If
you have NOT landed in a job despite having great skills and also a
very good academic background, you may be wondering what is wrong and
what you should do about it. The answer to your quandary can be found
in your resume and your cover letter. It reveals that you should
adopt a new approach for creating your resume and your cover letter.
Let us have a look.
Whatever
may be the changes that may have taken place in the job market,
resumes still play a key role in the recruitment processes. This
means you must improve the way you present things in your resume.
1.
Your resume must contain an objective and a call-to-action
Career
experts strongly advise that resumes should resemble sales letters.
Just as a sales letter provides the details of the benefits a buyer
will derive by purchasing a service or a product, you should tell
potential employers how they will benefit by hiring you.
The
objective of a resume is to let employers know how your skills and
achievements will help their companies. In fact, you should begin
your resume by giving these details because it is during the first
few seconds recruiters will decide if they should go through your
resume fully or toss it into the trash bin.
2.
Understand clearly what the employers want
You
must read the job postings thoroughly because only then, you can know
the skill sets employers are looking for. If you think that you
possess the skills, you must highlight them in your resume.
3.
Let your resume focus on your skills
There
is no point on describing vaguely how you have contributed in your
previous positions. Potential employers should know the skills you
have acquired by working on those jobs. So, by using specific
subheadings for grouping your skills, you must give examples of how
you used those skills in your previous positions. Such examples will
show to your potential employers that they can expect a similar
approach from you.
4.
Incorporate a separate section to describe the skills you acquired
externally
You
may have acquired a few skills outside your earlier workplaces. If
you show them in a separate section, employers can know how you can
handle stressful situations. Days of testing the I.Q. of candidates
are gone. Employers are now testing the Emotional Quotient and
Adversity Quotient of job seekers because in the highly competitive
environment that prevails in the present-day world, employees are
very much likely to face several hurdles. Only if they remain
composed and unperturbed and think with a cool and clear head, they
will be able to come out with the right solutions for surmounting the
hurdles.
Your
resume must reveal your skills in these areas. In other words, you
can describe some of the stressful situations you might have faced in
your life and how you could handle them successfully for coming out
unscathed.
5.
Understand the right meaning of a cover letter
A
number of people have a wrong notion that your cover letter must
contain whatever you have said in your resume. Instead, the letter
should give more details about you so recruiters can know how
you will fit into the role for which you are applying and what you
will do for the company.
Experts
advise that your cover letter must begin with a strong
cut-to-the-chase introduction. You must explain how your achievements
and skills will benefit the company for which you are applying and
how you will be compatible with their culture.
Conclusion
If
your resume as well as cover letter are top notch, you can be certain
that you will land in a good job.
