Do you know that recruiters spend an average of less than 10 seconds on a resume? Increase your chances of securing an interview by customising your resume for each job application and making your resume easy to read. Use your resume to your advantage and highlight your great fit for the role!
DO!
- Tailor your resume for the position you are applying for.
- Refer to the job description (JD) to identify the knowledge, skills and attributes (KSAs) required for the role.
- Highlight relevant skills that you have acquired through internship, work experiences, CCA and volunteering experience.
- Demonstrate KSAs using the STAR method.
- Use strong action verbs and substantiate your experiences and achievements with quantifiable data.
- Make sure your resume is easy to read. Keep it to one or two pages. Use bullet points and be concise with your statements.
- The quality of your application reveals your attention to detail and level of professionalism. Proofread your resume to ensure that it is free of grammatical, spelling and punctuation errors.
- Run your resume through VMock and enhance it further before sending it out.
DON'T!
- Don’t use the same resume for all the jobs you apply to.
- Don’t make claims (e.g. good communication skills) without substantiating them with examples.
- Don’t exceed two pages.
- Don’t lie about your GPA, skills, or abilities.
- Don’t write generic career objective statements and long paragraphs.
- Don’t use an unprofessional email address.
WHAT IS THE STAR METHOD
SITUATION
Describe the situation you encountered.
TASK
Describe the task you had to accomplish.
ACTIONS
Explain what you did to accomplish the task, how you overcame the challenge and why you did it.
RESULTS
State the positive outcomes from your actions, quantifying them where possible.
For example: Led a team of six to organise a cycling event to raise funds for MINDS [Situation/Task]. Through active publicity and marketing [Action], 200 students participated and $5,000 was raised [Result].
If you can’t quantify the results, show that you understand the rationale of what you did.
For example: Led a team of six to conduct research on the usability of a new student website [Situation/Task]. Through 10 focus groups [Action], the qualitative and quantitative feedback of 200 respondents were analysed to improve user experience [Result].
CAO recommends this Resume Template as it is professional, clean, simple and applicable for most jobs. This template covers essential sections to help kickstart resume writing.
While there are thousands of different resume templates, there is no one best resume template or one gold standard. For the best result, always customise your resume to the job description and requirement.
Resume
Resume
