College Crunch

Before we start with one of the most useful of resume writing tips I am going to have to make a couple of assumptions:

1. That you are applying for a specific job with either an advert or job spec available
2. That you have the skills to do said job

Without both of those, this resume writing tip won’t get you that far.

So I’ll assume that the answer to both questions is yes. That you are ready to start writing a resume targeting specific jobs that you really want. Brilliant, and it is very easy.

For just about every advertisement that a company puts up as part of a recruitment drive they will include an essential skills list and an ideal skills list, as well as any other experience that will be useful. This basically is a list of things that the managers have told HR they need/want to be seeing on a candidates resume. So make sure you give it to them.

Sounds obvious right? But not enough people do it in a manner which is obvious. You need to remember that often the first person that your resume has to get past on its way to the line managers are recruiters and/or HR professionals. These people are trained to hunt out key phrases and understand technical and position related things at a very basic level. They won’t know its obvious from your experience you can do a certain skill. They need you to spell it out for them.

A great example is in the medical industry. If you are going to become a Nurse, you’ll want to make sure you list equipment and techniques that you have experience in that the typical HR person might recognize from their keyword list, but that same person may not have any understanding of what the procedure, equipment or technique actually means.

So spell it out for them. Look at that job advert when you are writing a resume. Are all the skills from the advert included on your resume (assuming you have them) word for word, and highlighted to make them obvious? Perhaps include them as part of a key skills list at the top of your resume. It might look like a hard sell to you, but its not. What you are doing is making it obvious to people, who are not familiar with what you do on a day to day basis, that you do have all the skills needed.

By making it stand out, by ensuring that these skills are seen in such an obvious manner you will be already ahead of most of the other potential recruits as you will have got your resume past the gatekeepers and into the hands of the people who are actually able to judge your skills and experience.

So next time you want a job thats advertised, you should stop, sit down, look at it and use whatever information included in the advertisement to help with your writing of a resume. You’ll give yourself the best chance possible of securing the job you want, if you do.