How to Write a Good and Compelling Resume

A resume is a brief summary of a person’s skills and experience over one or two pages which should tell a compelling story that invites further inquiry. Here are  tips on how to put together a good and compelling resume.

Before you start:
– keep your employment goals in mind
– know that your resume should be tailored to support a specific job goal. That is, your resume for a customer service position should not be the same as that for an administrative assistant position.
-Research industry keywords to include on your resume.
– compile specific information about your educational and professional experience
-Make up your mind on what font to use. Do not use unprofessional fonts like, comic sans. Most professionals use serif fonts, like New Times Romans, Bell MT, Calibre, Georgia, etc

writing your resume:

Below describes the sections of a resume and what they should contain.

1. Contact Information

   Write your contact information at the top of the page. Write your first and last name and any professional title you hold. Below that, write your city of residence and contact information,
   including a phone number, e-mail address, linkedIn profile url. It is not necessary to include your street address.

2. Objective statement

   Write your employment or career objective. For example the objective statement for a Receptionist can be something similar to this: “I am looking for a receptionist position where I will use my skills in data entry and telephony as well as my experience with Microsoft Office and Excel. Objective statement is optional and can be removed.”

3. Work Experience

   List your past work experience in reverse chronological order. list each job title and employer, starting with most recent, and then describe the duties of the position underneath, focusing on your accomplishments.

4. Education

   List your highest education first. Include the name of the institution and any degree or certificates you earned. You can include your CGPA if it is good, something like 4.0 and above, for a 5.0 scale. You can also list your honours or awards like best graduating student, etc. For fresh graduates without work experience, this section is your main selling point so utilize it if you can.

5. Skills

   the skills section is very important, especially when your resume is being submitted to an applicant tacking system (ATS).  ATS ranks resumes and CVs using keywords specific to a job posting. Your resume should be tailored to suit every job you apply for, and this section is the most important part of the tailoring process. Use only hard skills, experience-based skills, e.g Photoshop, programming, data analysis, and prove your soft skills when mentioning your work and/or academic accomplishments. That is, relate your soft skills to your accomplishments to prove you really have them.

6. References

   Your references should be people who have worked with you in the past, your lecturer, project supervisor, your previous boss, e.t.c

Proofread

Proofread your resume. Asks your friends or Professionals you know to help you proofread your resume.