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Three Ways to Customize Your Resumé to Get the Job You Want
While most resumés appear superficially similar, there are key differences that separate job-winning resumeés from those that never make it into the hands of the hiring managers. To customize your resume for the job that you want, pay attention to the following three elements: structure, career objective, and personal profile.
The layout and the style of your resum&eacytel are as important as the information within it. If your resumé is not structured in a logical and consistent way, it will be discarded. The two most commonly used resumé styles are chronological and functional. A chronological resumé is exactly what it says on the tin: organized according to time, starting with your current job and listing previous jobs according to when you held them. A chronological resumé is generally best for the job-seeker who has had a fairly traditional career path with steady employment in a single field and regular promotions to increased responsibility. A functional resumé clusters your education and employment around the skills it represents, and is typically used by persons who are changing careers or who have had gaps which need to be minimized (for instance, parents returning to the workforce, persons with lengthy periods of unemployment or underemployment, and persons whose health removed them from the workforce for extended periods of time). While there are no set rules on determining the best resumé style to use for your particular situation, it is use the one you choose consistently to create a consistent presentation that will impress a hiring manager with your organizational skills.
A clearly stated career objective is very important to the resumé of a person changing jobs. While some experts debate about the need for listing a career objective, particularly for people looking to move upward within a career path, a person who is changing jobs shows that he or she has given some serious thought to the long-term future by including one. Consider your career objective as the first way you show your potential employer that your career change is not just a passing whim, but the result of genuine self-examination. Make sure that your goals specifically address your desired industry, position title, and future professional achievements. Far too many people make generic statements for their career objective, giving the impression they are unfocused and lacking in drive. To be effective, your statement of career objective must demonstrate to a potential employer that you know what kind of job you want, what experience you have in order to get the position, and what you are willing do to become a successful professional with the company.
While your career objective tells your potential employer why you are applying for the job at their organization, your professional profile sells your expertise and convinces the employer that you are the best candidate for the job by differentiating yourself from the large number of other job hunters applying for the same position. Two commonly made mistakes in writing the personal profile are sloppy writing and inclusion of inappropriate personal information. Note that your age, ethnicity, gender, religious affiliations, and the like have no effect on how you handle yourself as a business professional. Such information should never be included in a resume, or any job application materials (only after a person is hired should questions regarding age, ethnicity and the like be asked, and then answered only on a voluntary basis to help the employer demonstrate compliance with Equal Employment Opportunity standards). Make sure this section is free of all spelling and grammatical errors and written in tight, dynamic language with active verbs. Strong positive statements about your expertise will give a good first impression to your employer. An effective personal statement must create an impression that you are confident, credible, and professional.
When you are finished, meticulously proofread your resumé to make sure that there are no errors of any sort, whether in spelling, grammar, parallelism (all elements in a list should be written in the same grammatical construction, whether it be a sentence, a noun phrase, a verb phrase or a single word), and logical development of your qualifications. Keep in mind that your resumé is your sales pitch, demonstrating your qualifications and experience to your potential employer. Seize the opportunity to put your best foot forward and you will be happily rewarded.
