Learning to love what we dislike about writing resumes as job seekers
When you are a fresh graduate without any working experience, writing a resume is not as horrible feeling as compared to someone who has been working for decades. You are kept short within a page and that is what enticed tired eyes when shortlisting candidates.
As for this article, I hope it will be useful for some of us who might need it. I need it too. I dislike writing resumes because after going to several resume writing courses, talks, webinars, seminars, or pieces of trainings, there is no exact answer for a perfect resume.
Points to bear in mind when writing a resume:
1 — Keep it to a maximum of 2 pages.
Whether they are recruiters or direct hiring managers, they have no time to read through our resumes. They only glanced through it within less than 60 seconds. Then, our resumes go either to the shortlisted or the rejected ‘tray’. If we are lucky, they apply the 2 minutes rule to flip through our pages.
2 — Curate the resume differently for every different job position.
Even if we already have 1 resume for an Admin Executive role, it does not mean that piece is applicable for all Admin Executive job positions. We have to adjust to each job postings. So, a general resume uploaded into the job portals will not help much.
3 — Do we have to include a professional picture or remove the photo in the resume?
I sat through several resume webinars and seminars or training from all different companies. The majority of these trainers concluded that we do not need a photo in our resume. Some trainers said the ATS in the job portals eliminated the resume with photos. Others mentioned that we will be judged by our appearances.
Pretty. Ugly. Handsome. Sweet looking. Bitchy. This is a tricky side of resume writing which included photographs. Nobody will ever confess that our looks determined our attractiveness for the jobs. However, we do have bias selection in the workforce.
4 — Do we include past salary or do we remove it?
During one of the sessions I had with recruitment agency, employers are supposed to pay according to the job position. If they had set the range of salary between 3k-4k dollars, that will be the guiding reference.
Details like past salaries and family members’ information are PDPA. It is not compulsory to state our salary from previous jobs in a resume, but negotiating salary between the hiring managers and candidate can be done during an interview.
5 — Where do you include your achievements?
Look at the types of achievements awards. For example, a service excellence award has got nothing to do with marketing positions unless we can tweak it during the interview as a transferable skill.
“I am greatly recognized in the service I rendered to others. This is proven by the awards given to me. My services are not for customers or stakeholders only. I affirm that my manager can expect excellent service from me, in terms of my work quality and responsibility. You will see it after you welcome me on board with your company.”
However, in a resume, most of these details have to be about ‘relevance to the job position’. Thus a service excellence award will be placed at the back of other details when it comes to the marketing positions.
6 — How do we address the gaps between employment history?
This is also the tricky part. Employers love to see the gaps in-between years of the resume, but many are curious, but not for a relevant purpose.
For example, women could be out of the job for taking care of their young children or being a caregiver to their elderly. Managers are forthcoming to ask what we, as housewives, did that could be an added transferable skill to the job vacancy.
This is where during the interview, we have to be spontaneous to speak and convince them that we have an excellent time management skills and agility to handle different duties. Caregivers had readiness in emergency needs and networking for financial constraints.
There is no exact answer to where we should include in the resume with regards to this gap. Be creative.
The art of resume writing is that we have to keep updating it consistently. Set the intervals, probably every 6 months, to look into our resume when we are still in the workforce. Do not forget to keep abreast of the workforce requirements in skills demand.
Resume writing is one of them. It may seem a small thing that we often overlook. And when we need to get another job, we will see the big impact it brings to being selected for an interview!
