Are you sick of not landing job interviews? Are you applying for jobs you feel you are more than qualified for, but not having any success? More than likely, the problem has more to do with the way your resume is written than not having the right skill sets for the job.
Resume writing is an art form and in order to be successful your resume needs to pass 4 major rules:
Skills and qualifications are highlighted in order to make your resume instantly stand out. Reports suggest that once a hiring manager or recruiter opens your resume you have between 10-20 seconds to make an impact. No impact, no interview, no job!
Strategic keywords to highlight your achievements and pass online screening software tools that are used to reduce the amount of candidate resumes that a business may receive for a certain role.
Formatted, structured and presented specifically to target your experience and industry
Presented in a professional manner using the correct font, bullet points, headings, length and most importantly error free!
Using numbers and quantitative evidence to highlight your achievements is key to standing out from the competition and presenting value added evidence about the type of behaviour a hiring manager can expect from you. If your position involves business development, for example, rather than including a generic description such as “Excellent communicator and relationship manager”, you can spice up this sentence and turn it into an “Accomplishment Statement” that will aid your resume in being noticed. (Don’t forget to use strategic keywords!)
Example 1: Successful business development and account management helped to exceed annual sales target of $X by 15% for the full financial year.
Example 2:Managed a team of 6 Sales Representatives in conducting product launches to increase new product penetration into the market leading to an overall increase of $5 million over a 12 month period
Example 3:Part of the Project Management Team involved in the rollout of a 200 networks leading to a 10% increase in revenue and a further 20% in cost savings.
Using numbers and evidence to back up your statements will aid your resume application and make your resume shine against other candidates. In the current economy where jobs are tough to get, you need to prove to the hiring manager that you are the best candidate for the job and the best way to do this is to use numbers to back up your achievement statements.
