Clean up Your Resume!

When it comes to writing a resume, think like how parents would name a child for success. Your subject header, contents and email address (yes!) are testament to your personality, which determines your chance of either getting called up for an interview, or hired.

Treat your resume as a means to an end to gain professional employment. Here are some pointers in resume writing you, as a jobseeker, should take note of when crafting a professional CV.

Four Pointers Jobseekers Should Take Note Of:

Funk and creativity are passé: Leave the funk and fluff out of your resume; it should be 100 percent professional even if you are an Art graduate looking for employment in the Creative sector, browsing design jobs or marketing jobs. A clean and strict looking resume that is down-to-earth reflects a jobseeker’s seriousness, albeit uninteresting.

It is good to note that managers with HR jobs take their company’s image into consideration; they would not hire a jobseeker with a loud character. It does not pay to stand out of the crowd; just be honest with who you are. Hint: do not even think of putting up a glamorous photograph of you on your resume for it creates bias.

Save the hippie email address for your own use: Email addresses with unique names that are viewed as “abnormal” by the corporate sector (ie. gerrgerrlovesjoo@hotmail.com) have no reason to be in a professional resume. Take a more conservative stand towards your job search by saving that hippie email address for your personal use. As a jobseeker, you would not want to be caught in an embarrassing situation where a prospective employer was to ask about the name of your email address.

Says Melissa Norman, Managing Director of Kelley Services: “Refrain from sending your job application from an email account that has a fancy name, or creates a negative perception of you.”

Don’t input in your idealistic beliefs: It is cool to be idealistic and live your dreams, however, when it comes to hiring the right fit, prospective employers are concerned about an employee’s personal goals. In fact, an employer scrutinises an employee’s personal goals to see if they are in line with the organisation’s goals.

To find out what an employer wants, take a look at their corporate website. Next, craft your resume to suit their aims, goals and objectives before sending it in. Otherwise you will risk not getting called up for an interview.

Moreover, by visiting the company’s corporate website, you as a jobseeker would know what sort of people the organisation is looking for. This in turn allows you to re-assess whether or not your personal goals suit theirs before submitting your resume to them. Do not waste your time trying to apply for an organisation that does not suit you; indirectly, you are wasting their time.

Keep your resume short and simple: As a rule of thumb, keep your resume short and simple, because human resource professionals do not have all the time in this world to read a 4000-word long resume. Go straight to the point to list your past experiences, references and testimonials instead of telling a Grandmother’s tale on what you covered at work and your personal thoughts on each project.

With the above tips, it is time to update your resume and impress your potential employers!