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!
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.
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 how your KSAs match the JD using the STAR method.
- Use strong action verbs and substantiate your experiences and achievements with quantifiable data.
- Refer to the JD to pick out industry-relevant keywords that recruiters may be looking out for and include them in your resume.
- 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.
CAO recommends this Resume Template as it is professional,
clean, simple and applicable for most jobs. It 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 best
result, always customise your resume to the job description
and requirement.
FORMAT YOUR RESUME USING THESE TIPS
- Include LinkedIn or portfolio URL at the header (optional).
- Use past tense except for current experiences.
- Font type: Use a simple and clear font such as Arial and Garamond.
- Font colour: Black
- Font size: 11 or 12
- File format: PDF (1–2 pages)
