Resumes: How to Stand Out in the Crowd and Make the Cut

Resumes: How to stand out

Applying for a job?

Here is the content you should be focusing on to make your resume stand out in the crowd and draw a recruiter's or hiring manager's attention.

First thing you want to make sure your resume does is spark attention - a recruiter spends 5 - 7 seconds on your resume before making a decision if you made the cut for the second round.

The next thing you want your resume to create is excitement so the recruiter wants to know more about you and calls you for your first round of interviews.

One of the most important things is to read and relate to the Job description. Find the points that seem important and the points that you can relate to with your experience and skills. Identify what the hiring manager is looking for in a perfect candidate and create that image for yourself.

Here are our top 4 content things to pay attention to when creating your resume:

Relevant kick off

Highlight skills

Spell check

Bold template

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Relevant kick off

* Relevant experience: Start your resume with the most relevant experience for the role you are applying for. Remember: keep your resume short, no more than 2 pages.

* First section: Fill up the first section with any experience or qualifications that will catch a hiring manager’s attention. If you don't have experience for the role, start with any qualification, certification or even freelance experience or volunteer experience that can prove you have the skills needed for performing the tasks for the role.

Highlight skills

* Soft skills: Highlight the soft skills mentioned in the job description. Create a different section for the soft skills and highlight it.

* No previous experience: Even if your previous experience might not be directly related to the role you’re interested in, you can definitely highlight skills that relate.

Spell check

* Run a spell check: Run a spell check, make sure there are no missing letters or worse, words. Most important: keep wording short. Don't create entire paragraphs, even if it may seem appealing at first. Recruiters usually read in a Z pattern, so they will skip your narrative. Be concise and to the point, makes the reading easier. Put down key words, as these will have a better impact.

* Punctuation is important: Add punctuation when punctuation is needed. If you wrote that one of your soft skills is attention to details - then make sure you are paying attention to the small things in your resume, as these are the ones that usually pop up.

Bold template

Dare to be bold: Dare to go for a bolder CV template that can highlights your skills, experiences, projects. Your resume should show your personality - so don't be afraid to add colours. Just keep the color pallete simple and not to bright or shiny to hurt the eye.

Modern template: Chose a modern resume that should be easy to read and attractively designed. Find ways to highlight the most important information to help guide those who are just skimming resumes, like add color, highlights, bold or italics, to draw the eye to the sections you want noticed first.

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