How to Build a Professional Resume
Imagine you are a manager who is reading several resumes every day to choose the best one for the interview. In this case, it’s not possible to read all the lines of each; unless something catches your eyes.
This article will teach you techniques that will persuade any manager to arrange a face-to-face meeting to interview you. If you want to start writing your resume professionally, do not miss the rest of this article.
Focus on your skills
Personal information such as your date of birth, residence, and even your gender is not something that initially appeals to a manager. The most important thing for getting a job is your skills and experience.
- Here’s how to get started:
Write your name and job title in a header, then list the primary skills that help you get the job.
Avoid giving unnecessary information. For example, if you are a good cook or have useful historical knowledge, you do not need to mention them in this section.
Note that your resume should not contain your photo. Many companies’ human resources believe that employee selection should not be based on their appearance.
Do not explain too much.
Try to write your resume in a maximum of two pages. Too many descriptions are beyond the reader’s patience. Plus, you probably won’t be able to reflect everything as it is.
List your experiences.
In this section, you refer precisely to your work experiences and completed projects. List your work history with an overview of responsibilities and tasks performed over a period of time. It would help if you also write down when you left your previous job and why.
Write a subtitle to introduce each project. Even projects that you have done voluntarily and without pay are attractive to managers.
It is better to mention the reasons for your job promotion. Sudden and unreasonable jumps are not attractive to managers. In these cases, the managers’ first impression is that you have been promoted by favoritism and nepotism.
If you have been in a job for a long time with no progress, your potential manager may think that you have little desire to grow and that earning a small amount of money and waiting time is your only purpose.
Frequent change of workplace or project may be a sign of aimlessness or incompatibility with the workplace.
Therefore, be careful in writing your work history.
Approach to completing the daily ‘Hobbies or outside interests’ section.
Most resumes have a section called ‘Hobbies or Outside interests.’ Indeed, the managers do not want to know which football team you are a fan of or which series you follow. They just want to make sure that you do not turn off your brain and put it in the closet after leaving the office.
For example, if you are a fan of Syntax.fm podcasts or always follow technology news in the bates New York Times, you are probably very likely to be hired by a technology-driven company.
When to talk about credentials?
Interestingly, many programmers do not have a relevant college degree, but they are successful.
Yes, you got it right. Our degree is the last priority for managers. So it makes more sense to put them at the end of the resume after the managers have come to believe in our abilities as programmers.
Show your differences
Even if a manager is looking for someone to do simple programming, he still prefers to hire someone who is not just a simple programmer with ten years of experience. So when writing a resume, show your advantages over others. Consider the following example:
Boring:
Developer – at East Coast Power Company – from 1995 to 2005
- Visual Basic application developer for controlling machines
Attractive:
Developer – at East Coast Power Company – from 1995 to 2005
- Visual Basic application developer for controlling nuclear reactors.
Did you notice the difference? When you say “developer for controlling machines,” managers may think that you mean a simple elevator.
So please do not be too humble and try to convey everything you have done with the shortest sentences.
Follow the UI tips
Your resume does not have to be beautiful. But if you present a page of consecutive lines as a resume, how can managers trust your coding and UI ability?
Choosing the right format can make your resume look distinct to catch the reader’s attention at first glance. Our suggestion is to select a formal font in black and size 12 points. Never use two different fonts or fancy and weird colors.
In the process of writing a resume, it is better to put enough space between each section and paragraph. These empty spaces are called breathing spaces, which give the reader a chance to breathe.
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