30/06/2021
Nine years working as a virtual recruiter, and many have potential to be hired only for their resume to be rejected because it looks amateur, unprofessional, and, sorry for the term, boring.
My Top 10 tips to help my fellow online freelancers (applicable mostly to foreign clients):
1. DO NOT include a picture - they are used to hiring without prejudice to looks and if they insist that you include one, then be wary as they may be hiring based on your appearance only.
2. DO NOT include the Elementary and High School part in your education - they won’t care and it just takes up valuable space.
3. DO NOT add references with phone numbers of people - this is not standard practice for foreign employment and this is mostly for local-based industry.
4. DO add a start and end date for every job experience (even just month and year) - this will show you had a good run and was reliable enough to work for a significant time. Not advisable to add anything 6 months or less as they may think you had commitments issues or you easily jump to other opportunities.
5. DO compensate in the Skills and Interests portion to pad your resume if you have less work experience. Do not generalize, instead of computer-savvy(heard this a million times), be specific, what software, what program, what tools.
6. In your work experience, it is better to do 1 or 2 sentences of what specific project you worked on, what was your role, and what was achieved. Do not write a short story.
7. Make it easy on the eyes - we receive 200-300 applications for just ONE post so why would we spend time on your 2 or 3-page resume? 1 page, well-organized ticks the right box.
8. Use PDF format instead of Word - quite discouraging when the margins or spacing gets all over. PDF is more professional-looking - plus you’ll know that what you see is what the clients or the recruiters will also see..
9. Use a standard way of naming your file so it is easy to locate. For example, “Reyes - Resume - Version 1”. So if you need to resubmit because you forgot something or if the client needs more info, you can just go “Reyes - Resume - Version 2”. Easy for you, easy for us.
10. Most important, what we look for in your resume are the experiences and skills RELEVANT to our CURRENT need. So don’t send the same resume each time. Adjust and edit based on the position being applied to. If we’re looking for a web designer, we won’t really care about your 10 years of BPO experience. Add it but don't highlight it. Focus on those connected to the role. Replace your skills and interest related to it.
Miscellaneous:
Useful websites:
Thesaurus.com - So you can find the right words.
Grammarly.com - So you can write the correct sentence.
Suggested link:
https://www.themuse.com/advice/185-powerful-verbs-that-will-make-your-resume-awesome
Happy hunting!
CTTO
Because we're all tired of saying "Responsible for..."
