Be succinct and complete

A good resume must allow headhunters, HR managers, or personnel directors to clearly know your previous work performances and contributions. By precisely listing and including descriptions of the following points, you will make your resume more complete and comprehensive:

1.Your major work responsibilities
2.Contribution to your department
3.Positive effects you’ve brought to the company
4,Achievements based on cooperation with others, such as clients, colleagues, suppliers, supervisors, and subordinates
5.If you feel uncomfortable writing small paragraphs of descriptions, we recommend that you present the information in bullet points

Include a brief introduction of your previous companies

Many job seekers assume that their resume readers will be familiar with their previous industry and companies; they believe including merely their job title will be sufficient.

If your resume is received directly by the department supervisor, such might work. However, not all readers are experts in your industry; often, the first people who will read your resume would be the company’s HR or headhunting consultants. Even if your previous company is extremely well-known within the industry, had the new job that you’re applying to be in another industry, they may not have heard of it. Writing a small description of your previous companies will help recruiters better understand your experiences and realize the contributions that you can make for the company.

Be specific - facts speak for themselves

Most people like to add flowery adjectives in their resume - such as responsible, proactive, cooperative - to highlight their strengths. However, when 90 out of 100 resumes applying for the same position have the identical or similar adjectives used to describe themselves, how are we supposed to decide which applicants should be called for an interview? To make oneself distinctive, all personal statements should include specific instances for credibility - only then can you prove to recruiters your talent and ability.

Integrity comes first

Resume is a tool for marketing oneself, and all marketing should be built on pure facts.

It is inevitable that we experience frustrating times in our career, such as getting laid off, being unemployed for more than three months, or having consecutive short-term jobs.

Some people, when applying for jobs, will alter their reasons for leaving their previous work or their entry and exit time of that job in order to pass the first stage of job application. However, more likely than not, such would only lead to them being rejected without a reason given, after they have put in so much time and effort into the previous stages of application.

Most large-scale companies conduct reference checks before they hire a new employee; thus rather than being labeled as dishonest in the last stage of application, it is better to be truthful and prepared to explain the flaws in your application.

For fresher, who most likely lack experiences and skills, the following tips shall help them better build their resumes:

Highlight personal features and expertise

If you graduated from a reputable university and under its certain prominent majors, congratulations, your resume can easily attract the attention of employers. If you don't have that advantage, don't get frustrated - education is not the only factor that determines recruitment; an outstanding resume plays a significant role in differentiating a person from others.

Highlighting your specialty in your resume is essential to obtain employers’ interest. For example, all extra-curricular activities or competitions can be used to assess your personality and work attitude. These can be proofs of your ability to work in teams and excel from within. Moreover, any talent that can illuminate your comparative superiority (e.g. language ability, R&D ability, etc.) will also be given an advantage in the evaluation process. There was an interesting case that we’ve dealt with. A company was looking for a general manager’s secretary; three candidates were left in the final round of interview, but the last who got picked was a rather ordinary applicant. We asked the general manager why he made that decision. He then told us that, during the interview, the candidate mentioned her interest in floriculture and quickly presented her portfolio when was asked to show them. He said, “As she showed me pictures of her works, I found her very efficient and detail-oriented. That’s why I ultimately chose her to be my secretary.”

Present yourself professionally

Remember that applying for jobs is a serious matter, thus elements like gibberish, colloquialism, improper photos, etc., should never be included in one’s resume. These unprofessional presentation will make you appear careless and unbefitting.

No matter if you have work experience or not, always bear in mind the aforementioned tips to correctly market yourself and earn the opportunity to be interviewed. A good headhunting firm shall, while recommending jobs for job seekers, explore their advantages and disadvantages in order to help job seekers build the best possible resume.

Hope you find this article useful.

Rising Management Consulting Co., Ltd.