When providing your professional history and credentials in your resume, you need not pack it with all of the things you’ve done since your teacher praised you in kindergarten. Mentioning a Grade 1 piano recital isn’t really critical for a junior software engineer position for a business solutions company. Such details only distract the reader from the more relevant requirements for the position. Here are some of the more important details that you’d want to highlight.
Skills
This is a list of the skills relevant to the position for which you are applying. Make it a combination of hard skills and soft skills. Five for hard skills and three for soft skills is a good mix. Make use of industry-specific buzzwords. As for soft skills, key skills include written and oral communication, use of office productivity software, and management or leadership.
Education
Focus on your undergraduate and graduate degrees. For fresh college graduates, focus on the college level. Hyping accomplishments from high school when you don’t have as many for your college years can raise the question, “What happened to you?” in your reader.
Relevant details include:
- Name of School
- Location (City)
- Degree
- Inclusive Years of Attendance
- Awards
Work Experience
List your experiences in reverse chronological format. Relevant details for each employer include:
- Name of Organization
- Industry (if organization is not well-known)
- Position
- Inclusive Years of Employment
- Responsibilities/Accomplishments (written using power words and action-benefit statements)
For some, there may be instances where there are short stays in some positions which can communicate fickleness or lack of commitment. It would be to your best judgment if you would want to exclude these. But, if asked during the interview, be prepared to address them positively regardless of the reason. As for long gaps between employment, they can also communicate a negative image, but if such is the case, be prepared to address this. Just make sure that you highlight other accomplishments and skills in the other portions of the resume.
Licenses and Certifications
This can be a simple listing of the professional licenses (for fields that require licenses) which include the following details:
- Licences
- Licensing Organization (if applicable)
- Date Obtained (month and year)
In some industries like the IT industry, there can be more value in highlighting certifications over educational attainment.
Awards and Accomplishments
For awards, you can simply mention these details.
- Award
- Awarding Body (if applicable)
- Date Awarded (month and year)
- If award is not self-explanatory, a short mention of of why you won the award.
Organizations and Affiliations
For fresh graduates, organization and extracurricular work can stand in for work experience so this section can be treated as such.
- Name of Organization
- Nature of Organization
- Position
- Inclusive Years of Employment
- Responsibilities/Accomplishments (written using power words and action-benefit statements)
For active professionals, this can be simply a list of the following:
- Organization
- Position
- Inclusive Years of Membership
Interests
At times, it can be permissible to include hobbies and interests but make sure that they are somehow related to the position. For example, an applicant for a copywriter position in advertising may mention photography or graphic design as an interest or hobby. Special interests can communicate versatility.
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