Pamela is a Life Science graduate and Certified Human Behaviour Analyst who has been using behavioural profiling tools such as DISC since the late 1990s. Her first foray into publications was in 1994 and has contributed to various agencies including The Salvation Army, Crisis Relief Society and National Youth Achievement Award. She also has been involved in career guidance since 1998. In addition, she is looking into the recruitment & training of volunteers in a full-time capacity. - To start off, 2 questions
This helps form the underlying foundation for not just what gets included in your resume - but how and where. The former helps to showcase where you’ve been professionally while the latter has to do much with your career objectives. This causes employers to have a vivid picture of you as an individual with the type of qualifications catered for the type of job you have in mind. But before a picture can be painted in the mind of your prospective employer, you need to know what the image is.
- Sell it, don’t tell it – to me
Tell it involves stating facts; sell it involves marketing your wares. For instance, Managed start-up of a new 120-employee call center OR directed team of 10 in the successful start-up, staffing, policy/procedure development, budgeting, and operations design for a new SGD $1.5million call center.
- Keywords
Keywords are jargon specific to a particular profession or industry, and people may well use them to infer that you have a certain skill set. However, this does not mean that the keywords alone will be a ticket to the show, but do remain mindful that qualifications, skills, length of experience and other soft skills are still pertinent to landing that chance to showcase yourself.
- Big on details?
Although micromanaging may be good, or even necessary for certain staff, it is definitely not something worth showcasing to your prospective boss – unless he or she happens to like that style, but that is just what it is – showing a flair for a certain style of working. It’s akin to claiming you write with your left hand instead of your right… well, not exactly, but I trust you get the point.
- Make it reader-friendly
Your resume is like a roadmap – where it is your job, as the designer, to navigate the interviewer through the conversation that he or she is going to have with you.
- Provide structure and content
Making sure information can be found easily and being consistent are two simple ways of doing just that.
- Functionality can be more than just pretty
Remember the Baby-G? Ok, maybe that watch is passé, but it’s an illustration how a multi-functional watch can be pretty. Although the strap could be made of plastic, or Velcro, or cloth, it’s core function remained the consistent – it showed the same face. Sheer genius in marketing if you ask me!
- Virtual Reality? No!
Although virtual reality is clearly still very possibly in the future, it is good that your resume remain as rooted as it can in the present.
- Be confident
Confidence is key. It helps to be familiar with your stuff – this encompasses your dressing, your diction, your resume and much more!
- Last but not least, read through your resume & proof-read for any small errors – remember, it was the last straw that broke the camel’s back, not brick!