The purpose of a resume is not to land you a job automatically. Its purpose is to help get prospective employers interested that they will grant you an interview. What happens after that is up to you.
Recommended Length of a Resume
Do your best to produce a convincing resume using one or two pages.
Human Resources managers are busy people. It is normal for them to sift through hundreds of resumes a day. Make sure you put the most important parts on the first page so that they will be interested enough to read the rest. And maybe give you a call.
Resume Writing Tips
1. Start with your name and contact information. This can include your email and contact number.
2. Write a brief description of your objective. What do you plan to achieve with your career or a brief description of yourself as a professional. One paragraph will do.
3. Enumerate briefly your skills.
4. Then start writing about your job experiences. Make sure you put your latest work experiences first. State what work you did for your previous companies. What was your contribution and the projects you were involved in.
Remember you don’t have to list all your previous work. Pick only the best that would highlight your qualifications to your prospective employer.
5. Finally, you can include your educational background.
6. Then your references, if any.
I’ve seen resumes that list the job experiences first then after that the skills. But I say put the skills first so that the employer is immediately clear about what you can do. Then start convincing them more with your job experiences.
The two page limit is also not a rule. List more job experiences if you feel that you need to include more. But try not to go beyond three pages. Because, again, the human resource person may not have enough time to read through several pages of resume.
How to Format Your Resume If You are a New Graduate
If you are just a new grad and you don’t have much experience yet, you can highlight your skills.
What skills you learned in school do you think will help with the job you are applying for? Highlight those.
For your experiences, write about your On-the-Job Trainings (OJT). OJTs are usually a requirement for. college seniors in the Philippines. Students apply to Government offices or Private Companies to work as trainees.
You can also include any school projects that you have done which you think are related to the job that you are applying.
References will also be important in the company. Your professor can be a good reference. Aside from your skills, your character and your attitude is also very important. Will you be able to get along or work with the existing employees without any problem?
Your teacher can provide those information. Your classmates in some ways can also be good references.
If you know somebody who already works for the company, that would be even better. The employee can be the company’s guarantee that you are okay and that they can work with you.