Applying for jobs during these pandemic times makes the perfect opportunity to add an extra level of attention to your resume. Many companies are hiring after interviewing through video calls, and a lot of people feel more comfortable while talking in front of a screen compared to real-life interactions. Making your resume look more professional is easy when you know what to do. Lying is certainly not an option to consider, but using a few psychological tricks to stand out is not a bad idea. Check out our top tips and resume examples.
Don’t Write Down Everything You’ve Done
If you’re applying for software engineer jobs, nobody cares if you’ve once been working in the dropshipping field. This means that there’s no use mentioning that last part, especially if it was your last job. It doesn’t mean you’re lying. You just don’t mention the dropshipping part. Usually, an employer doesn’t bother looking more than two minutes at a resume, and the last thing he wants to see in the professional experience area is a job that has nothing to do with what you’re applying for. We get it, you want to convince the employer that you’ve been a diligent person who has been doing a lot of interesting stuff and has vast experience, but contrary to this common mentality, it can actually ruin everything.
Make Your Resume Look Professional – Watch out for Grammatical Errors
Grammatical errors are not recommended at all in a resume, as it gives the employer an awful impression. That age-old saying that the first impression is crucial is entirely true, and you certainly wouldn’t want to miss that job you’re applying for.
Don’t Forget to Mention Your Driver’s License
Having a driver’s license is crucial these days, and a lot of companies avoid hiring people who don’t meet this criterion. This means that you should mention any driver’s license you have. At the same time, those who still don’t have the right to drive a car don’t have to lose hope in finding a job.
Make Your Resume Look Professional – Change the File’s Name
Don’t leave your resume only as something like ‘my_resume.pdf’. In this way, the hiring managers could also have a bad impression of you. It’s much better to save the file with both your first name and last name.
Convert Your Resume File to PDF
PDF is the ideal format, as you can access it unaltered from a multitude of devices and programs. Therefore, it’s best to keep your resume in PDF format, and there are plenty of tools across the internet to get the job done for you. One of them is Lua (GetLua.com), a very powerful online tool that can make the Word to PDF conversion in only a few seconds and at no cost. If your resume is in an image format you may Convert JPG to PDF.
Make the Hyperlinks Live
It’s a good idea to mention as many links as possible on your resumes, such as those from LinkedIn, Twitter, Upwork, or a personal webpage. While doing so, make sure they’re clickable, as the hiring managers will easily be able to open them and see what you want from life.
In the end, don’t forget to go to the interview with confidence and not have an arrogant attitude, whether you do it through a video call or not. One last piece of advice is to never respond with a plain ‘no’ if the employer asks you if you know to do something specific. You don’t have to lie, either, but you can say any related experience you had, regardless of how apparently insignificant it is. For instance, you can respond with ‘I’ve done a project once in high school using MySQL’ if the employer asks you about that database service and if, of course, you’re not telling any lies.