Your resume is the first impression the recruiters have of you and hence can prove to be one the most crucial step in your quest for landing your dream job. Having a well-written resume is a must especially if you’re planning to apply for a job on startup tech companies. People behind startups are keen enough to look into your qualifications to make sure they will hire only the best pioneer employees.

Your resume should be able to convince the recruiters that you are the perfect candidate for the profile they are hiring for. This can only occur when you write a flawless resume.

Following are 5 steps to help you write a job-winning resume in 2020:

Choose a suitable resume format

Choose the most suitable resume format to communicate your skills and professional experience to make the recruiters recognize your potential as a suitable applicant.

There are three resume formats that you can pick from. Read the following points to understand which resume format will best suit your professional needs:

1. Reverse Chronological Resume Format: Use this format if you have extensive years of professional experience without any career gaps. Start by listing your most recent and relevant job profile followed by any past job/education by order of date. Your professional experience is the main highlight in this resume format.

2. Functional Resume Format: If you often change your job or need to cover career gaps then use this format. In this format, all your contributions throughout your entire job profile are clubbed together and listed under relevant functions. Your skills are highlighted in this format rather than your career trajectory.

3. Combination Resume Format: This format is a combination of both the reverse chronological and functional resume formats. Both your skills and professional experience are given equal importance in this format.

The right resume format can help you communicate your potential to the recruiters in the most effective way so be sure to choose the right one for yourself.

Create a master resume folder

Before you start writing your resume, create a master folder and use it to store all your details and pieces of information.

Instead of looking for scattered pieces of information every time you need them, find everything you need in one place and save your time and avoid missing out on any important details.

List the details of your professional experience, education, certifications, internships, awards or recognition, additional details, etc. in your master folder.

You can also use the master folder for any future updates of your resume so do not hesitate in listing down any information that you are not sure about in the present timeline.

Follow this step to save your time and avoid missing out on framing any important details in your job-winning resume.

Curate the perfect Professional Experience section

The professional experience section is a major feature in your resume which needs to be framed before any other section.

Remember that you need to make the recruiters recognize your skills and potential. Use the professional experience section to give the recruiters an insight into your professional capabilities by detailing your roles & responsibilities as well as your achievements in this section.

Do not lose the interest of your recruiters by writing lengthy paragraphs as no one is going to sit around and decode your statements. Instead, frame clear one-liner bulleted points to state your professional experience.

Create unique buckets and list all the similar points under the relevant headings, this will make it easier for you to organize your framed one-liners and make the resume-reading process effortless for your recruiter.

Additionally, bold the most significant highlights of your career to make the recruiters recognize your potential right away.

You can refer to the action-oriented accomplishment statements espoused by Princeton University to learn how to frame compelling statements.

Example:

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As you can see, employing the tips laid out above along with specifying the extent of your contribution and achievements by providing distinguished achievement figures will help you frame the perfect professional experience section.

List your Key Skills

You have 6 seconds to make the recruiters recognize you as a potential candidate.

Most of the recruiters rely on the ATS (Applicant Tracking System) to filter through resumes and pick only the ones that contain the keywords used in describing the targeted job profile.

All you have to do to make your way into a shortlist is to scan through the job description and pick out all the significant skills that have been justified in your points and place them in the key skills section.

Using these relevant keywords in your resume makes the probability of it ranking high on the ATS extremely likely.

Moreover, go through your professional experience section as well to identify your core and technical skills and replicate them here.

Example:

Compose a resume Summary/Objective

The last step for writing a job-winning resume is composing a summary or objective as it is easier to pick what to frame in a resume summary or objective once every other section is farmed.

Compose a summary of your resume only if you have more than 3 years of work experience but if you have lesser or no work experience, then compose an objective.

In a resume summary, give an overview of your professional achievements and contributions to make the recruiters recognize your potential as a suitable applicant for the job profile that you are applying for in the targeted organization.

Whereas, in a resume objective, mention what you are willing to contribute to the targeted organization. Try and sell your skills to the recruiters and convince them to accept you as a suitable applicant even if you have lesser or no work experience.

Limit your resume summary/objective to 3-4 lines and keep it to-the-point for the recruiters to digest it easily.

Conclusion

You can land your dream job if you follow the 5 steps to a job-winning resume mentioned in this article.

Here are some takeaways for you to remember:

• Use only the most suitable resume format.
• Gather all your details in a master folder.
• Curate your professional experience section effectively.
• Highlight your most significant skills.
• Compose a summary or an objective of your resume depending on your work experience.