14 Resume tips to Land Your Dream Job [ Checklist ]

Creating a resume isn’t easy, it should meet many criteria to be able to help you to land your dream job. Also, a resume is about a simple page, but this simply draws the first impression in the recruiters’ mind, and this impression will make them take an action toward your cv by accepting or rejecting your resume.

In this article, we will go through the resume tips to land your dream job by knowing all the simple details that you have to mention in your resume, and how to create a professional, strong resume. So, keep reading to make your own resume.

Steps to creating a Resume for your dream job

First, you should start by knowing how to build your resume correctly, and the main components of the resume. So, let’s start:

• Step 1: Choose format

There are multiple formats of resume, and each format is specialized for a target job seeker. To choose the suitable format, you must know the difference between them:

Chronological or Reverse Chronological Resume Format

This format is a type of format where the work experience is the main focus. Applying the chronological format in your resume is by putting your work experience under the objective section. And you have to mention your recent work experience then the previous one.

This format is the most used in the world wide, because the HR have a good knowledge of this format, so they will be able to scroll your resume and reach out the needed data easily.

Also, the ATS “Application Tracking System” used in many companies, especially big organizations, recognize this format clearly.

Functional or Skills Based Resume Format

In the functional or skills-based resume format, as the name shows, the resume is based generally on the skills part. You will focus on it by mentioning the skills section after the objective section in your resume, and the work experience will come after listing all your skills.

This format is the best for the undergraduates, fresh-graduates, job seekers who have a gap between their work experience, or who are seeking for a shift career.

Read more: How to write Resume for Undergraduates

Combination Resume Format

The combination format of resume is the mixture between the previous format, by doing a mix between your skills and your work experience.

This format is generally used by the candidates who have work experience but they are seeking for a new opportunity with a higher job title.

Read more: 3 Best Resume Formats Tips

• Step 2: Create Your Header

Header is very important in your resume, as you will list all your contact information in the header. The contact information including: 

• Your name
• Address
• Phone number
• Email Address

In the header, you should take care about mentioning the right information, make sure to put your right phone number and email. 

• Step 3: Write a Summary or Objective

After mentioning the header and your contact information come the time of the second sector in the resume: the summary or the objective. 

There is a difference between the objective and the summary but they do the same role, is to grab the attention of the recruiters and show the value that you could add to this job vacancy. 

 So, pay attention to have a strong message in your objective or your summary. Also, the summary should not be too long, it will not be read. It might be 3 or 4 sentences; every sentence describes a message.

But what is the difference between the summary and the objective?

Summaries and When to Use Them

The summary is used by the candidates who want to show their work experience, their responsibilities and their achievements. 

It’s generally adopted by the candidates that have a long work experience in the same job title of the new job opportunity.

What about Objective Statements?

The objective is about a statement that shows your vision, your plans and what you are seeking for your future. The value that you will add to the company and your objective in the company. 

The objective is used by the candidates who don’t have previous experience, or they want to change their career. 

• Step 4: Describe Your Work Experience

This step is very important, if you decide to follow the chronological format. You have to mention all your previous work, your role, your responsibilities, your duties, and your accomplishments in each work. 

How to List Your Experience

To list your job experience, you should mention some information:

• Job title: it’s the first thing the recruiters focus on while reading your resume. The job title will indicate, if you will be eligible for the job vacancy or not. For example, if you are a graphic designer and the job vacancy requires a marketing specialist, the recruiter will reject your resume.
• Company name: you have to mention the company name and its location in case this company is a small company. In the case of a well-known company, you have to mention the company name only.
• Employment date: here you should mention the start date and the end date in each work experience.
• Responsibilities and achievements: in bullet points, highlight the most important job duties and achievements that you have realized in each work experience.   

Read more: How to Write Work Experience on a Resume

How Long Can It Be?

HR don’t have the patience to read a big resume, so the best practice while creating a resume is to respect 2 pages by maximum in case you have a professional experience more than 3 years. But if your data doesn’t exceed one page no problem for sure.

But take care to mention the key achievements in your work experience. As, it could be the reason to land an interview.

• Step 5: List Your Skills

Each job vacancy requires some skills, you have to read the job description, and list some of these skills in your resume to pass the ATS and make the HR feel that your resume is customized for his job vacancy. 

The skills sector must include all of your skills related to your career path. There are soft skills and hard skills. Try to do a combination between them.

• Step 6: List Your Degrees and Certifications

In this section, you must mention all your certificates and degree that you received, list them in a reverse chronological form from the newest to the past. 

Mention your degree, school name, the field of study, graduation date or expected graduation date, and your GPA, in case you have a GPA more than 3.5.  

If you want to create a professional resume, click here

How to Write a Resume with No Job Experience

To create your resume and you don’t have work experience, you should focus on your skills and your education level instead of your work experience. 

You could prefer the functional format, but you must be aware that some HR consider this resume format as a red flag because they think that you hide something. Due to the high usage of this format by the candidates that have gaps on their resume.

We recommend to you to use the combination format as it will mix between your skills and your work experience without mentioning the low work experience in your resume.

Read more: How to make your resume stand out

Resume tips to Land Your Dream Job

Now, it’s time to start our tips and tricks part to make a professional resume that competes with the other candidates and helps you to land your dream job:

• Focus on the next job more than your past.

In the work experience, take into consideration that you are addressing a recruiter in order to land your dream job. So, in this part, work on customizing your work experience with the job duties and the job description mentioned in the job vacancy ad. 

This trick will impress the recruiter, as he will find that you deploy much effort to make your resume fit with his requirements.

• Focus on results and achievements—not responsibilities.

In each job role, doing some duties and responsibilities are the normal, all the other candidates do the same responsibilities. 

To become different, you should focus on your achievements and your results. As it will appear how do you deal with your knowledge and your responsibilities to make a change in the organization.

• Remember numbers are your friend.

In general, numbers grab the attention. You must mention numbers and results that you have realized in your work experience instead of saying static words. For example, if you are a salesman, say that you realize a sales deal with 1 million dollars, instead of saying that you increase the sales number in the organization.

• Bold key items in a resume.

One of the tips that could have a good impression on the recruiter, is to highlight the important words, and numbers by making them bold.

• Keep it simple and straightforward.

To have a strong resume, you should mention all the key important information, but keep them simple and straightforward, no need to do a complicated description. 

The right way to write your resume is to keep your resume simple and easy to read. Choose the related points to be mentioned in your resume and ignore the unnecessary points.  

• Include a relevant list of technical/software skills.

Technical/software skills are the skills needed in your profession, don’t mean the skills for engineers or IT. No, all the job titles have some technical skills. For example, if you are an accountant, your technical skills are the knowledge of Excel, accounting software like SAP, reading financial reports, having a mathematical mind, etc. 

So, you should list your skills in the skills section related to your career.

• Move your education under work experience.

In case you have a good work experience, follow the chronological resume by listing your work experience on the top after the objective sector then the education after the work experience. 

Also, you have to take into consideration that the chronological resume format is the best and the most preferable by the recruiters, and readable by the ATS.

• Write an ATS-compatible resume

Many companies nowadays adopt the ATS, to reduce the hassle of thousands of resumes to be checked by recruiters. So, the ATS work in filtering the resumes to reject the unrelated resumes and keep the related one to be checked by humans. 

It’s important to make your resume compatible with the ATS, and the best format that could be read by ATS is the chronological resume. Also, eliminate the spelling, and grammatical errors, as the ATS will face a problem to read your resume correctly. 

• Don’t put everything on there.

One of the wrong actions, you could do while writing your resume, is to make it too long, with many details unnecessary. The right is to write useful information that could add value to your resume. 

Don’t mention the small details in your work experience for example. Write the key achievements points, it will be more valuable. The HR will not read all the resume with much details, but he will read the valuable points.

• Contact information should be clear

As we mentioned before that the contact information is very important, without it, recruiters couldn’t reach you. So, make them clear with a big font size, in bold to catch the eyes.

Use bold fonts sparingly to emphasize key successes
Mention your key successes numbers or verbs with the bold to highlight it. The bold words will grab the attention of the HR in the 6 or 7 seconds when he is skimming your resume. 

• Avoid unnecessary graphics

Adopting a simple template for your resume is the best. So, try to eliminate as much as possible the graphics useless as it will disturb the eyes of your resume content. 

• Keep it fresh.

Update your resume on a regular basis in order to not forget any key achievement point. So, check your resume each 1 – 3 months to make sure that your resume is up to date.

• Proofread, proofread, proofread.

Proofreading is an important resume tip to land your dream job. First of all, ATS doesn’t read grammatical or spelling errors, so your resume couldn’t pass the ATS.

On the other hand, recruiters find that a resume with a grammar or spelling error is a weak resume. And, you don’t deploy the needed efforts to correct all these errors. 

So, you must proofread your resume many times, at different times, and ask your friend to check it with you to guarantee that your resume is totally clear.

In conclusion, your resume is your mirror that reflects all your key important information to deliver them to the recruiters in order to gain a new work opportunity. So, paying attention to your resume will be your gate to land your dream job.