How to prepare an eye-catching resume?

Everything has a start, right? Well, the start of your career can become a good and professional resume, or sometimes better known as a CV, Curriculum vitae. It’s often one of the first things recruiters look at when you are applying for a job or an internship. In this blog, we will share with you how you can prepare your resume in such a way that it will catch a potential employer’s eye.

There are many tips and tricks for making your resume stand out. However, here are the 3 main points to have a good start:

1. Information.
2. Structure.
3. Updates.

It seems a bit vague, doesn’t it?

So let’s start with the first one.

1. There is no such thing as too much information. But there is too much irrelevant information.

We often like to share as much as we can about our experiences, achievements, personal life, goals, etc. However, we need to keep it professional and very easily understandable.

Remember, only you should include only your most relevant professional experience in your resume. What exactly is that? It’s projects, internships, jobs, courses or similar, presented with the following details:

• Job title. It gives an idea of what you worked as.
• Company. Employers seek to know the industry you worked in.
• Location (city). Was it a local experience? Or maybe a project abroad, an international experience?
• Duration. When did you start and finish?
• Main responsibilities in the position. Everyone is interested in what kind of tasks you have been responsible for.

Talking about responsibilities, you should not list every single one of them. The solid number you could use as a ballpark is about 7 to 10. It would look quite good on your resume. However, if you notice that maybe you have only 5 key responsibilities to list, do not worry; it’s more than enough. The responsibilities shared should be the key ones, not every little detail.

Now, the other personal information. In your resume, you should provide only the essential personal details, such as:

• Your contact phone number
• Your contact email address
• A link to your LinkedIn account, if you have one.

And that’s it!

However, remember to use a professional email, such name.surname@emailprovider.com or similar. Old email address domains or childhood nicknames in email addresses do not look professional.

Presenting only the relevant information in your resume, meaning various experiences, internships, courses and so on, will be only an advantage when starting your career.

2. The structure is a must.

It is imperative to keep your resume neat. So, starting from the top:

If you choose to include a photo, keep it professional, meaning no pictures from celebrations or holidays. If you do not have a professional photograph but wish to include one in your resume, you can easily take one against a white or similar wall at home or outside – no one will know the better.

Then, don’t forget to write a few introductory sentences. Here you can mention your best qualities and what you seek in a professional career. However, do not boast too much. Keeping it simple and clean usually will bring you the best results. Also, remember always to do the spell check, especially if you prepare your resume in a foreign language. All words, phrases and sentences should be grammatically correct.

Finally, you have to divide your resume into a few sections:

• Education. What are you studying, and what is your degree?
• Professional experience. Any work-related experiences, internships, projects, jobs and similar.
• Personal contact information. We have covered this already, so scroll up to find the information again.
• Other relevant information: courses, certificates, languages, skills and so on.

These sections should not necessarily go in this order. For example, you can spilt your resume vertically and have 2 columns of information. However, keep in mind that usually, recruiters look at your professional experience first, so remember to highlight it.

There is quite a lot of information in resumes, so it’s essential to keep it structured and easily understandable.

3. Updates, updates, updates.

Changes will come into your life from time to time, so it’s vital to update your resume and add those changes. It can be a new professional experience, a change in contacts or location, a position, etc. These are important items in your resume, so it’s necessary to amend them on your resume once they change. False or incorrect information can mislead potential employers checking out your resume. There can be misunderstandings during your interviews, resulting in not getting the position you wanted as the employer had different expectations.

And finally, here’s a tip: share your motivation.

One of the things that can help you stand out is your motivation, either in a cover letter format or free text on the application form.

So, don’t be afraid to say why you are applying. It can be anything. For example:

• Seeking to gain real skills.
• Wanting to learn something that is not your study degree.
• Looking for up-to-date industry knowledge that is not discussed during your lectures.
• Searching for real experts that could show you new career paths during your internships.
• Trying to find your career direction if you are not sure about it.
• And much more.

Our internships seek to give you real hands-on experience, which would only benefit you and your career path. Thus, sharing what motivates you and why you are applying for an internship will help us find the best match between you and us. Sometimes the best things come from unexpected turns, so let’s try and use that to your advantage.