Your resume represents you and its primary aim is to interest the interviewer enough to get you an interview invitation but other than acting as an interview prompt that is all it does.
Reading resumes is a boring and soul destroying job for any recruitment department. Many job roles attract a multitude of applicants and each one comes with their own resume and it is left to the interviewer to read each one and screen out just a few interesting ones to take forward to an interview.
You have to make your resume interesting but the trick is that you have to do this without inventing situations and outcomes. You have to make your resume work for you. This is not an easy task.
Be under no illusions that it’s the resume that gets you your job. It’s not. Getting a job is all about writing an interesting resume that tells the interviewer about your achievements, experiences and qualifications, a targeted covering letter and of course the most important element of all, the interview. It’s the resume and covering letter that gets you invited for an interview. Its the interview that gets you your job. Your resume cannot show if you are a likeable person because interviewers will invariably hire people they actually like.
Networking is today considered to be the main element when it comes to job hunting. Achieving common ground with your interviewer is possible if you join and reference memberships of various groups, alumni, clubs, local History etc. You of course cannot talk about networking without mentioning social media. The chances are that your interviewer is engaged with social media and so it is imperative that your name and brand are out there themselves. Engage with all the popular social media platforms like Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook but ensure you keep all your public content clean and positive. Watch your settings!!
Try to add an interesting point, some quirky take on one of your experiences.If you have ever done any work in the sector you
are looking at try slanting it at any competitor information you researched as your interviewer is bound to pick up on it and talk about it at your interview.
So prepare your resumes, keep them interesting and to the point and good luck with your job hunt.
Steve Blythe (Recruitment and Social Media Commentator).