The modern resume – do you have the 7 keys?
If HR managers need to evolve and engage in smarter and better ways of hiring, so too do millennial job seekers. And it all starts with your personal marketing tool – your RESUME. This simple document (or video/presentation for that matter) is your gateway to your dream job and you want to get it right. While a great resume can open doors to the best brands, an incomplete one can bring rejections from hiring managers.
With recruitment going digital and interviews happening through apps, online and over the phone, the millennial resume needs to reflect your personality as well as providing all the facts.
The 7 keys
We all are familiar with ‘Who, what, when, where, why, how and how much’ – namely “The 7 keys of strategy”. Essentially, a resume is nothing more than a strategic tool to promote yourself to a prospective employer and it needs to answer these 7 questions. With researchsuggesting that a recruiter spends as little as 6 seconds looking at a resume, as a job seeker, you might want to ask yourself if your current resume comprehensively answers all these questions. So, do you have the 7 keys to your resume that would seal the deal with a hiring manager?
Who
What is your identity? Introduce yourself with not only your basic bio like Name, DOB, Email etc., but clearly define who you are professionally. Are you simply a ‘software professional with 5 years’ experience’ or are you “an Oracle expert for 5 years who developed the ABC app for XYZ company”? Whilst these are one and the same, how you define yourself will make the hiring manager want to read further.
What
The way you state your past work experience and define your achievements will answer one of the most important questions every HR has on his/her mind- what can you do for the company?
Where
Mentioning the locations of each employment can help you come across as someone who has explored various places and understands different work cultures.
When
Explain each job tenure with its relevant timeline. A quick glance at your timelines and a hiring manager can find out how long you have been working and how long you sustained in each position.
How
This is probably the most pertinent question on any HR’s mind. You might have been a pro software engineer for 5 years or an innovative product designer but do your skills and experience relate to the position applied? If so, then how will it contribute to the wider organisational goals and objectives?
How much
‘How’ is often complemented with ‘how much’. Your career objective and professional summary should clearly define how much success you envisage in the position you applied for and how much can you contribute to the company.
Why
Last but not the least, the million-pound question on every hiring manager’s mind – why should they hire you? How you answer the previous 6 questions will automatically determine the ‘why’. Simultaneously, your profile should also reflect why you would choose to join their organisation.
Your resume defines you
Every candidate is unique and so is their resume. In the process of trying to follow a mould set by preceding generations, the individuality of one’s experience can get lost. The idea of the modern resume is to retain that uniqueness and increase the market value of your profile.
With an online recruitment specialist like TalentSpa, make your job search easier and get latest insights, trends and knowledge about the job market. We offer a combination of managed recruitment services and powerful recruiting and hiring software to help streamline your recruitment process. Join us on Twitter and Facebook to know more.