Your resume should function like your professional “highlight reel”. In failing to provide an extensive list of accomplishments, companies will ignore your candidacy because there is nothing you can offer them. After all, if you don’t sell your experience, nobody else will. So what constitutes an accomplishment worth noting on your resume? Well, you always want to compare and contrast your experience with your professional colleagues. Starting from college, you want to list any outstanding accomplishments or rankings that clearly show you are a leader. So if your grade point average was in the top 10% of your graduating class, make sure you list that in your resume. Then, as you transition into your professional career, you want to list the following: ways that you saved your company time and money, increases in company revenue during your time in a position, successful new products or services you helped launch, reduction in turnover, etc.
What you don’t want to do is make your resume sound like a job description. What we mean by that is you should not list your position and then detail your various job responsibilities. In the corporate Thai community, hiring managers often say, “so what” to a person that simply focuses on what they have done. As an example, a poorly written resume for a Sales Manager will say, “Managed fourteen sales representatives in Southeast Asia”. In comparison, an effective resume will say, “Increased sales in Southeast Asia by forty-five percent in my first twelve months”. Realize this, companies in Thailand get hundreds of resumes for every job they post online and you have to say something in your resume that grabs their attention. So build a winning resume that shows a company that you can make them money.
When developing a resume, don’t go with the “one size fits all” approach where you develop one standard resume and send it out for every job you are interested in. Instead, personalize your resume for the jobs you apply for as the additional time and effort will result in a higher interview rate. Furthermore, you are increasing the potential for a higher offer as the company will perceive your skills to be a better fit for the position as you are “checking off” more of their desired skills and experience requirements. Think of it, if your resume is only a thirty percent match, do you think you’ll get the same offer as the resume you send them that is a 100% match…of course not. Another benefit from tailoring your resume to a specific job is that you’ll spend less time sending out resumes as you will be using your time more effectively.
Also, make sure your resume has no embarrassing spelling or grammar errors. In reviewing your resume, a really bad spelling error shows a lack of attention to details. In the minds of hiring managers, they feel if you don’t take time to check something as important as a resume before you get the job, you’re not going to take the time once you get the job. Basically, many companies feel people try their hardest prior to getting the job so any mistakes or worries they have before they hire the person will only get worse once they are in the job.
So remember, take the time to develop a resume based on what the company is clearly telling you within their job description. Once you think you have it personalized to their needs and desires, make sure the spelling and grammar is all correct. If you do that, you’ll find your resume generating you lots of offers and money!
