Follow these 6 Tips for writing winning resumes from Caribbean Resourcing Solutions, who provide top jobs to the IT professional.
How to write a winning resume
We were all taught this at school yet it’s surprising how many people do not even bother to do a spell check before sending out their résumés. This portrays you as sloppy and uneducated, and you won’t get a second look from the HR department unless they know that you won’t be required to write any reports or documentation.
Remember that most HR people have to sometimes skim through hundreds of résumés to pick out the good ones. They may take 10 seconds to decide if yours is worth considering. Make sure that they can quickly and easily pick out what YOU want them to read.
So give them a brief outline of your skills and put your most recent jobs at the top of your list of companies worked. Clearly state what each job entailed and the skills used.
Education, courses taken, references, hobbies, etc., can be placed after this as they would only look for this detail if you have already caught their attention. CRS recommends the layout given on their website http://www.crsitjobs.com/.
Always write in the ‘first person’ rather than the ‘third person’ as the latter style makes it look like someone else wrote the résumé for you.
You may have had a busy career with a long list of jobs, each with interesting skills to highlight. If your résumé is more than 3 pages long, then cut it down! No one will find the time to read your accomplishments of 10 years ago and may skip your recent ones as well if they are faced with a volume of information.
Keep any job description over 8 years ago to 1 or 2 sentences. Any skills used then are probably irrelevant now in the fast-paced world of technology. You can leave out minor jobs altogether, so long as this doesn’t leave a significant time gap between jobs listed.
Always put in dates for your jobs and education. Otherwise it looks like you are trying to hide something.
As an agency, we hate when candidates put in fancy colours, complicated formatting, tables and graphics, as we have to do a certain amount of style changing to conform to our own standards, put in our logo, etc. Avoid referring an employer to your online résumé as this takes time on their part and they may be unwilling to make the effort.
We encourage our technical candidates to put their skills with competency level, years experience and when last used, in a chart format at the back of their résumés. Go to http://www.crsitjobs.com/
Our clients have found this extremely useful as they can then quickly assess whether someone has the skill profile that they are looking for.
Good luck with writing that killer profile of yourself!
Caribbean Resourcing Solutions Ltd (CRS) is the first I.T. Placement agency to be established in Trinidad & Tobago, and possibly even the Caribbean.
Since their launch in April 1996, they have been working to satisfy the increasing demand for permanent and contract I.T staff for a wide range of companies, primarily in Trinidad.
CRS has successfully supplied candidates to companies in Barbados, Jamaica, Mustique and The Bahamas and are open to doing business with other parts of the Caribbean. They have also made connections with companies in North America.
Caribbean Resourcing Solutions
