Often we think of the New Year as a fresh start and with that, it’s a prompt to take stock of various aspects of our life. One of the most important areas is to look at our career progression, the opportunity to learn and the professional growth we are or aren’t getting. If it’s time to suss out the job prospect out there, read on for useful tips to help you create a résumé to score that dream job.
Why you
This is the objective of a résumé. Start yours with a summary that is clear and concise to indicate why you’re the best person for the job. Your goal is to interest the hiring manager enough to want to meet you in person.
Pro tip – Avoid using jargon and technical terms that may work against you. When a résumé is badly written and full of complex language, chances are the hirer may feel put-off to read through the whole document. Say bye to getting shortlisted then!
Short & concise
A résumé should be able to tell who you are and your experiences in no more than 2 pages. A cluster of words and long paragraphs will make the reader lose interest. Also note the font size—nothing too large, tiny or fancy that impacts readability.
Pro tip – Save your résumé as a PDF file and hyperlinks it to supporting information. Not only does this help save space/words, it also let the hirer knows you’re technologically savvy.
How it looks
Instead of just another generic document file, customise your résumé to reflect the job that you’re applying to. Try an eye-catching, professionally designed CV to help convey the effort and thought you put into the application.
Pro tip – Try one of these résumé-building sites below for a good-looking CV you’re proud of.
1) Canva
You can put together a visually stunning résumé with Canva. It has a selection of striking templates that you can customise with images, shapes, colour palettes, background etc. Most of the templates are available for free but you might want to spend on a premium subscription for more options.
2) Microsoft Word
While Word may be the last thing you’d think of for sleek layouts, you’d be surprised to find pages and pages of templates available for download. Did we mention for free? You can find these versions online and on mobile apps that you can adjust and edit to fit the profile of the company you’re applying to.
3) Resume.com
From convention to colourful, there are many beautifully designed templates you can choose from. This web app is easy to use; you can reorder the sections, manage the headings and descriptions, and remove anything that is not relevant. You can also import your LinkedIn profile to automatically fill in the details. The only downfall is that you won’t be able to control how your document looks in terms of colours and fonts.
4) VisualCV
This is a pretty straightforward site that will help build your résumé based on one of its many templates or start from scratch if you prefer. It is customisable with text boxes, shapes and images. Most templates are available at no charge but a Pro subscription lets you access other creative templates, analytics on how often your CV has been viewed, and more.
5) Hloom
This site hosts lots of Word templates for free. These range from clean to creative and organised look, browse the categories and download one that speaks to you. Note that it’s a bit hard to locate the download button with many ads for other résumé sites but once you do see the hyperlinked word, the CV is yours to play with.
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