The perfect resume: Simple and easy steps to secure your dream job

Keeping your resume up to date is like flossing your teeth, we always mean to do it but somehow it always gets pushed aside. Whilst this may not seem like a big deal, if your dream job became available tomorrow, you wouldn’t want to miss out because your resume needed editing!

Whether you’re unemployed, employed or seeking a new challenge, the job application process can be a long and tiring one. Having your resume ready to go and up to date means there is one less thing that you need to worry about.

So, when should I update my resume?

Updating your resume can be confusing, with the question often arising, ‘What should I add to it’ and ‘How do I update my resume?’ To avoid adding unnecessary information or leaving out important achievements, this list aims to target relevant yet crucial material that a potential employer would want to know.

Update your resume when:

• You change to a different role or company
• Receive a promotion
• Acquire a new professional skill
• Obtain a new qualification or certification
• New responsibilities are awarded to your role
• Finish an important project
• Your personal or contact information changes
• You fail to receive a response from employers despite sending multiple applications
• Your resume hasn’t been edited or updated in over 6 months

So, what are the traits of a successful candidate?

Sometimes you think you’ve done everything to entice a potential employer and you still manage to come off second best to a competing candidate. Take it from a recruiter who reads numerous resumes daily, there are small and simple ways to update your resume to help you separate yourself from other candidates and give your resume a makeover!

Take your resume to the next level with these simple and free yet effective tools to assist you on your way to a successful application.

1.    Update your LinkedIn profile

First and foremost, get your LinkedIn profile up to date, and if we may encourage you – keep it up to date! Update your resume to LinkedIn, the online version of your resume.

We live in an age where recruitment occurs predominantly online, and candidates are sourced through tools such as LinkedIn. This short synopsis of your employment history and accomplishments provides potential employers with a professional image of yourself.

When hiring for a position, a business will receive countless resumes. As a result of this, employers often skim for keywords to decipher who is an appropriate candidate. The simple layout of LinkedIn enables companies, upon receiving your resume, to search for key details in your employment history in a format conducive to their influx of interest and compatibility to filling the role efficiently and effectively.

2.    Keep it simple, clear, and concise

As previously mentioned, employers will not necessarily read your resume cover to cover. Long and detailed explanations of every aspect of your career so far won’t do you any favours on your application.

A simple, clear, and concise resume assists recruiters in their search to locate key information and helps to position yourself as a favourable candidate.

To ensure your resume is as compact as possible, ask yourself:

• Is it relevant to the job I’m applying for? (If you are applying for a role in marketing, your work at a cafe from when you were 15 is probably not super pertinent.)
• When discussing previous employment, stick to only listing your accomplishments in this role. Focus on what you brought to the role and achieved whilst you were in it.
• Avoid listing common skills. For instance, someone employing a lawyer does not need to know that you can cook as it is not relative to the job at hand.
• Utilise bullet points to make your resume shorter and easier to read. Long-winded sentences are unnecessary and counterproductive.
• Read your resume out loud. By doing this, it helps you to catch errors in spelling and grammar as well as edit phrasing that may be stunting its flow.

3.    Iron out grammatical errors and proofread

This one is simple and shows you have attention to detail. No one wants to read a resume that is filled with spelling and grammatical errors.

This is an aspect of your resume that is completely within your control. Asking someone to read over your resume or utilising tools such as Grammarly can ensure that potential employers are not sitting there pulling out their hair because you used the wrong ‘there’.

Additionally, reading your resume out loud is an effective way to uncover any errors that may be hiding in plain sight!

4.    Format your resume for easy reading

When constructing your resume, keep the important parts at the top. Whilst you could argue that it’s all important, experience, qualifications and achievements will take precedence over your references and skillset.

Format your resume in a way that is appealing to someone reading it. Employers are often looking for something specific when reading a resume and if this can be easily found, this encourages them to keep reading.

To know what hiring managers are looking for, look at what they’ve detailed in the role responsibilities and requirements of the job ad.

5.    Tailor your resume to the job you’re applying for

It is a common belief that you should send out the same resume to every job you apply for. All your professional information is there, right?

Not quite…

So, why not? We are here to dispel this idea and encourage you to tailor your resume to the individual job you are applying for.

An advantage of having a position description available is that you have insight into what exactly the company is looking for. Utilise this to tweak your skills to fit the role requirements and include language that has been included in the role advertisement. Remember the company has used specific wording for a reason. Incorporate keywords from the job description and the company’s mission and values statement to highlight yourself as a desired candidate. This also shows your potential employer that you have done your research for the position.

A large majority of companies today use applicant tracking systems. Resumes are scanned by the system for keywords before being read by an actual person.

Take advantage of the materials you have at hand and don’t let a lack of effort prevent you from securing your dream role!

Writing a resume can be stressful and overwhelming at times. By implementing the above tips, we aim to make your journey to future roles an easier experience.

Now that you’ve crafted the perfect resume, upload it to the Fuse Recruitment database or start searching for jobs now!