How do you write a winning resume and cover letter!

A resume is a marketing material prepared by you to market yourself, more so a winning resume and cover letter.

The IT recruitment teams receive a lot of resumes and also trying to pace the time limitations to qualify the right candidates.

Every individual candidate while doing a transaction is at best marketing themselves if not selling the idea of their capabilities, that brings us alive to the question as professionals how do we do a good resume and Cover letter.

A resume is your marketing document that is designed to sell your capabilities and skills to a potential future employer. Some research suggests, recruiters or the hiring managers give about 20 seconds to scan for information that they most look for. Hence your resume needs to have that key element of information at a glance to prove, you are the best fit.

Let’s look at what you need in a winning resume

Match to the Job Description

It is Important to ensure the readers job is made easy by showing that you are a clear match. Your skills need to reflect the job description. Demonstrate to the employer that your experience and skills are exactly what they are searching for. Build in the keywords that the job description details out, that will help the reader to quickly like what you have to offer. Focus on relevant strengths and wherever possible, eliminate what is irrelevant to the job.

Structure of your resume

Globally all the formal documents have a structure and that is the reality for resume as well. Create a relevant structure to your winning resume. Keep your contact details at the top as you would want the reader to contact you as soon as they get comfortable with your resume. Include your Name, Address, Phone number and Email address. Your educational and training information should be listed next, this especially is important when you are looking for jobs in a country where you would need to show your relevance for immigration purposes. Follow this up with the career history. A reverse chronology is preferred as that will help in listing your current engagement clearly. For every engagement show your Job title, employer name, a short description of the company and your employment dates. Then get to the details of the skills you employed, responsibilities and any accomplishments you had. Lastly, end the resume with any references.

Resume should be interesting

Everyone wants to have a good day, so the language you use in the resume to make the day for your reader. Keep the tone exciting, upbeat, positive and professional. Present your accomplishments honestly and confidently. List all your strong points first followed by less relevant points. Use strong action-oriented words like, “completed”, “managed” along with superlatives like, “win”, “best”.

Focus on achievements

Detailing your workload is one thing and helping your audience understand the achievements is other important aspect. How do you stand out from the rest of the crowd? List out some of the unique accomplishments that made you stand out within the organisation or the clients. Have you generated business, saved money, built platforms, gained patents etc. The list can be unique to you and your future employers’ expectations.

The first impression is the best impression, so your resume has to make or break and remember – you have just 20 seconds to do it all.

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