Today, I went back to Performance Eduation to do a three days workshop about interview, resume, and cover letter.
It is lucky that I have Tina as my mentor who is a very experienced HR and have viewed thousands of resumes. She gives me many tips on job searching from a interviewer perspective, including the tricks about writing resume and cover letter.
I summarised here.
Job Searching
Generally, it takes 4 hours to prepare to apply a job. This time is defined from you read the advertisement to you click apply button.
In this 4 hours, you can do the following process.
Read the job advertisement twice and carefully
First time is about general reading, scanning the information and seeing if it is suitable for you.
Second time, you can highlight those key words, which is the desirable by the employers.Build a selection matrix
The matrix can look like follow
If you can reach more than 70% of the requirement, you can apply it. There is no perfect 100%. What you should do it is to prove your ability and attitude.
Craft the resume - cover later section
- Change the cover letter - cover later section
Resume
Resume is all about facts.
Resume is documented your experience and your past, providing solid information about yourself.
Every time you apply a job, you should change 20% - 30% of the Resume.
Theme colors and fonts
Every company has their own theme color and fonts, if you can add it to your resume, HR can have a familiar feelings which can improve your change of survival of the fist round.
Structure or Section Order
Carefully read the Job Advertisement, and arrange your resume based on the importance of the employer desire.
Those HRs are searching for people who are qualified for the job, and if you can put it at first glace, it is good.
Address
Generally, do not put address on the resume, this is because people have bias on the location, and they may just refuse you by where are you living.
If you choose a company near your home, it is a good idea to have it in your resume.
Heading & Footer
Put page number, name and phone number in the footer. This is because when HR print resume, it can have troubles. The page numbers can help them arrange your resuem easily. If you do not have it, your resume has very big chance laying down in the rubbish bin.
Continued section
If you have a section splited by the page, you’d better put Section (Continued) in the next page. It can keep HR seeing your resume.
Cover Letter
Cover letter is about you.
Cover letter can give HR a impression who are you, what is your ability on story telling and explaination.
In the cover letter, you should give some effort to talk the requirement you do not fit. How to bridge these gaps is a good skills in cover letter.
Interview
How to answer question:
Tell me about yourself?
This question is not hard. You should not just repeat what have written on the resume but give more vivid example and characters about yourself.