Why should you learn Resume Writing skills?
Are you tired of tweaking your resume infinite times but still not convinced with it?
Do you know whether you should have a Career Objective or Career Summary in your resume?
Or worse is your resume is not getting you to interview calls even after rewriting it a couple of times.
These are some of the common problems faced by candidates at the early stage of their careers - freshers and entry-level professionals alike. And the reason is your under-developed resume writing as a skill.
Resume writing is not a part of our formal education system, and hence you don’t know the ABCD of a Resume. Read the complete article to know why you should learn resume writing by yourself.
But before I get into the why part, let me share why a good resume matters.
My 10+ years of industry experience gave me enough opportunities to witness the entire hiring process. I have been on both the side of the interview table. I have seen interviews (hiring side) closely, and have gone through a lot of resumes.
I have identified a strong correlation between a good resume and an interview call.
I have never seen a candidate with an average resume getting an interview call.
However, I have seen a lot of average candidates with good resumes getting interview calls.
Did you see the relationship?
For getting an interview call, your resume plays a key role.
Let me share some more industry facts to give you the right picture.
• More than 50% of the resumes are outright rejected.
• A hiring manager will not spend more than 10/12 seconds reviewing a resume.
• For a single opening, the candidates that apply are in a few hundred.
It must be clear to you that every job application has to face competition at these three levels.
Moreover, to win a spot in the interview round, your resume battles with a few hundred resumes holding similar skills and qualifications. In short, with a poorly written resume, it is difficult to get past these levels and reach the interview round.
I hope you have got the message.
A resume is much more important than you think it is.
You should have a KILLER resume to stand-out from the crowd. By KILLER resume, I mean a document that entices the interviewer to meet you.
Now, you can have a KILLER resume in two ways.
a. Approach a professional resume writing agency
b. Learn the art of crafting KILLER resumes by yourself.
I will explain both the alternatives in detail.
a. Approach a professional Resume writing agency
A resume writing agency will charge you anything between Rs.1000 to Rs.7000 depending on your current status – fresher or experienced. The fee for resume writing is directly proportionally to the years of work experience.
And if you approach a good agency (that does their job well), you will be charged you upwards of Rs. 2500 even if you are a fresher.
Also, these are one-time charges. If you have to rewrite a resume, say after two years, you have to pay the agency again.
Now, there is no problem with getting this job outsourced. If you have the resources, hire an agency and get the job done.
However, I always recommend candidates learn the art of resume writing by themselves.
I have three strong reasons why hiring an agency should be your last option.
1) No agency can express you better than you
You are the best person to write about yourself and your experience, responsibilities, career objective, etc.
The agency writers treat resume writing as an assignment where his/her task would be to write in the glossy, polished language.
I have worked with such agencies before.
My experience suggests that the approach of an agency to resume writing is from a different perspective. They cannot do justice to your job search.
The agency authors are content writers; they are not job seekers.
And some agencies do spend a lot of time with the candidate before the actual work starts to understand everything. But they charge crazy like Rs. 5000 and more. Not everybody can afford to pay such high fees.
2) Agency largely rephrases the information that you provide.
Agency writers can work on your resume only after you share your career details. In other words, they start building upon what you tell them.
You have to share all your experiences, skills, career highlights, etc. with the agency. Agency writers will rephrase it, and you will get an error-free, crisply written resume. (It is a good practice by the way as the resume is about you and it should be written based on what you tell)
Here, I am trying to highlight that you are hiring them for rephrasing your content (and formatting) at the most.
3) It is a recurring fee
As mentioned before, the agency fees are only for a particular assignment – one-time resume work.
After gaining some experience, your resume needs to be rewritten. Here you again have to pay some agency. This time you will pay even more as your work experience has increased.
More the work experience, the higher the fees.
The reason for higher fees for experienced professionals is that with experience, your resume writing gets complicated. However, the truth is experienced professionals can spend more and hence charge them more. It does require extra effort but not 5K worth of effort.
Have you realized the dependency here?
In this model, you are lifelong dependent on the agency for any resume work.
So I always recommend candidates to learn resume writing skills.
On a side note, good command over a resume also gives you the confidence to face interviews. When you write a resume by yourself, you are unknowingly preparing for interviews.
Resume writing and interview preparation complement each other, which eventually helps while facing interviews.
Now, let me highlight the explicit benefits of developing resume writing skills.
1) It is a life skill
Resume writing skill is a life skill.
As a job seeker, you will need it throughout your working life and hence, should not be ignored.
2) It makes you independent
Lacking this skill will always make you dependent on someone to know if your resume is good enough. You will always be dependent on external help – agency, colleagues, or industry contacts - to get it reviewed.
However, once trained you can rewrite your resume with confidence. For me, this is the most important reason to learn resume skills.
3) Your Resume needs regular sharpening
Your resumes need to be updated from time to time. Even if you stay in the same industry or same organization, polishing is required as your experience grows.
It requires little tweaking while switching jobs, as per the job descriptions.
All this can be done right only if you know how to do it by yourself.
I hope this is enough motivation for you to start developing your resume writing skills.
By now, if you think that writing a winning resume is rocket science, then you are living in a different world.
Believe me; resume writing is very much doable.
Of course, you need to spend some time on YouTube, read relevant blogs, follow recruiters & HR managers for a while, and you are good to go.
- Start with understanding the Anatomy of a resume first.
2. Then move to resume reading styles, writing in bullets, career summary, latest resume trends, etc.
3. Start reading interviews of HR managers, perspectives in hiring managers etc. You can get access to such information on dedicated blogs on employment.
These are blocks that will help you while writing a resume.
Also, don't think that I am asking too much.
After all, you are learning a skill for a lifetime, and this is the least that you can do.
In terms of days, a dedicated week is enough if you are doing it all by yourself (with the help of blogs, YouTube).
If you are learning it under a mentor, it can be achieved quickly. Because with a mentor, you do not have to search all internet for the right information. A mentor gives you everything in a structured format in one place.
So either way, the time required to acquire the skills is negligible if you compare it with the long-term benefits it will provide you.
Final words
Resume writing is a skill. It is a skill as important as your interview skill.
If you are serious about your career, don't ignore resume writing.
About me :
My name is Praful Gangurde and I am an Interview trainer with 11 years of industry experience. I train candidates on personal interviews, resume building, communication skills, etc. So far I have worked with 3 different MNCs, lived in 4 different cities of India, and traveled to 12 countries, 3 continents for my work.
You can connect with me on mail - praful@careermiles.com