Whether you’re applying for your first job or your fifth, knowing whether you have a good resume can be tough. This is particularly true for students, as they may be looking for work to help get them through their studies, and need to ensure their resume is good enough to land them a job. Although it might seem like a bit of a puzzle at first, creating a resume that sells you well (that’s their job, after all), isn’t as difficult as you might think. In this article, we detail a few important things that every resume needs, as well as looking into why you might want to go for certain resume formats.
Why you need to consider the format of your resume
If you’ve been looking to find some work to help manage your bills or pay off VET student loans, showing that you’re a great worker on paper can be a bit of a confusing endeavour. This is made even more confusing in the fact that you have to choose one of three types of resume formats, and these will depend entirely on the job you’re applying for. These formats are reverse chronological or functional/skills-based (or a combination of these). The reverse chronological resume format is likely the resume format you’re most familiar with, as it is the most popular resume form today. In this format, your most recent experience is listed first, making it ideal to demonstrate recent and relevant work experience. A functional/skills-based resume format is more suited to people with less work experience, as it will highlight your most relevant experience in relation to the job you’re applying for. Finally, a combination of these two can be very useful to show off a variety of skills that may be related to the job being applied for. This is ideal for people applying for work that requires a diverse variety of skills.
What should your resume look like?
This is another place where many people get tripped up – what should my specific resume look like? The best place to start here is to not just look at the layouts of resumes in general, but the layout of resumes in the field or industry the job you’re applying for occupies. For example, if you’re creating a resume for a hospitality job, using an engineering resume as a template probably won’t do you any favours. In any case, going for something a bit more creative over the standard Microsoft Word templates you can find on the internet can help separate you from a dozen other identical resumes and help get you the job – after all, if five people have exactly the same experience and yours is the resume that stands out, you’ll likely get the job! There is potential for you to go too crazy with it, however – if you’re applying for a law firm, they might not care that your resume looks flashy. In fact, it might not work out in your favour at all!
What to include in your resume
Regardless of what your resume looks like, there are certain pieces of information that you need to include. These include your contact information, any relevant Work Experience (and also relevant Achievements), a small professional profile (what you want in a job and what you’re about), your education and any skills that you might have that you could apply in the work.