The job market is highly competitive, and that means you need to do everything you can to make yourself stand out from the crowd. One of the most important resources you need to have in your job-hunting arsenal is a resume that makes recruiters want to stop and take notice.
The best way to do that is to ditch the traditional resume format in favor of a skills-based resume.
Forget Your Job History
If your resume is still just a long list of the companies you’ve worked for, chances are recruiters aren’t taking notice.
The companies you’ve worked for don’t mean nearly as much to prospective employers as the skills you learned during your employment. When your resume lands on a recruiter’s desk, the first thing they are going to look for is whether or not you have the skills necessary for the role. If they have has to search through 10 years of work experience just to see if you’ve ever done dry walling, don’t expect to get a call.
Front-Load Your Skills
Instead of simply listing your career history, savvy job hunters have learned to front-load relevant information for a position. Immediately after your contact information — before you list your experience or your education — add a section titled “Summary of Qualifications.”
In this section, you should list any relevant experience (or transferrable skills) that make you a good candidate for the position. Before you list anything in this section, you need to review the job posting and list skills that specifically address the job requirements. If you submit 10 resumes this month, you should have 10 different Summary of Qualifications sections.
Now Talk About Your Experience
Make sure to let the recruiter know you have experience. For this section, you’re going to list your work history in reverse-chronological order (most recent first), similar to how you would for a traditional resume. Along with listing the company and your job title, include a brief summary of your role.
Then get to the important stuff. Provide a bulleted list of your accomplishments. Be sure to include specific examples that relate to the position you’re applying for. Even if a past job was in another industry, list transferrable accomplishments. For example, if you’re applying for a foreman position but you used to work in an office, make sure to list any project management experience, times you met strict deadlines, budget management, experience dealing with external clients, etc.
Add Anything Else, So Long as It’s Relevant
Any coursework you’ve taken, certificates you’ve obtained or volunteer work you’ve done should be listed after your work experience. It doesn’t matter if these are specifically related to the field you’re applying for, since they demonstrate a general desire to improve your skills and engage with your community. If you have any other skills or qualifications that don’t directly relate to the job, but may be useful, list them here as well.
Work with MICI – a Leader in Industrial Staffing in the Northwest
Now that you’ve created a skills-based resume that will stand out from the crowd, it’s time to start applying. Contact your MICI Recruitment Specialist today. They can help you customize your resume and land that perfect job as a top staffing agency in Seattle, Portland or Vancouver, WA.
