You worked hard outlining your professional skills and credentials down on paper. Your resume looks sharp, with no grammatical errors and a neat professional appearance. Investing time in resume preparation is important in today’s highly competitive job market. Let’s explore strategies to getting your resume noticed beyond the receptionist’s desk.
STRATEGIES TO GETTING YOUR RESUME NOTICED!
1. Market Your Skills: Focus on your current skills, rather than on previous job-duties and tasks. The idea is to share occupational accomplishments that are up-to-date.
2. Stay Simple & Interesting: Long and detailed resumes are boring and tiresome. Resumes should be no more than two pages long and easy to read. Keep informative and concise, refraining from narrative explanations.
3. Share Your Passions: It’s important to sound enthusiastic and motivated. Companies like positive people and team players. Unless you work from home or in a secluded environment, it is likely you will interact with other individuals.
4. Note Achievements: List active licenses, awards, certifications, and credentials related to the job you are seeking.
5. Explain the “Gaps”: Share how you invested your time during periods of unemployment. For example, mention volunteer work, schooling, community service, internships, or other related activities.
6. Use Keywords: Some companies scan resumes based on keywords. They look for specific terms like “team player”, “motivated”, “eager”, “caring”, when deciding which candidates to interview. Read through the job description and pick-up words that describe the potential candidate the company is looking to hire.
7. Your Objective: The objective statement should be specific, concise (no more than 3 sentences), and descriptive. I also like to include keywords such as “motivated”, “eager”, and “passionate” in the objective statement. This section highlights what you seek, and what you have to offer the company.
For example: “I am seeking a full-time position as an Intensive Care Registered Nurse in a stable company were I can share my passion in critical care nursing. I am motivated to expand my career goals in an organization that promotes opportunities for growth.
8. Paid & Unpaid Work: Most employers ask for a work history, but your unpaid work history can be as important. Let’s say you are applying for a pharmaceutical company and you have experience from a pharmacy internship program. Including this experience on your resume can prove beneficial.
