So you see a job advertisement for a role that you know you’d be great for. You get your resume and covering letter together and click apply.
You wait with anticipation to hear back so that you can explain how perfect you are for this job, but instead you are left wondering what happened.
Now think of your resume like a sales catalogue, how often would you flick through a whole catalogue if you can’t find what you are looking for in the first couple pages? The front page of your resume should be a showcase of your experience and achievements and how your strengths relate to the role you’re applying for. This is your opportunity to sell yourself and demonstrate that you have what it takes to succeed in this role.
How can you communicate that you have what it takes?
- Make your experience visible. Don’t make it a challenge for the reader to draw out the relevant experiences and accomplishments. Don’t just write your duty statement but rather a broad statement which describes your role. Follow this with 3-4 bullet points describing your key achievements. Too many bullet points can make your duties blur together, similarly writing it as paragraphs can also make it difficult to identify the key points. Try using a combination of concise bullet points for your duties and possibly a sentence or two for your achievements during the role.
- Make it relevant. This is an important aspect of your experience section as you can take the time to ensure your skills, knowledge and attitude link to what the position requires. Try to list as many relevant achievements as you can and not just a list of your duties or every aspect of your role if it is not relevant.
- Use Verbs. Try to start every new point with an action work i.e. strengthened, developed, delivered etc. Avoid using phrases like “responsible for” as this does not demonstrate your competency. eg ‘I was responsible for the safety management system’ could be replaced with ‘I developed and implemented a safety management system for the organisation’.
- Show your value. Don’t be afraid to sell yourself and highlight your key achievements. Remember to keep them concise and quantify any achievements to back up your results with facts, figures, percentages etc eg if you managed a budget, approximately what was the budget worth, or if you managed a team, how many were in the team.
Remember most people will very rarely look through a catalogue to the last page so make sure it easy for the hiring manager to find the information they need to verify that you have what it takes.
Contact Safety Recruitment Australia today to find out how we can help you to improve your resume.