Being out of work due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic is very likely to make you feel incredibly overwhelmed…
To give yourself an advantage in the candidate pool, and a better chance of overall success to ensure your resume is bang-up-to-date.
It is important to remember to tailor your resume to fit whichever job you are applying for, and to focus on the skills and strengths you have that would suit each position rather than relying upon a generic resume.
Essentials of a great resume
What is essential is that you can show examples of those super skills you’ve got and that you can use your resume to show who you are as a person and why you are so employable.
Your resume needs to have that wow factor as the reality is that most of them hardly get any attention – a typical look at a resume is 6 seconds!
Therefore, you must keep your resume clear and straightforward, with clearly labeled headings between sections for easy reading.
The preferred format of your resume is usually functional rather than strictly chronological (unless you are applying for a job in the same industry and have over five years of experience).
From the top…
When revamping your resume, you must structure it in the correct, professional way, so you get maximum impact.
When you revise your original resume, make sure you weave any new qualifications or skills and experience you may have achieved since you last wrote it, and ensure you are clear about what the job description for the post you are applying for requires so that you can tweak your resume for relevance.
Use white paper and a sensible font such as ‘Times’ or ‘Sans Serif,’ these fonts are crisp and scanner-friendly try and stay at 12pts as any smaller font is hard to read, and don’t use more than one side of the paper.
Format your margins and spacing with the general rule of one inch on all sides.
Resume contact details
Begin with updating your contact and personal details at the top of your resume, which should be no longer than one page if you can help it.
Your contact details should be in a large font and up-to-date, including your most recent social media details on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, etc.
Try and adapt all your qualifications and skills to show how relevant they are to the job you are applying for.
It helps if you alter the tone of your objective summary to point out how flexible, adaptable, and eager you are to work for the organization during this pandemic time.
Additional resume information
Try and provide context around what is going on around Covid-19 so your qualifications and experience will sound more attractive.
When you list your school(s), colleges and universities, start with the last place you attended first. And make sure any new skills or qualifications are added.
You need to state the dates you attended and the highest qualifications first with qualifications’ grades achieved. Include any technical qualifications as well as academic ones.
Ensure there is no punctuation, grammatical, spelling, or other errors that will make your resume look unprofessional.
Good luck!
