A good resume - your marketing tool to win your dream job

Resume - What is it ?
A resume (CV or Curriculum Vitae) is the first step to present yourself to a potential employer. It opens the door to a job interview. Thus, it is very important that you summarize all the relevant qualifications, experiences, skills and achievements in your resume.

Thousands of resumes are received by an employer everyday, thus they might only have 2minutes or so to browse your resume. How to excel yourself within the limited time becomes a key issue. It is unwise to pour every little detail into your resume as if it is a track record of your life!

What should be included in your resume ?

Personal Details
Your Full Name, Address, Contact no., mobile no., E-mail

Career Objective
A well-defined career objective helps the employer to relate your working experiences, qualifications to the applied job.

Photo
It is optional and please make sure that you are formally dressed.

Educational background

Employment History

Extra-curricular activities

Skills

References

Date of availability


Style and Format of Resume
Tailor-make your resume for the applied position, instead of using the same resume all the times. Arrange your qualifications, past experiences and etc in a reverse chronological order. State your achievements with facts, do not exaggerate. Begin sentence with action words and avoid using personal pronouns like “I”. Do not include all the attended courses and grades into the resume, but those relevant or with distinguished results. Organize the resume in a neat and tidy manner; highlight your attractions with headings, indentations. Use simple English and be concise, never write in casual or fancy tone. Make sure that your resume has been proofread with no typing and spelling mistakes.


Use of action words
It is essential to use action words to market your skills in resumes for it transforms your accomplishments in a more dynamic and readable manner.


Make Your Soft Skills Known
In addition to technical knowledge, an increasingly common requirement is for candidates to demonstrate an ability to add value to the business. The key way to do this is to demonstrate that you can hold your own in the corporate world. So rather than creating a CV that solely addresses your technical skills, elaborate upon your operation and commercial skills. For example, have you completed process improvements, been part of system implementations or improvements, managed projects or secured new clients? Focus on what you have done to make a difference and consequently demonstrate your commercial acumen.

Please remember that the key element employers are looking for is how you added value through these projects. It is not enough to simply state your financial or management skills, or say you were involved in a system implementation. Thus, you need to demonstrate how you have added value in your role, in your organisation and through your involvement in projects.

It is essential to demonstrate your ability to liaise with clients and nurture a business relationship. Communication across departments, the management of teams, human resources and project skills are all viewed very highly by employers and should be demonstrated accordingly on your CV and sought out in your current role to advance your career in the long term. This change from a pure technical focus has come about through the evolution of accountants themselves. With an increase in candidates who can demonstrate a more commercial focus and who will get involved in process improvements, system implementations and project management while demonstrating increasing management skills, employers have begun to seek out this type of accountant. For example, the accountant needs to hold their own and ensure their own development in a constantly evolving industry.

If the opportunity arises, it is certainly advantageous to become involved in special projects, which provide the opportunity to learn and develop your skills. In terms of your long-term career objectives, it will certainly help to take every opportunity to become involved in the commercial aspect of the business - even if this is not a required function of your current role. Good time management skills are also valued since an ability to meet deadlines is an ongoing requirement in financial cycles. Additionally, employers also look for candidates who can be a good team player, are innovative, and who possess a positive working attitude.


Writing a Resume - Tips
Follow the tips below and prepare a resume that is able to market yourself to potential employers. Human resources professionals usually receive huge number of job applications every day. So a resume that is clear and precise will certainly make you stand out from others. Even though there is no limitation to the length of a resume, one or two pages are desirable and the maximum is three pages.

If you want to give as much information as possible within two pages of your resume, you should only give information relevant to the job. Avoid personal details such as hobbies, marital status, weight, height or number of children you have.

Achievements - To distinguish yourself from other applicants, do not just list out job responsibilities in the past. Instead, try to highlight achievements especially quantifiable ones.

Normally, llarge organisations scan resumes by looking for key words of certain industries or skill sets. Therefore, use key words such as contract negotiation, project management, network support, product development and etc.

Proofread your resume again and again to avoid any typos. Misspelled words will give an impression that either you do not know the spelling or that you do not put effort in preparing your resume.

The design is as important as the content. Make your resume easy and comfortable to read. Highlight your strengths clearly and DO NOT print it on fancy coloured paper. Even if you apply jobs in the same industry, different firms have different requirements. Tailor your resume to employers’ needs. When your resume reaches the the human resources department, it may stay there for only 10 seconds. So, make it a useful marketing tool to help you win your dream job !!

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