5 insider tips for crafting a winning resume

This phrase remained with me forever in life, keeping both my ‘innovation’ and ‘job search patience’ quotient alive as well as high.

With the competition getting fierce in the job market, the candidate who can present a compelling resume is quite likely to get ahead of others standing in the same queue, that is, outshine other candidates. It has thus become imperative that resume building needs creativity and craft-making skills but also backed by some scientific principles in the process.

Here’s the comprehensive guide and some tips by Raj Tanwar, HR Head, Advantage Club that could be useful for you:

1. Looks may be the book cover, but the story within is where the true importance lies. Here, I am not saying aspects like resume format, font and layouts are not essential. Still, they can only draw attention for the first few seconds, which is important, but to maintain the interest of the recruiter, clearly indicate your journey in an organised manner. There are three main ways of building it – chronological, functional, and hybrid.

The chronological is best suited for people who have lots of professional experience. It is one of the best ways to list down work experiences, starting with the latest one first and showing career progression over time. The functional is best suited for freshers or those who have employment gaps.

It highlights the skills and lists the occasions when used at a professional level. The third is hybrid. As the name suggests, a mix of chronological and functional formats is best suited for candidates who, at mid-level, they have some work experience, but their career is still extensive.

2. Unlocking Search Hacks. Most recruiters these days use software called the Applicant Tracking System or the ATS for scanning and searching resumes. This ATS tracks the resume based on the skills mentioned in the resume.

In other words, you must creatively stack up words and carefully choose skills expressing them in the form of words to get a higher ranking in search. Consider them as Hyper to Meta tags; therefore, it is a must to mention all the skills that are relevant for the job the candidate is applying for and weave them into a story for the recruiter to invest further once your name comes up in search.