How to Select the Best Resume Format

How to Select the Best Resume Format

The job market is all about competition and who is able to impress the most. These days when technology is shrinking involvement of the human factor in the provision of products and services, the competition has become almost cut-throat. How you stand out from the multitude and make the impression that would even get you through the door to meet your potential employers is something you need to be very concerned about. You need to put your best foot forward if you would gain access and that best foot is your resume.

Your resume is the voice that would speak on your behalf and explain your capabilities even before the employer gets to see you, and how it makes that speech on your behalf is everything. Choosing and designing the right resume format that accentuates and makes the best out of your achievements is what we would discuss in this article if you would come with me.

Understand your niche?

You need to know what is obtainable in your area of interest and specifically in the place you are looking to apply to. “Ask questions”, is one of the precious advice you can get and which advice has helped a lot of employees in hunting down the job they now do. Asking questions in this regards includes finding out how the human resources team behave, the business model of the organization and what is important to them. Some organizations or human resources team pay particular attention to packaging and aesthetics while others may not really care about the form but the substance. Like they say, different strokes for different folks. For those that pay attention to branding such as advertising/marketing agencies, you may want to give more to your resume preparation than just ruling lines under heads and subheads on a Word document.

Also asking questions would help you know how to organize the contents of your resume based on what is important for the organization and the role you are applying for. Some job roles may place greater premium on skills, others may demand strong academic achievements while some would require proficiency gained from previous work experiences. These things are what your research can only tell you.

Choose a resume format that compels the employer to hire you.

You need to stand tall on your resume and this does not by any means require that you should tell lies or create a person you yourself cannot identify from your resume. With the right shedding of lights here and there, you would be able to compel the employer to consider you strongly. Again, how you do this depends on the role you are applying for and your achievements. There are generally three types of resume format including;

• Reverse Chronological Resume Format
• Functional Resume Format
• Combination Resume Format

A Reverse Chronological Resume Format is the darling of most job seekers. This is because it aims to impress from the point of experiences gained from working in the field or similar field to the one being applied for. It lays emphasis on the work experiences from the most recent professional experience to the ones in times past. Due to its design, it is usually the best choice for candidates who have indeed gained proficiency from their previous employments. What it tells the employer is “look, I can hold my own within your organization, bring value and with the least supervision”. If you have what it takes, why not? Go for Reverse Chronological Resume Format, flaunt it by all means.

Functional Resume Format on the other hand focuses attention on skills acquired. This type of resume would usually come in handy when the niche is tech-based, computer programming, software development etc. While it is not very popular today, it is still the best option when you are seeking to take charge of a senior level position where you direct others or where your work experience is not in its A-game. Also for people seeking to make a switch to other areas of interest where previous work experiences are not fitted to sway the prospective employer, the best bet is in marketing your skills.

A condition precedent for proceeding on this path is to know exactly what skills are relevant and needed for the job you want to apply to.

A Combination Resume Format takes two bites at the cherry in that it lays emphasis on both skills and work experiences. This resume format is typically used in circumstances where your skills and experiences are both rich and also match the requirements for the job being applied for. Also, it is advisable where you are not sure which one of the two would impress the employer or even where both are important to the employer. The combination resume format is also your best friend in the event that you do not have a strong presence in terms of your academic history.

Keep Your Resume Format Simple and Focused

Most employers only get to review resumes only after they have been trimmed down to a wieldy number by an Applicant Tracking System (ATS). Thus when applying to a large organization where there is most likely going to be a thousand more applicants, you need to bear in mind that you might have to pass through an applicant tracking system as the first layer before reaching the HR. This is important as it would determine the formatting of your resume.

The applicant tracking system most likely would not be able to read tiny fonts which invariably means you would have to go for a resume that hits only the few important points as opposed to one that says all you have achieved as much as you would want to highlight. Size 10 or 12 and any of the following fonts: Arial, Verdana, Calibri, and Times New Roman will most likely pass the scrutiny of an applicant tracking system. Also black and white as opposed to colored and aesthetically designed resumes would be your best bet for this type of scenario. Thus, your choice of a resume will also be determined by the size of the organization and the possibility that an applicant tracking system will be involved.

Conclusion

Being strategic is the key card in your job hunting arsenal. Your resume is the first and most important place to start in deploying your strategic plotting. This is because before you even start talking about planning for an interview, you need to get yourself invited in the first place. To this end, making a choice of how your resume should be is tied closely with the nature of the job being applied for, so that the choice of resume format is the biggest you might have to make!