What to look out for in your resume?

 

It is important to understand that your resume reflects more than just your career path, it also speaks for you about your personality and other soft skills. A candidate with a clear and good Cv will stand more chances to get the job than an equally skilled candidate whose Cv isn’t great.

Before starting job hunting, it could be a good thing to read our Resume Pointers section and make sure your Cv is up to the industry standards.

We want to help you build a resume that will attract potential employers – here are a few tips (Do’s and Dont’s) to make it look good.

Do’s:

  • Check out professionally written resume samples and chose a template you like (free of charge)
  • Make sure your resume is clear and easy to read (for instance by using bullets points and an agreeable writing font). When screening, a Recruiter spends on average 8 seconds per candidate’s resume – help them find quickly the important information in yours!
  • Customize your Cv. Different roles require different skills, so you should adapt your Cv to the position you are applying to
  • Build your career path/qualifications such as positions and courses are in reverse chronological order (most recent comes first, since it is the most important for a majority of Employers)
  • Mention for each of your previous positions: position title, company name, location (city/country) and the dates of employment. For Engineers, we recommend you to add on top, the name and a short description of the projects you have worked on
  • Bullet point your duties, clearly and in details (job scope, work environment, projects)
  • Include measurables (facts and numbers). Have you reached your KPI’s in your current role/previous role? Yes? Mention and detail it. Have you managed a team? If yes, don’t forget to write it down and mention how big your team was
  • Avoid grammar and spelling mistakes
  • Provide accurate contact information, including at least: phone number (mobile is preferred), residential address, email address

Dont’s:

  • Lose focus. Remember you applied for a specific position and your resume should be in line with it
  • Detail your experience too much, save some information for a potential interview
  • Mention the words “Resume” or “Curriculum Vitae” on top of the document
  • Worry about the length of your resume. It should be reasonable though
  • Include personal information, such as marital status, date of birth, ethnic origin, religion, height, weight etc. A resume should reflect your skills before all
  • Use too many acronyms (or write down what they stand for)
  • List the references directly on your Cv, but precise you will make them available upon request
  • Lie