If you are a qualified expert in your field and you want to apply for a job in a huge corporation or a local company, you obviously need to create an attractive, informative and convincing CV for your recruiter. When you apply for a job, be informed that recruiters receive plenty of resumes every day and all of them mostly look very similar until they get the one that stands out from the crowd. So let’s see how to make your CV the one that will stand out from the rest and allow you to get a chance to be invited to an interview in the company you want to work in.
The following steps will help you land the job of your dream.
Step 1
Make a Research
If you understand the needs of your target audience, it is easier to do what they expect from you. No matter you are a freelancer working with several customers or you are an applicant and want to get a full-time job, you should research your market as thoroughly as possible.
Are you a designer or a developer? Just review the following advice:
1. Browse the resumes of other designers in your field. See how they showcase their skills and organize their portfolios to make your own conclusions. It’s important to have a critical perception when you review the CVs of your competitors, not all of those available on a job market are worth to take as a model.
2. Create a list of candidate requirements. You should find out what skills and qualities are in-demand in your field and what ones will be appreciated by your recruiter. Some of the most appreciated qualities and skills for a designer are such as:
- the ability to carry out complex tasks;
- printed, digital and graphic design knowledge;
- some marketing knowledge;
- modern design software knowledge;
- sense of typography;
- basic HTML and CSS;
- time management skills;
and some more.
3. Make a list of skills, advantages and experience you’d like to highlight in your CV, after everything is structured, it will be easier for you to visualize the volume of your future CV and see its informational stuffing.
Step 2
Make it Visually Engaging
The appearance of your CV really matters – it’s the first aspect which makes a recruiter notice your resume and select it from a number of others. You can either make a design yourself or choose one of the readymade templates available on the market today. There are lots of marketplaces offering CV templates and all of them come with professional look and plenty of features.
You can also create a personal website which will include your comprehensive CV with your impressive portfolio, blog, and more pages. Check out this collection of CV templates for WordPress.
Step 3
Use a Catchy but Not a Cluttered Font
When you make the research you notice some common and different features of the resumes available on the job market. if you see that most of the applicants use Arial, Calibri or Times New Roman fonts for their CVs, try to use a different font for your one. Don’t choose a peculiar and eccentric typeface, make it different but legible to be simple to read. You can choose Cambira, Verdana or Helvetica – these are no-cursive formal fonts that are easy to perceive.
Step 4
Show Off Your Skills in a Genuine Manner
The first impression is the strongest thing impacting the way a recruiter perceives your resume. The first 20 words of your CV should include your strongest sides and your best skills that speak on your qualification. There are many ways to say you are the best in your field, and it’s up to you whether to use a unique and uncommon way to introduce yourself or just be as specific as possible:
Extraordinary way: “Hello, I am Peter Smith – A designer and developer from the Earth. I make ingenious sh**t that somehow works.”
Ordinary but informative way: “I am a designer with more than 9 years of experience in the field of Graphic/eLearning/Web Design. I specialize in Adobe web & graphic designing tools.”
Be specific and brief; create greeting post that will best summarize your skills and strengths, your expertise and career progression.
Step 5
Share Your Portfolio and Experience
It’s, of course, compulsory to attach your portfolio and share the best works you have made during a certain period, but if you share your full job experience including the side projects you were in, it would add effectiveness to your CV.
The side projects will show that you strive to get new skills to improve the quality of your work. If those projects are somehow related to your qualification they are sure to help you make an impression of a real hustler.
It’s important to leverage the failure in your CV. It’s not required to share the stories of failure you probably faced in your career. Make your resume stand out from the crowd by making it close to perfect.
However, if you want to convince your recruiter you constantly improve your professional skills, share just a single story on a situation when you fail but managed to correct your mistake and get a good result.
Step 6
Delete Unrelated Skills from Your CV
If you make a resume for a definite position, you are sure to know the hiring specification of an employee you want to collaborate with. So customize your CV for the job you want and specify just the skills really required for that definite position you apply to. Delete the skills that will probably not be interesting for a recruiter and format specific skills mentioned in the job ad.
You can also copy the specific slang that an employee uses in a job ad to highlight the skills of a candidate they are looking for.
Step 7
Make Specific Job Titles in Your Employment History
Every job title you mention in your resume should have a context because not all of them are self-explanatory. For instance, if you state you are a web designer, then a recruiter should know, for example:
- The types of websites you make: corporate, business cards, portals, blogs, etc.
- The software you use to make PSD mockups: Adobe Photoshop.
- Clients you work with: B2B, small business, and more.
- CMS you can work on: WordPress, Joomla!, etc.
Your CV will stand out from the rest only if your job titles stand out as well.
– Use top-power words when describing your skills and accomplishments. Consider using such words as analyze, increase, develop, boost, instruct, direct, research, explore, probe, and more related ones.
– Use the present tense when describing your skills.
– Highlight your achievements like an ad writer. Imagine you are a marketer and you have to sell your skills to a customer as an exclusive product which is expensive but unique and special.
Step 8
Add Your Social Media Links
Most recruiters scrutinize the social media profiles of their candidates to make an in insight on the type of person they are going to hire.
76% of employees in the IT business are sure to monitor the accounts of applicants that send resumes to different job positions in their company.
If your profile in social media is private and closed for “friends only” this won’t be your advantage. However, not all employees take this fact into consideration.
Step 9
Learn Everything of Your Recruiter
Uncover as much information about your recruiter as possible. Why? Well, if you will be invited to the interview, you will be able to show your interest in the company’s corporate culture, their achievements, their talent needs and nature of their business. All of this will convince a recruiter you are really interested in landing a position in that company.
Conclusion:
All of the mentioned above advice is going to help you make an interview-winning resume and convince your recruiter you are the best in your field. Be sure to check every word before you send a CV to a recruiter and be sure to take your resume creation as seriously as possible.
