Be specific. Are you qualified? Is your experience relevant?
Whether you are applying for a job at the local burger joint or as the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, having a solid résumé is key to getting the job you want. A résumé isn’t just a list of your past experiences—it’s your opportunity to show your potential employer you are exactly the right person for the position. Think back to your last résumé…what did you decide to include? Did everything in the résumé pertain specifically to the job you were applying for? How did you choose to describe your experiences? When you have so little room to convince an employer you are the best person for the position, every word can help or hurt your chances of getting hired.
Think about how you describe your duties from your latest position. We often see résumés with short and flavorless descriptions of past jobs. Using active and specific verbs can help sharpen an employer’s impression of your past experiences. There’s a big difference between “served drinks to customers” and “prepared a wide variety of drinks for patrons and created new drinks for the bar menu.” To make this example more specific, the writer could specify a certain type of drink he specialized in, taking care to make the information relevant to the position and employer. Think ahead and ask yourself, “What is this information really saying about me? What does my potential employer really want to know about me?”
As you write your résumé, focus on being specific, targeted to needs and detailed. This focus can help you identify and flesh out other parts of your résumé you may find lacking. Take a look at your volunteer work—could a potential employer reading your descriptions understand why you included each entry? Many people are tempted to leave out volunteer experiences because they can be difficult to link back to qualifications. However, presenting a strong image of your ability to commit to an organization or cause can be vital to securing a long-term position that requires a high level of trust. Spend time connecting the dots between your volunteer work and the work you hope to do with a particular employer, and alter your descriptions to reflect that line of thought.
Your résumé is a map of your qualifications, and the more detailed and legible the map, the easier it will be for an employer to understand why he or she should hire you. Being specific and relevant to their needs and to the industry can go a long way in making your résumé easy to navigate and demonstrating why you stand apart as a candidate. Choosing words carefully enables you to add depth and clarity to the experiences you’ve selected. If you are looking for more help organizing and editing your résumé, we’d love to offer our expertise. Foster Executive Writing & Editing has been writing CVs, cover letters and résumés for professionals since 2004, applying our abilities to any and all fields you may be applying for, with special experience in the medical field, retail management, and marketing, to name a few. Get in touch with us soon!
