As and when you draft your resume, do remember that while its the content that matters, you also need to ensure that the content is presented in the right manner. When we suggest – “presented in the right manner” , it means – formatting, font selection, sequence & priority of content that you have tried to present in your resume.
It also implies that the content presented in your resume is able to appropriately highlight and present your relevant experience , abilities, skills and achievements to demonstrate suitability for a specific role at workplace.
Information in any business document needs to be well organized. This ensures ease of reference to ascertain relevance.
Keep in mind the AIDA principle from business communication class. It’s relevant in generic communication, advertising , business communication, and it’s also relevant in your resume.
AIDA – Attention, Interest , Desire, Action
Attention – Your resume must desire and deserve attention by what ever is there on top, and cover – this could be a well written objective, or a profile sketch or some thing that highlights your profile as a deserving job seeker.
Interest – Once your resume has the attention, it should generate “Interest” in the reviewer / recruiter / hiring manager to know more about you. You need to plan to capture your achievements and experience appropriately. Choice of words and relevance of content is important.
Desire – Now that we get into some amount of detail, the contents of your resume should now convince the reviewer / recruiter / hiring manager to get interested in exploring your candidature.
Action – Well, this follows as a resume of a well crafted resume of a suitable candidate. If you have done a great work organizing every thing in your resume, and have been able to highlight appropriately your objective, professional experience and achievements, , you have great chance of landing up an interview.
Now, that you have content in place, more tips on look & feel !
Keep your eye on text alignment, font & spacing. At all costs avoid using a mash up of several fonts. It makes sense to stick to one or two.
Aesthetics, look and feel is important. A neat document always is appealing and desires attention of the guy referring to it. It’s like a business document, you like your reports and excel sheets clean and well organized.
Praveen is the Founder & Principal Consultant of KHEdge, a boutique HR & Business Process Advisory firm. Over last 15 years he has advised & worked with promoters, founders, business leaders, HR leaders in areas of - Business Strategy, HR Strategy, Organisation Design etc.