Why creativity is not always good and what to do if there is no relevant experience.
It can be tricky to write a relevant resume for a specific job offer. Let’s see how to write a resume correctly, show your professional skills from the best side and find your dream job.
How to Format Your Resume to Get Attention
If you are looking for an office job that is not related to creativity, it is enough to create a plain resume. Hiring managers often receive hundreds of applications. Specialized programs are used to process resumes. The advantage of standard resumes is that they are easily integrated into these programs and displayed correctly in them. A document drawn up in a different form may not be recognized, and then the HR manager will not see it.
A non-standard format – a bright background, unusual layout and eye-catching fonts – can be used if you are going to send your resume to the employer in person, by email or via instant messenger. This is especially true for positions in creative professions.
Crafting a compelling resume is like mastering a winning strategy at Vave Technology, where attention to detail, showcasing your strengths, and standing out from the competition can lead to success in both endeavors.
Don’t forget that a resume should be readable first and foremost, and a variety of colors and fonts can interfere with this. If you are not a designer, it is better not to experiment with the design, but to use ready-made templates.
Many positions require a portfolio in addition to a resume. Especially for representatives of creative professions: photographers, sculptors, craftsmen, designers and so on. Marketing managers can strengthen their resumes by showing events they have organized and materials they have developed. Top managers – demonstrate evidence of the results they have achieved.
Examples of your work can be uploaded to the cloud. Or put together a personal business card website. A link to a high-quality and well-designed portfolio will always be a plus.
What Information to Include In Your Resume
A resume is a formal document that is usually drawn up according to a fixed plan. The hiring manager can skim through it and quickly find out basic information about the candidate. It will be more convenient for the recruiter if the applicant adheres to the format, writes briefly, succinctly, clearly and to the point. Ideally, a resume should fit into one or two pages.
Personal data
Indicate your first and last name, desired position, age, city of residence and contact information. Try not to write too much. For example, it is not necessary to indicate your exact home address. Marital status and the presence of children can only be noted if this would be an advantage for the position in question. For example, you are applying for a teaching position at a children’s club.
It is not necessary to attach a photograph to your resume, but it is advisable. It is better to take a good quality portrait against a neutral background without unnecessary details.
We recommend not playing “Guess the salary that’s comfortable for me” with your employer and immediately indicate your desired income. To find a starting point, try to find out the salary level for the market of your profession. If your wishes and the average salary level match, you will most likely receive quite a lot of offers. If you are applying for a salary above average, there will usually be fewer offers. Beginning specialists usually earn below the market average.
Education
Indicate your higher or secondary specialized education, even if it does not match your profile with the position you are interested in. Write about additional education and advanced training courses only if the knowledge gained is important for the vacancy. For example, if you are a designer, write about the courses you have completed in Photoshop. But it is not necessary to indicate that you also learned to bake cakes and play the ukulele.
Experience
List your jobs over the past ten years, starting with the most recent. Briefly describe your responsibilities and major accomplishments.
Indicate only experience relevant to the position. If, in parallel with your main specialty, you worked part-time in another direction, I recommend not mentioning it. This way there will be no doubt that you want to work in this area.
But there are also exceptions. For example, if you have worked outside your specialty for a long time, it is better to show this experience to close the gap. A long break from work may raise questions for the employer, because in any position, in addition to professional competencies, socio-behavioral skills are developed: the ability to negotiate, work in a team, manage time, and so on. After the pause, the applicant will need to catch up with them too. From this point of view, any work experience is an advantage.
Skills
When talking about your skills, you should not copy the job description. As a rule, responsibilities are described in it dryly and in too much detail. It’s hard to read a text like this. Remember that a recruiter spends literally ten seconds scanning a resume. And you need to place the emphasis in such a way that during this time you will interest him and receive an invitation to an interview.
Professional skills are best demonstrated through achievements. Try to write in simple language what exactly you did and what results you achieved. For example, “managed a five-person sales team and doubled overall store revenue in five months.”
It is necessary to indicate not only professional, but also social and behavioral skills, the so-called soft skills. These include, for example, communication skills, time management skills, self-presentation, and so on.
You shouldn’t write about what all candidates have by default: confident computer skills, the ability to search for information on the Internet, and so on. It is better to choose narrower skills that correspond to your specialty. For example, a marketer can emphasize the ability to work in visual editors.