Make your resume/CV stand out...

With millions of people either unemployed or looking for new jobs, getting your resume noticed can be a challenge. Many managers say that approximately half of the applicants they receive are unqualified, so on average they only bother spending an average of one to two minutes reviewing each application. Is your resume screaming your qualifications and experience to potential employers? Here are some tips to help your resume get noticed:

Include your career summary and objectives at the top

With only 1-2 sentences try to highlight what makes you such a great candidate for the job. This is the section of your resume that really needs to make you shine. Get your message across effectively with as few words as possible. Your potential employer is not going to want to read an essay, if your summary is too long, they won’t bother reading it at all. Also make sure you include a cover letter whenever possible to further emphasise your strengths.

Customise your resume

When you send a resume to a potential employer, you have to research the company and job ahead of time to tailor the resume to the job. Include only relevant information to keep your resume focused and make it easier for employers to see value in you as an applicant. Remember, a generic resume tells your potential employer that you didn’t care enough about the position to really think about what you were sending them. While using unique formats, fonts and colours will definitely help spruce up your resume, make sure it is appropriate for the position and doesn’t hurt the readability of your resume.

Keep (what I call) a master resume on your computer. Use this resume to input all of your accomplishments, jobs, responsibilities, education, etc. This resume is not meant to be sent to employers, ever! Use the master resume is to keep record of what you’ve done. Create unique resumes for each of your job applications using the master resume as a guide, this way you can feel comfortable that you did not forget any valuable information on any of your resumes.

Keep it up to date

Make sure you are constantly updating your master resume with all pertinent and valuable information. Every single time you gain a new responsibility at work or get recognition for something, put it in your resume right away so you don’t forget about it later. Leaving gaps in your resume can leave you looking like you didn’t have much responsibility or accomplishments at previous positions.

Organize your resume logically, not chronologically

Categorize your skills and experience by function to show employers where your proficiencies are. If you are applying for a laboratory job, make sure you have a list of your pertinent laboratory skills front and center. Mixing all your skills and accomplishments together can look confusing and makes it hard for employers to determine what your pertinent accomplishments are.

Get a second opinion… and third, and fourth

Don’t be so sensitive to criticism, make sure you have some of your friends, family and co-workers look over your resume. They often will notice things that you missed. Think about what others have to say and determine for yourself whether their advice/corrections make sense to you too. Getting people in the same field as you can help make sure it looks good on a more technical level, but people from different backgrounds can help a lot too by giving you a different perspective.