feedback. 

Then, adapt your resume to suit. Continue to do this for each role you apply for, and you’ll consistently improve your chances as time goes on!

Read More: Resume Basics: Writing and Formatting Your Resume

•  
• 

from Career Tool Belt https://ift.tt/335KJWy

Read More

How to Find and Land Your Dream Internship

Internships are a great way to gain experience and start out your career on the right foot! Rather than applying for an internship and then fitting yourself into the position, figure out who you are, what you want out of a career, and what lights you up. Then apply to internships that align with those things!

Find, Land, and Keep Your Dream Internship

Here are eight steps to finding, landing, and keeping your dream internship.

1. Self Reflection & Exploration

Before applying to internships, take some time to think about who you are. You want the foundation of this internship search to be comprised of the most important thing – YOU!

Here are some things to think about when taking stock of yourself:

• Your Passions – These are the things that energize you throughout the day vs. starting at the clock and counting the minutes. What are things that light you up and make you lose track of time?
• Your Gifts – These are the unique talents you possess rather than just the areas you’ve been previously trained on. What are things that come naturally to you?
• Your Values – These are principles that you hold dear and are important to you, like teamwork, authenticity, or adventure. What are the principles you want to be known for and stand by?
• Your Purpose – This is a succinct vision for the impact you want to make in your career at this time. Defining your purpose helps you to gut check if the job aligns with your broader vision. What is your vision for yourself? What impact do you want to make?

4. Determine Your Industry

Now that you have learned about yourself and laid a solid foundation of introspection, think about what you want out of a career and what industries are interesting and exciting to you.

Dream big, now is not the time to hold yourself back – we’re just exploring here. A great place to start would be thinking about what classes did you always look forward to?

3. Narrow It Down

Once you’ve determined what industry you’re interested in, you want to make a list of companies you’d like to apply for. Start with a big list, and taper it down from there. You can narrow it down by thinking about what companies align with your unique strengths and the things you’re passionate about. Focus on companies whose values align with yours so you’ll be a good fit culturally.

Do a quick gut check to ensure this role will help you reach your longer-term goals. Once you’ve narrowed down your list, do some research – what will the day to day look like, what’s the company culture like, etc.

This is also a great time to think about your non-negotiables. Do you care if it’s an unpaid internship? Are you willing to commute? These are important questions to ask yourself when deciding where to begin your career path!

4. The Tacticals and Practicals

This is the step that you want to make sure you all your pieces of collateral reflect who you are and what you want to say. Your resume, LinkedIn, elevator pitch, and any other personal branding piece should be cohesive, up to date, and something you’re proud of and want people to see. Looking for more tips and tricks? Feel free to download this guide!

5. Apply, Apply, Apply!

Now that you’ve decided where you’d like to get an internship and have the tacticals and practicals you’re proud of, you get to apply. The application process can be overwhelming and daunting, you’re not alone in thinking that!

But you want to give the applications the time and effort they deserve. Stay organized in your applications and make sure that you don’t miss deadlines or confuse your contacts. Here is a great resource to learn how to get that interview!

6a. Interview Prep

You have applied and now the interview process begins. Interviewing can be intimidating, but preparation can really help you out here. Things to research prior to any interview are

1. The company – what are their values, have they been in the news, are they working on any big projects or initiatives
2. The culture – check out their social media, see what people are saying on Glassdoor, browse the linkedin profiles of their employees
3. The people – who are the key people in leadership, who will you be working with, who else should you know
4. The process – what is the interview experience like, what are commonly asked questions, what is the average timeframe to hear back from them

6b. Interviews

Interviews are pretty nerve wracking and it’s easy to ramble on and on. When asked an open-ended question, use the Rule of 3’s tool where you first speak to the most important thing, then the other two things can be supportive – this keeps you structured and thorough but concise.

Another great tool when you’re asked a behavioral (tell me about a time…) question is the STAR Method:

S – Describe the event or situation.

T – Explain the task you had to complete.

A – Describe the specific actions you took to complete the task.

R – Describe the results of your efforts.

Nervous about how to break down those “about me” questions, check out this resource.

7. Day One Success

You’ve landed your dream internship – congratulations! But the hard work doesn’t stop here. You want to set yourself up for success so that one day this internship can turn into a full-time position if you want to stay with the company. Ways to do this are:

1. Finding a mentor who has been right where you are and can share advice.
2. Schedule a one on one with your boss to discuss responsibilities, expectations, communication style.
3. Learn quickly and stay up to date on industry news.
4. Internal networking is important and doesn’t just stop once you are on the job. This is a great way to advance, so aim for a coffee date a week, or join a committee within your company.

8. Re-Evaluate

Once you’ve been in your internship for a while, you want to re-evaluate and determine if this is the path you want to continue to be on:

• How has your experience been?
• Has it been great and meaningful and you want to stay?
• Has it been okay, and you like the work but maybe this company doesn’t align?
• Or has it been terrible and this path is totally not for you and you need to go into a totally different industry?

All of these options are totally okay! You are figuring out what you want and need, and are one step closer to figuring out right where you should be!

Internships are a great way to gain experience and start understanding yourself as a young professional. Use this as a learning opportunity to learn more about yourself and what you want. Don’t be afraid to go after the internship of your dreams – you’ve got this!

•  
• 

from Career Tool Belt https://ift.tt/306qlVZ

Read More