5 Pro-tips to Choose the Perfect Resume Format
An ill-crafted template and poor resume format can hamper your resume and significantly diminish your chances of getting shortlisted.
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Setting the foundation of your resume, resume format can be incredibly helpful for bringing forth relevant information and skills.
So, here is how you can choose a perfect format for your resume:
What are the types of resume formats?
What are resume formats and which resume format should you choose? There are two formats that help you organize information in your resume.
- Chronological format: This format follows a more traditional approach where you need to include all the information in reverse chronological order. This format allows you to list your most recent work history at the top which is highly useful as recruiters look for recent developments in a resume.
- Functional resume: This format allows you to focus on skills that are relevant to the target profile. This is an ideal format for people with career gaps and professionals who have been out of the workforce for a while. By creating a separate section for skills, this format helps candidates with the points/skills that are related to the profile they are targeting.
Why are resume formats important?
As the competition is tough and recruiters need to peer through loads of resumes, it is important to make sure that skills that are important for the target profile are highlighted correctly.
Resume formats will allow candidates to showcase and organize information that can directly help you make your resume look professional.
Further, resume formats are useful in making sure that each section and aspect of the resume is utilized correctly and do not let it exceed two pages.
How to choose a resume format?
As we have talked about the importance of resume formats, it is important to trace what format will work best for your profile.
Choosing a resume format majorly depends on your working experience. For instance, if you are a professional who has worked continuously, you may want to showcase a constructive career progression. In such cases, it is ideal for you to choose a chronological format.
But, if you are a frequent job-hopper or you have gaps in your career, it is advisable to go with a functional format.
The point is that the recruiter will not be the only one going through your resume. Several companies deploy resume screening software such as ATS (application tracking system) that allows them to disregard a resume that is irrelevant to the profile in question.
Profile-related achievements and skills are of paramount importance. So, your work experience section should reflect such pointers.
How to format your resume?
Formatting your resume is all about correctly optimizing each section. So, even if you choose a perfect format that caters to your profile, it would instantly become a redundant practice if you fail to master the formatting.
This means correctly including the information under the appropriate section and adhering to the best resume practices.
For example:
- Resume header: The header should contain your personal information in terms of contact, location, email, etc. and it should have the title of your profile.
- Career summary: You need to write a career summary in a paragraph form that does not go beyond more than 3-4 lines. There are two types of career summaries – professional summary and objective. You should write a professional summary if you have working experience. However, for entry-level candidates, an objective is ideal.
- Skills: This section should entail your areas of expertise in terms of core skills and keywords in-line with the target profile. For instance, a sales professional will include “sales performance, go to market strategy, market penetration, etc.” in his skill’s section.
- Experience: Write all your work profiles with key achievements in this section. Additionally, entry-level professionals can include their internships but do not forget to rename the section to “internships”.
- Education/Relevant certifications: Write all your degrees along with information about your educational backgrounds. You may even include course modules if you think it will help with the target profile.
- Additional information: Additional information is about sections that fall outside the umbrella of “fundamental sections” listed above. This may include “extra-curricular activities, training, workshops, etc.”
Why resume formatting matters
Sure, you include all the information in your resume for the recruiter’s perusal. However, recruiters cannot afford to pay attention to every aspect of your resume. Hence it is important that you format your resume in a way that important information is not sidelined.
This can be achieved by adhering to the best practices for including information in each section of your resume.
Further, resume formatting matters for passing the applicant tracking system as well. For instance, if you rename the “professional summary” section to “my beautiful career journey”, it is likely that the information written under this will be parsed through the ATS. The system might mistake this as something else and disregard intended pointers.
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