How to Write a Great Resume? 5 Essential Parts of a Resume for Winners
When competing for a job, you need a resume that stands out and grabs the attention of a prospective employer. If you don't know how to write a great resume for your job hunt properly, it is going to be very tough for you to get a hiring call.
A winning resume is precise and easily highlights the best of one's capabilities. Someone should be able to look at your resume and quickly determine if you’re the right candidate for the position.
There are key parts of a resume that can make or break your career before it even starts.
In this article I will discuss how to write a great resume using the 5 essential parts that you use in a regular resume.
Step by Step Guide to Write a Great Resume
As you know a resume is made of mainly 5 essential parts:
- Summary or Objective
- Skills and Competence of the candidate
- Experience
- Educational Achievements
- Extra Accomplishments and Advancements
I will guide you step by step on how to properly use these sections to create an amazing resume (or CV, as Britishers call it).
Summary
In the 20th century, resumes often started with a section called, “Objectives.” Today, this is no longer relevant. Employers would rather know what you can offer the company over what they can offer you. Briefly highlight what you bring to the table and why you’re a good fit for the organization. This will set the tone for how the rest of the resume is viewed by an employer. You need to grab his or her attention from the start if you want the rest of the document to be taken seriously.
If you are a fresher, state your educational and extra-educational skills. Let the employer know what you will be capable of doing when you get hired. Don't use common words like 'hard-working', 'dedicated' etc. These words do more harm than they add anything. Use your innovative mind to craft a summary of your own. As you are a fresher, you have everything at risk. Before you can put your best in work, try putting the best in writing your summary. Summary is the only part of your resume that will have literature styled formatting. The other parts can be listed in bullets — so there is just one section that you need to write well, and that is your résumé's summary.
Here is a sample of a resume summary for freshers:
I am a 21 year old Math Major from the University of Delhi with a diploma in Graphic Design and am looking to pursue a career as a UI-designer with an innovation-seeking brand. I have earned 7-medals, 5-scholarships and 2-interships until now. Plenty more to come.
→ Notice the bold texts. These make your fresher's resume stand aside.
If you have some work experience, try telling that in the summary. This will make the employers read your resume to the end. In addition to your work experience, try some personal approaches as well and include critical information like your age, your interests and your work style.
Skills and Competence
Listing relevant skills for the position in question gives the employer an idea of what you can do within the company. Try to list as many relevant talents you have that will play into the job and possible tasks. Relevancy is important. For example, you don’t want to put skills pertaining to operating a meat slicer if you’re applying for an office position at a tax firm.
Experience
Many people can develop quite the list in terms of work experience. Since you want to keep the printed version of a resume to a single page, only list the relevant experience regarding the niche of the company. Detail your job functions, contributions and responsibilities as best you can. Make a note that other jobs not relevant to the position are available upon request if there are any. Some employers have questions when it comes to gaps in employment.
Educational Information
There are three important pieces when adding educational institutions: name of the school, dates attended and the certificate received. If you’ve received additional training, education or completed at-work correspondence courses, it would be prudent to put them here as well.
Extra Accomplishments and Advancements
Towards the end of the resume, include things such as awards or achievements obtained throughout your working career. Many will include charity activities, leadership roles and other significant accomplishments in this area of the document. Remember, you’re trying to impress the reader. Adding information such as this could be a driving point for a potential employer. Things like recognition of leadership and company streamlining are particularly excellent points of interest for many business owners.
Professional information needs to be easy to find and read. For some people, it may be difficult to sum up a life-time of jobs and experience. However, it needs to be presented in a logical and clean-flowing manner. Write it with personality, but don’t distract the employer from the information. Adding too much fluff to your resume could take away from the experience of the reader.
Looking for the best tools to help you write a resume?
Here are the 10 best websites that can help you create a great resume for free or at a nominal cost.