9 Top Tips for a Power Resume - that will help you land your dream job fast

​Your resume is your master key to unlock the door to career opportunities.  You have to get it right.  You MUST get it right!!  If you don’t have a crafted killer resume:
 

• You will wait for months to get a job interview
• You will not get the job opportunity you deserve
• You will end up in the wrong, work culture and career
• You will earn less money than what you are worth in the market

 
Beyond information about your education, employment, skill set and expertise, your resume must capture the sum total of your personality, uniqueness, your life’s journey,  your achievements and importantly the contributions and value adds that you can make to your employer.  Your resume needs to be the marketing tool that makes you stand out from competition.
 
Here are the top 7 tips that you will make an impact on your future employer:
 

1. A professional email address:  Make sure you have a professional email address, ideal with your name such as vidhya1868@gmail.com.   Email addresses such as desertgirl109@gmail.com, flowerlady@hotmail.com will not create the right impression to land you a job.

 

1. A professional template:  Use a template that showcases critical information on the front page and allows for a balanced ‘white space’ to avoid a cluttered look that has too much information.

 

1. Career objective:  Your career objective needs to be about your future ‘employer’ and not about ‘you’.  Here’s, the opportunity to show them in 3-4 lines how your experience, skills and expertise can improve their business efficiency.  Do avoid mentioning your need for career growth and how you want to expand your experience and knowledge (on their platform – it’s a no.. no).

 

1. Power verbs:  Using power verbs lifts your resume to a higher professional level.  Some helpful power verbs to use are  organize, establish, initiate, develop, deliver.

 

1. Industry keywords:  Hiring processes nowadays involve technology before being screened by humans.  So, technology screens your resume first, therefore, having the right key words in your resume is extremely important.  You can get keywords from job descriptions, industry journal or a simple google search.  Examples of keywords used for an ESL Teacher would be  English, teach, assess, evaluate, develop material, reading, writing, speaking, communication, classroom management, student-centric lessons, lesson planning.

 

1. Unique skills/expertise:  If you want to stand out amongst competition you must mention what you can offer to your employer that competition can’t.  For an ESL Teacher it can be content development, professional development for teachers, mentoring new teachers, teaching challenging/differently abled students,  assessment writing, Quality Assurance etc.

 

1. Achievements:  Make sure that your resume includes achievements and highlights during your career -  Reward and recognition certificates (R&R), awards won, articles published, seminar presentations etc.

 

1. Contributions:  Employers are currently looking for employees who make contributions that are above and beyond the job description.  Examples for an ESL Teacher may be starting a reading/writing/drama club,  recycling project, mentoring new teachers etc.

 

1. Professional development:  Staying current in your profession and industry is extremely important in the current job market.   Ideally, your resume should reflect at least 3-4 professional development workshops/seminars you have attended in the last 2 years.

 
If you include the above tips in your resume,  it will improve your chances of getting an interview, much more significantly.