Although your resume typically comes after your cover letter in your job application portfolio, it’s often the first document a recruiter will read. Therefore, they should be able to quickly get all the important information about you from your resume. Whether recruiters bother reading your cover letter often relies entirely on the information they’ve already gathered from your resume.
Recruiters usually read numerous applications for any given job opening. This means they don’t have a lot of time to read everything carefully, at least not in the initial stage of sifting through all these applications. Your resume allows recruiters to quickly assess whether they should have a closer look at your application during the subsequent stages. Here are some tips to enhance your resume and increase your chances.
Why does your resume matter?
Together with your cover letter, your resume is a key part of your job application portfolio. It provides recruiters with a good idea of your professional career, educational history and the skills you’ve acquired. Your resume should be structured in such a way as to make the most important pieces of information about yourself stand out. This helps recruiters understand quickly whether you fit the advertised job profile and identify your relevant strengths and weaknesses.
Try to avoid leaving gaps in your resume’s work history and education sections. If there are any gaps, try to explain them honestly instead of making things up
Your resume should give prospective employers a positive first impression of you. The goal is to be invited to a job interview, which is why you need a resume that’sinformative and concise. In a way, your resume is both an advertising tool and an initialsample of your abilities.
Your resume: Tips for content and structure
A good resume structure is crucial for the success of your job application, as recruiters like to grasp your abilities quickly and without unnecessary difficulty. That’s why resumes are kept short and simple.
The following information should be in your resume:
- Personal information (your name, address, phone number, e-mail)
- Work experience (internships, volunteering, jobs, part-time jobs etc.)
- Educational background (school, university, final grades, vocational training, further training)
- Skills and abilities (languages, IT skills, driver’s licenses etc.)
It’s usually best to highlight your soft skills in your cover letter, this means you can focus on showcasing other strengths in your resume. Recruiters may also want to know about your hobbies if they give insight into your personality. For example, being part of a sports team shows you’re physically fit and able to work as part of a team.
Hobbies and volunteer work can be mentioned in a dedicated section of your resume to emphasize your personal skills. Though, if you do include hobbies in your resume, be sure to only mention those that fit the job for which you’re applying.
Pay attention to details
Aside from the general content of your resume, some small details can significantly impact how your job application is perceived. For instance, many recruiters insist that you should sign your cover letter by hand, even if you apply by e-mail.
Recruiters often have particular requirements for your resume. For example, they may be looking for a specific detail in your work history or a certain certificate. This is usually outlined in the job advertisement, so make sure you review it carefully before putting together your job application portfolio.
Coordinate your cover letter and resume
While your CV and cover letter are two distinct documents, they’re always submitted together as part of the job application. That’s why it’s important they follow the same design, showing that you’re an employee who pays attention to details.
The first aspects to coordinate between your cover letter and resume are the font, font size, spacing and color choices. However, you should also coordinate the content of your resume and your cover letter. You could name specific skills in your resume, for example, while your cover letter provides context by explaining how you gained these skills.
Resume tip: An effective resume should not only provide information but it should be visually appealing and easy to read. You can use our editor to create a coherent, well-structured and professional job application portfolio consisting of your resume, a cover letter and a cover page. You can find various templates and examples here.
Adapt your resume to the job for which you’re applying
You have limited space in your resume, so concentrate on the following:
- Highlighting career stages that have a clear connection to your future employer
- Proof of skills and abilities that are valuable for the job for which you’re applying
- Your motivation for working for the company, which can compensate for gaps or weaknesses in your resume
Your resume shouldn’t include too much information that’s not strictly relevant for the job in question. Extra information will just make it harder for recruiters to find what they’re really looking for. Worst-case scenario, recruiters may skip your application and go on to the next if they can’t find the information they are looking for quickly and easily. Use your own discretion when considering which additional pieces of information to include in your resume.
16 tips for a good resume
Recruiters expect to be able to quickly scan your resume and still get the most important bits of information about you. They usually don’t have a lot of time to decide whether an applicant is worth taking a closer look. Unintentional errors in your resume or a lackluster presentation of what you can bring to the table can close those opportunities forever.
Make sure that your resume is flawless in every aspect. These resume tips can help you when creating your resume:
- Ensure good readability: A well-structured resume enables recruiters to find important information easily and quickly.
- Follow the correct order: resumes are usually structured anti-chronologically. This means you start with your most recent job and work backwards in time. This allows the reader to find your most recent job or your highest educational qualification immediately, which is important to recruiters.
- Keep it relevant: Focus on career stages that are relevant to the position for which you’re applying. Anything else can be mentioned very briefly. Irrelevant career stages that are decades old can be omitted altogether. The same applies for hobbies, skills and personal interests – only mention them if they’re relevant to this specific job application.
- Avoid mistakes in your resume: Avoid grammatical and spelling errors. Your resume should always be formally correct.
- Provide examples as bullet points: Don’t just mention your previous jobs and positions, but also include any relevant projects and achievements connected to these jobs. For example: “Increased annual online sales by 55 %.” Use numbers, as they catch the eye and make your claims feel more credible.
- No false modesty: You should always mention skills and achievements that can give you an edge over other applicants.
- Follow a common thread: Ideally, your resume should show that your entire professional career has led up to this next job. Naturally, this is usually not the case, but if you can make the recruiter believe that your career has followed a common thread throughout all your jobs so far, that can be a significant advantage.
- Adapt your resume to the job: The content of your resume should fit the job advertisement. If you have a lot of professional experience, your resume should focus on that, while it can also highlight your education and personal interests if this is your first full-time job.
- Explain gaps in your resume: Gaps of more than two months should be explained. Perhaps you have a valid reason for not being employed over a long stretch of time, such as maternity leave or a stay abroad. If you’ve been unemployed for a while, you can refer to this period as “active job search” or “professional re-orientation”.
- Focus on your work experience, followed by your educational historyy: Your work history is usually more interesting to recruiters than your education (except for the prestigious schools that you may have attended). Your resume should only focus on your education if you don’t have any relevant work experience to show for yet.
- Keep your resume to two pages at maximum: A well-structured resume should never exceed two pages. Omit irrelevant information or mention these stages of your life only briefly so you have enough space to go into detail with those career stages which are actually relevant to your application.
- Use an appealing layout: In most cases, it’s best to keep the graphical design and layout of your job application portfolio simple, professional and well-structured. If you’re applying for a job as a designer or similar, you may opt for a more unique design; however, ensure your documents are still easy to read.
- Only mention personal data where useful: Due to various legislation such as the Civil Rights Act, as well as general concerns over discrimination, you don’t need to provide personal information on topics such as your race, sex or marital status. Only include this information if you believe it’s relevant, such as when applying for a job with a religious organization. Keep in mind that recruiters in the US are careful not to create the appearance of discrimination, so providing too much personal information may work against you.
- When applying abroad, be aware of cultural expectations: Job applications in other countries don’t follow the same norms as they do in the US. For example, recruiters in many other countries such as Mexico may expect you to add a photograph of yourself to your resume, which is generally not advisable when applying for a job in the US.
- Sign your cover letter: Recruiters expect you to sign your cover letter, as a way of saying “I am confident in my application.” Use a fountain pen or a high-quality ballpoint pen with blue ink. If you’re applying online, you can scan your signature. If you can’t scan it, you can use our online editor to generate your signature.
- Provide current information: Make sure all the information in your job application portfolio is up-to-date. Otherwise, recruiters may wonder if you have something to hide.
