How to Create a Professional Resume

Keywords: professional resume, resume format, best resume format, resume in Sri Lanka, resume writing

Title Tag: How to Make Professional Resumes for Jobs in Sri Lanka

Meta Description: Resumes are the bridges to employment. The office world is formal and professional in everything. This makes a professional resume essential. If your resume is anything short of professional it might not get a second look by potential employers. Here, we’ll show you how to create a stand out resume right here in Sri Lanka.

A resume is basically a simple and short representation of yourself. It tells the employer who you are, what your experience is, and what you can offer. In that sense, a resume in Sri Lanka varies greatly from a CV. If you’re really confused about the differences between a CV and a resume, we’ll break it down for you soon enough.

In this guide, we will be educating you on everything there is to know about resumes. Here is what we intend to cover:

• Why a Resume is important
• The best resume formats in 2019
• What to include in your resume
• How to make a professional resume

What is a Resume and why is it important?

Where a CV is an extensive record of someone’s career, a resume is simply a brief summary of a person’s skills, experience and education. It covers a page or two. This definition should suffice to eliminate confusion moving forward.

A resume is what secures your employment. As such, a resume needs to represent you as best as it can. To juice up a resume, and stand out from a pool of job seekers, your resume should have your personal story embedded in it. The more personal a resume is, the better your chances of getting the job.

While a personal story is a favourable inclusion for resumes, the format also plays an important role in its creation. Every person’s story requires a unique format that best brings out his or her experience and skills. It’s important that you choose a format that best improves your resume. Speaking of formats, here are the three best ones.

The Best Resume Formats in 2019

There are basically three resume formats that matter in Sri Lanka. They are chronological, functional and combined resume format. Each of these formats are unique in their own way, and can be used specifically to achieve a certain objective where resume creation is concerned. To choose the best resume format for you, you must consider each of these three formats and how it can benefit you. Let’s begin with the most common resume format shall we?

1. Reverse Chronological Format

This is the easiest choice for many job seekers. Not only that, it is by far the simplest resume format. The reverse chronological resume format catches the eye of most recruiters because it focuses on work experience. The work experience section also precedes the skills and education section, making it clear to the recruiter, your experience in the field. The layout goes thus:

• Contact Info
• Resume Summary
• Professional Title
• Work Experience
• Skills
• Education
• Other sections.

2. Functional Resume Format

Contrary to the reverse chronological format, the functional resume centres on the skills section. It is not as commonly used as the other two, as recruiters aren’t quite familiar with the format. Recruiters love to dwell on work experience. However, the functional resume format focuses on ‘skills’ pertaining to the role of the job opening.
Here is the layout:

• Contact Info
• Resume Summary
• Professional Title
• Skills
• Other relevant skills
• Work Experience
• Education

3. Combination Resume Format

A ‘no-brainer’, the combination resume format combines the two aforementioned formats. Because this format combines both the reverse chronological and functional resume formats, it finds a way to highlight the skills and work experience sections. Due to its attention on these sections, the combination resume format omits other relevant sections such as resume summary and interests.
That doesn’t mean you cannot include these sections in your combination resume. If it all fits in one page, that’s fine. Recruiters appreciate concise resumes that fit into one page. However, if you have extensive work experience, then two pages will be just as fine. The layout goes thus:

• Contact Info
• Skills summary
• Other relevant skills
• Work Experience
• Education

What Resume Format Should You Use?

Now that you know the different resume formats that are available at your disposal, confusion can set in when choosing which one to use. All resume formats are acceptable in Sri Lanka. Your choice will depend on the circumstances of the employment, which includes things like work experience as well as the industry, company and position.

Formats matter a lot because they help structure your resume towards a specific job or a particular company. An attractive resume format can make your job application really stand out. Which format should you choose; well, that depends.

Use a reverse chronological resume format if you’ve got plenty work experience. In fact, you should use this format all the time if you can. It’s a classic and also the most preferred resume format by job recruiters.

Use a functional resume format when applying in creative industries as it highlights your soft skills and hides your shortcomings in relevant work experience. However, it’s not a familiar resume format, so we advise you use the combination format.

Use a Combination format if you’ve got plenty skills in addition to work experience. This format lets you showcase a mix of both your skills and work experience without sacrificing one for the other. This format, however, requires strategic information placing for best results.

What to Include in Your Resume?

NMaking a good representation of yourself in just one or two pages can be difficult. No one said resume writing was easy anyways. When creating a resume, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by personal information that contend virtually for inclusion in your resume. This guide will align your focus and help you create a resume that best fits the position you’re applying for.

Here is the step-by-step process of how to create a resume that speaks for you.

1. Choose a Format and Stick with it

Remember, there are three types of resume formats to choose from, which are chronological, functional and combination. If you got to this point, you must already have considerable knowledge about resume formats. You may already have chosen your best resume format.

2. Start with a Header

Resume writing begins with a header. This section covers contact information; things like your name, email address and phone number. In addition, a header could also include a mailing address. However, if you’re sending your resume via email, you can leave out this part. That being said, ensure your email address sounds professional. If your current email is something like hotboy639@mail.com or sugargirl@mail.com, you should consider changing it. It costs nothing to set up a new professional email like fredthomson@mail.com.

Your phone number should also be available. You should also change your voicemail message to something more professional.

3. Write a Resume Summary

Your resume summary is the precursor to the whole resume. It gives the recruiter some idea of what to expect when reading the other sections. Here, you are advised to summarise previous work experience and relevant skills. Make your resume summary as concise as you can, like a novel blurb.

You should know two things before drafting your resume summary. First, the summary becomes more important when applying for a position that deviates from your previous career path. Second, you may not need a resume summary if your work experience drips with quality and is relevant to the position.

4. List out Relevant Work Experience or Skills

Keep in mind that in the reverse chronological format, work experience comes first, whereas in the functional format, skills are emphasized. A combination format can have any of both coming first. Regardless of the format, here are what to include in your work experience and skills section.

A. Chronological Format (Experience)

• Show previous workplaces with timeline. Also, enumerate accomplishments in prior jobs.
• Work experience can be comprehensive; it’s important that you be selective about details to include.
• Piece together work experiences that are relevant to the role you’re applying for. Things like internships and special projects could gloss up your resume.
• Don’t omit experiences because you feel they aren’t good enough. Recruiters love to see diverse work experiences, so try to show your flexibility.
• Use accomplishment verbs like ‘effected’, ‘utilized’ to highlight your achievements.
• Don’t fuss about gap in timelines. Chronologise adequately and you’ll be fine.

B. Functional Format (Skills)

• State all your skills and explain how you learnt each skill as well as your prowess in 2-3 lines.
• Only list out skills that pertain to the job position in question.
• Always mention computer proficiency. It’s the 21st century, surely there must be some computer programs you’re familiar with.

5. Present all Education History

• List every educational institution you’ve attended. Begin with the most recent school. In many cases, that would be college. Enumerate your GPA, honorary awards and class rank (if any).
• Add other relevant educational experiences like seminars and training programs.Online programs count as well.

6. Highlight Notable Achievements

If you’ve previously been honoured at a formal event with an award for your work efforts, you should make that clear in your resume. It’ll give the recruiters something to think about. However, if you don’t have any such awards, skip this section.

7. List Personal Interests

It may sound counter-intuitive but listing out your personal interests may pique the curiosity of your employer. The personal interest section is however optional. If you feel your resume is already lengthy, then you can omit this section.

How to Make a Professional Resume

With the popularity of digital resumes now, it’s not uncommon to see tons of unprofessional resume circling the internet. An unprofessional resume is basically a resume that is not only hard to read but error-filled. It doesn’t matter if a person has the best work experience on the planet, if the resume doesn’t look professional, it’ll get tossed in the garbage.

You don’t want that, do you?

Why make a sloppy resume when you can have a professional one? Here, we’ll show you what mistakes to avoid and how to give your resume the professional boost it needs to get considered for the position.

Choose the Right Format. We can’t emphasize this enough. A professional resume has three formats: chronological, functional and combination. Choose one and follow through with it. Remember, the best resume format for you depends on the job you’re
applying for.

Make Your Resume Readable. When creating your resume, you need to keep in mind its legibility. The hiring manager should be able to glance through your resume easily without straining his eyes. It’s essential you use very legible fonts like Times New Roman, Calibri or Arial at a font size of 10-12. You can find many resume templates and guidelines online to help your cause.

But it doesn’t stop there. If you’re sending electronically, your resume should look well formatted. Large blocks of text should be broken down into concise and margined paragraphs. For physical resume copies, print the text on plain white or cream-coloured paper for the best legibility.

Consistency is Key. Formatting is essential. Things like font, font size and style (bold and italics) must be consistently used all through the resume.

Keep it Concise. It’s easy to include information that you don’t need when there is no focus. Your resume should focus on relevant work experience, skills and attributes that qualify you for the available position. Remember, a one-page resume is perfect; a two-page resume is adequate. Anything more is not needed.

Know when to be Creative

Nothing stops you from building creative resumes through digital tools found online. In fact, we recommend it. Resumes turn out beautiful when designed online. However, before including features like infographics and videos etc., you must be applying for a job in the creative industry, or it’ll be tossed out by the employer

Take time to Edit Your Resume

Remember, recruiters only need a small reason to disqualify your job application. So, we advise that you check for spelling and grammar errors. It also helps to solicit the help of friends with some experience or resume experts.

Follow the Employer’s Guidelines

Sometimes, your employer will present a resume checklist. This could include resume formats, document type and sending process. After editing your resume, it’s paramount to check with your employer’s guideline before sending in the review.

Conclusion

To get ahead of the competition, you simply have to follow the above tips. If you can do everything we’ve mentioned, then you just might be able to create the best resume in Sri Lanka.