By Dorcas Karuana,
One of the most important questions job seekers should be asking when filling out their resume is: “how do I know I have a fighting chance among the other hundreds of qualifying applicants like myself?” How can you be noticed, how can you stand out?
1. Your professional and educational achievements- Employers will always list the minimum professional or educational qualifications in a job advert. Therefore, is usually the initial step in the short listing process. Therefore, a job seeker should use keywords, from the advert, that describe your professional areas of expertise (i.e. web design, blogging, financial planning). Also, job titles and descriptions of your education (i.e. MBA) are also excellent keywords.
2. Brevity, Clarity and Ease of information location- Present your profile in a way that is not distracting to the reader. The clearer the presentation style, the more information you get to send out to the recruiter. Too much visual elements may take more than just a few seconds to skim through since they hide more relevant information and may affect the decision making process. The longer it takes to understand the content of the profile, the farther you are away from getting that chance for an interview.
3. Work History
Work Gaps - Hiring managers spot all gaps of 6 months and longer on a candidate’s CV. When an employer scans your resume for 20 seconds, what will they see? If you have had a series of job gaps lasting for more than 6 months, then you may look like a flawed candidate, which raises big red flags on your CV.
Short periods of employment create an impression that you are a job hopper who is not career focused or is never satisfied or terminated due to lack of performance.
Length of work history- You don’t really need to include more than three most recent jobs on your CV depending on the duration of each job. In most cases, there is no need to go back more than about 10 years. Adding anything extra either makes you appear to be too old or else it suggests that you don’t stay in one place too long.
4. Your Value: Show the employer that you are a person of value – that you are constantly producing profitable ideas that will help the business. You’re not a machine that simply does what it’s told; you are a computer that produces new formulas for the benefit of the company. Do something for the company for free and do it before getting hired. Show them you care about the company even though you are not yet part of the company.
5. Your Skills - Skill-sell your way into the job you want by crafting your CV in such a way that you do not just list skills – but list where and how you acquired these skills. Give specific examples, such as: Instead of putting “Works well independently” as a skill, put “Responsible for providing nourishment to the elderly at set times without supervision” in your experience. Setting up your CV with clean and concise skills is more likely to get you a call for an interview.
6. Achievements – You want to create an impression so, never focus on the duties performed in previous employment only. Show the hiring company that you left a lasting positive impression at your last job by showing what you achieved and how it impacted the company. If you have specific data relating to these achievements, include it. E.g ‘Increased company profit by 14% via the implementation of a new sales strategy’.
One of the most important questions job seekers should be asking when filling out their resume is: “how do I know I have a fighting chance among the other hundreds of qualifying applicants like myself?” How can you be noticed, how can you stand out?
1. Your professional and educational achievements- Employers will always list the minimum professional or educational qualifications in a job advert. Therefore, is usually the initial step in the short listing process. Therefore, a job seeker should use keywords, from the advert, that describe your professional areas of expertise (i.e. web design, blogging, financial planning). Also, job titles and descriptions of your education (i.e. MBA) are also excellent keywords.
2. Brevity, Clarity and Ease of information location- Present your profile in a way that is not distracting to the reader. The clearer the presentation style, the more information you get to send out to the recruiter. Too much visual elements may take more than just a few seconds to skim through since they hide more relevant information and may affect the decision making process. The longer it takes to understand the content of the profile, the farther you are away from getting that chance for an interview.
3. Work History
Work Gaps - Hiring managers spot all gaps of 6 months and longer on a candidate’s CV. When an employer scans your resume for 20 seconds, what will they see? If you have had a series of job gaps lasting for more than 6 months, then you may look like a flawed candidate, which raises big red flags on your CV.
Short periods of employment create an impression that you are a job hopper who is not career focused or is never satisfied or terminated due to lack of performance.
Length of work history- You don’t really need to include more than three most recent jobs on your CV depending on the duration of each job. In most cases, there is no need to go back more than about 10 years. Adding anything extra either makes you appear to be too old or else it suggests that you don’t stay in one place too long.
4. Your Value: Show the employer that you are a person of value – that you are constantly producing profitable ideas that will help the business. You’re not a machine that simply does what it’s told; you are a computer that produces new formulas for the benefit of the company. Do something for the company for free and do it before getting hired. Show them you care about the company even though you are not yet part of the company.
5. Your Skills - Skill-sell your way into the job you want by crafting your CV in such a way that you do not just list skills – but list where and how you acquired these skills. Give specific examples, such as: Instead of putting “Works well independently” as a skill, put “Responsible for providing nourishment to the elderly at set times without supervision” in your experience. Setting up your CV with clean and concise skills is more likely to get you a call for an interview.
6. Achievements – You want to create an impression so, never focus on the duties performed in previous employment only. Show the hiring company that you left a lasting positive impression at your last job by showing what you achieved and how it impacted the company. If you have specific data relating to these achievements, include it. E.g ‘Increased company profit by 14% via the implementation of a new sales strategy’.
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