A Professional Resume or CV is the only document that can get you to the interviewer’s table. If you’re applying for jobs but not getting the interview opportunities, there are chances your resume or CV is letting you down. What does a professional resume should have to trigger an interview call? What do recruiters look for in a resume? How to write a professional interview-winning resume? So, these are million-dollar questions and all job seekers and job holders need an answer.
A resume or CV is one of the most important documents in the job-hunting process for any candidate.
Let me say, “A Professional Resume Is a Digital Representation of Yourself and Your Career.”
Importance of Professional Resume Writing:
Resume Writing or CV Writing is truly an art. Most of the professionals don’t know how to write an impressive CV to win the recruiters confidence and get better interview opportunities. Nowadays resume is not only written for the human eye but while writing a resume the job seekers also need to think about Applicant Tracking System as well.
A CV or resume is a marketing document so that you can sell yourself to potential employers. Resume writing is not about just putting each detail of skills, experience and education on the white papers. A resume or CV must be written very carefully with the relevant detail because each line on the paper is very important and must convey value.
While writing a professional resume place more focus on results, achievements, core competencies and value addition to make it an achievement-based resume or CV.
Make your resume’s content engaging, compelling, stick to relevant detail and don’t make the resume too much longer.
So, what do you think? How you are going to market yourself. For each vacancy, hundreds of candidates send applications and how you are going to stand tall. The market is full of competition and many professionals send job applications for months but unfortunately didn’t get a response and only a few of you get the interview opportunities. This is the resume that can articulate your professional value and empower you to secure better opportunities quickly if written wisely.
“The Resume or CV Is the First Face of Job Seekers That Land in Recruiters System to Make the First Impression.”
The Professional CV or resume must be crafted very smartly because most companies use the Applicant Tracking System (ATS) for candidate shortlisting and hiring managers give only a few seconds for initial screening. So, it is very important, all the required information must be placed wisely to tackle the Applicant Tracking System and facilitate the recruiters.
Before writing a professional resume or CV, job-seekers must consider the following points;
- What is your objective? Find out the objective of revamping or writing a new resume. Which role do you want to target? Do you need a different role or want a career switch?
- What is going on in the market? Have a look at the market. Find out ongoing trends and take an idea about the jobs situation. Ask yourself, can you cash your experience, skills and get the right opportunities at this time?
- Do some research. Ask yourself, are you ready for the new role? What do recruiters look for in a candidate to hire? Examine the role or position you want to target. Work on the skills, experience and other requirements. Review the responsibilities and essentials of the role on different job portals including LinkedIn. Find out some relevant keywords to place in your resume.
- Focus on offering benefits & value. Before crafting a resume think about what you can offer to the employer in the desired role. Have a look at your career’s accomplishments, professional competencies & experience.
Layout and Readability of the Professional Resume:
A resume is not written only for the human eye but for meeting the Applicant Tracking System (ATS) criteria as well. While writing an applicant tracking system friendly professional CV or resume you should adopt a balanced approach. So, your CV should look professional, engaging, appealing to the human eye and must be Applicant Tracking System friendly. After all, most employers use ATS in finding potential candidates and optimizing the hiring process.
Make sure your CV is written with the right section headings, font, colour and format. Avoid grammatical & spelling mistakes. Choose a professional layout and navigate the information sensibly. Don’t use too many colours, avoid graphs, data bars and tables. Use bullet points instead of writing in long paragraphs.
The first page is very important and must be crafted very carefully. It must contain the necessary relevant detail at a glance because recruiters give only a few seconds to a single resume for initial screening and didn’t read the complete CV.
Important Sections of a Professional Resume:
CV or resume can have a lot of information and all the relevant information must be available just at a glance for the recruiters. But the question is, What Does a Resume or CV Should Have to Trigger the Interview Call? Here I am going to enlist some very important sections in detail. I will advise job-seekers to consider these sections while crafting a professional resume. It doesn’t matter about position, industry, or pay grade, these sections are applicable at each level and across the industry.
1. A Compelling Executive Profile Summary:
An Executive Profile Summary is the first and most crucial section of a resume. This section provides a brief overview of a candidate’s experience, accomplishments, qualifications and skills. Avoid writing lengthy paragraphs, around 5 to 7 lines are enough to market yourself and you can write the statements in bullet points as well.
This section is a selling area of your resume where you can demonstrate why you are an ideal candidate for the specific job and company. Therefore, the statements crafted for this section must be compelling, engaging and specific to encourage the recruiters to scroll down, read the resume and shortlist for an interview meeting.
Avoid writing an objective statement because an objective statement focuses on personal interest or what you are looking for in a job and career. On the other hand, the Executive Profile summary communicates the candidates’ professional value and emphasize what you can offer the employer in the targeted role.
When writing an executive profile or resume summary statement, make sure to include concrete information. However, emphasize how you have added value to the businesses and facilitated the organizations to achieve their objectives.
You should consider the following elements while writing a compelling Executive Profile Summary;
- Mention your current position and top qualification
- Demonstrate the reasons why you are fit for the role
- Describe your strong character and core competencies
- Past and Current relevant experience with key functions
- Notable achievements to prove you can deliver results if hired
- Indicate how you can help the employers to achieve their goals
- You can include a professional branding statement to market yourself
2. Professional Competencies or Skills:
The core competencies section provides a snapshot of candidates top professional skills and shows alignment with the targeted role. The professional or Core competencies section includes candidates professional skills, knowledge, personality traits or certifications that can make job-seeker a desirable candidate. This section should be placed right below the Executive Profile Summary section on the resume so recruiters can see it immediately.
Emphasize, role or job-related professional competencies instead of putting more focus on personality traits. Interpersonal skills are also important but you should highlight your professional job-related competencies more to grab the employer’s attention.
This section is very important because it gains the recruiters’ attention and provides the potential employers with an overview of your abilities. It facilitates the recruiter in deciding, either the candidate has the required professional skills to take the role or not.
Further, this section also has great importance because of Applicant Tracking System. You can place the required skills or keywords in this section as well about the targeted role wisely to improve the resume ATS compatibility.
Place the right set of interpersonal and professional competencies as bullet points. Tailor this section according to the role for each job application. All of the skills must be aligned with the current and past experience and should demonstrate the job-seeker suitability for the job on the table.
3. Key Achievements or Accomplishments or Value Additions:
The hiring managers love to see the achievements or accomplishments on a resume. Listing professional achievements or value additions on a resume or CV is very important and reassures the recruiters that the applicant can get the work done and exceed the expectations.
The key Achievements section should be placed on the first page and created wisely. Achievements can also be included in the Executive Profile section and Experience section as well to create an achievement-based CV. Achievements presented professionally always help in getting the employer’s spotlight. So, place more focus on quantitative figures, results and value additions while writing this section.
The achievements or accomplishments are a testimony of candidates experience, professional skills, abilities and commitment to achieve the goals and succeed in their career. So, avoid using more space for job responsibilities, allot some space for writing achievements because listing the key achievements help the job-seekers to stand out from the crowd.
You can consider the following elements for writing the Key Achievements or Accomplishments section in your resume or CV;
- Promotions to higher positions
- Increased revenue or sales figures
- The cost you saved for the company
- The time you saved for the company
- Innovations and ideas you presented
- Special projects or ventures you worked on
- Performance awards or certificates you earned
- Introduced new products or businesses developed
- Hit the targets, KPI & built high performing team
- Policies and procedures you devised or revamped
- Developed a system or introduced improvements to the system
4. Professional Experience or Work History:
The work experience section has information about the job-seekers professional work experience history. This section also includes job titles, company names, employment dates, projects, accomplishments and responsibilities. You can include full-time jobs, part-time jobs, temporary roles, and even internships. You can also include the volunteer work experience if you don’t have the proper experience or have employment gaps.
This section explains the candidates’ professional track record or career path. Information about your role, achievements and other relevant points that prove you’re the right person for the job must be placed accurately. Your job responsibilities must be aligned with the targeted role or the job for which you are going to be interviewed. Place your work experiences in chronological order by listing your work history with your most recent job at the top and address the employment gaps properly (if any).
As I already discussed CV is a marketing document and this section is the heart of your CV. While crafting this section be specific, use bullet points, don’t write the paragraphs and place some relevant keywords all over the experience section but don’t stuff your CV with more keywords.
Keep in mind the length of your resume or CV because lengthy resumes also kill the interview opportunities. Create an achievement-based resume, put more focus on convincing the recruiters you have what they want. Include relevant achievements, figures, power words and avoid putting too many responsibilities.
Keep in mind the following elements for crafting an engaging and compelling experience section to achieve interview opportunities;
- Be factual
- Include some figures or numbers
- Mention promotions & role switching
- List the special assignments and projects
- Prove you have what the recruiters want
- Mention promotions & switching the role
- Illustrate what you have successfully offered
- Mention your achievements and contributions
- Place the Keywords smartly for Applicant Tracking System
- Narrates the responsibilities with Power words and action verbs
5. Education or Professional Qualification or Certifications Detail:
Your CV must have an education, professional qualification and certification section. If you have a strong achievement-based experience then place this section after the experience detail otherwise write education & qualification detail before the experience section. Write the most important and strong qualification or certification first with the university or institute name.
6. Professional Development programs, Training or Short Courses:
Training programs, professional development workshops and short courses are very important and should be placed in a resume as a separate section. Training, short courses and professional development programs ensure the hiring managers, you have a history of polishing or getting the new skills and keeping you updated with the new developments, technology and knowledge. These activities ensure your seriousness about the career, make your case strong with the hiring managers and act as a catalyst to trigger an interview call.
7. IT/ERP/Technical Skills:
Every job needs some IT or ERP and technical skills to perform the work properly. These types of skills are very important and enable the professional to get the work done easily and on time. Include in your resume some MS office, ERP, software and computer applications related expertise like MS Word, MS Excel or MS PowerPoint, Accounting ERPs, Project Management Systems, Business Intelligence Suits, designing applications etc. Make sure these skills should be aligned with your past or current experience and with the role you want to target.
8. Projects or Ventures Detail:
Projects and ventures detail is very important particularly for constructions, maintenance, business development, designing and IT-related roles. You must include in your resume some relevant key valuable projects and business ventures if you have worked on those. Ventures and projects detail support the experience, capabilities, achievements and help your CV to convince the recruiter for an interview opportunity.
9. Contact Information or Some Required Personal Detail:
Contact information must be placed on the top of the resume in the header section. Email ID, contact number and location is mandatory and should be available at a glance for recruiters.
Other personal detail like nationality, languages spoken and driving license etc. is also important and should be placed in the resume as required. But there is no need to add more personal detail like CNIC number, passport detail, father name etc.
10. References:
This section is optional. If you have some strong references and you want to include them or it’s a recruiter’s requirement then fine you can include otherwise there is no need to include them. I will advise you, get some recommendations on your LinkedIn profile from your current and previous managers or senior executives and develop your digital presence instead of using important space of your CV. LinkedIn recommendations can also work as a strong reference too.
Conclusion:
Job-seekers often think about how they can stand out from the competition and grab more interview opportunities. Having good professional qualifications, impressive experience, interpersonal and professional skills are certainly desirable qualities for a job candidate but to stand tall, job-seekers need to show more than just the required qualifications, skills and experience to get hired.
A resume or CV is the only document that enables professionals to win more interviews and land life-changing opportunities. Professional resume writing or CV writing is an art that can help professionals in crafting an interview-winning resume. The resume or CV is the document that land in recruiter’s system, fight with competition and empower you to grab the interview opportunity. So, be specific, relevant and put more focus on achievements, results and value addition to offer value while crafting a professional resume or CV.
Nice article. Worth reading.
Thanks for posting.