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Have you uttered these words before? “I know I am smarter than him, I have more years of experience and I certainly know how to do the job even if I’m half-awake. How come he gets the job while I get the snub?”

There are 2 possible answers to this question. One is: “Because he is the boss’ son”; and the other is: “Because your resume does not represent you in a very positive light.” We cannot do anything about the former so we’ll just focus on the latter. In this article, you will learn resume writing tips specifically aimed at getting a job in Singapore. It’s actually not that difficult and if you follow the tips outlined below, your dream job will come to you like a magnet. Here it goes:

1. Your resume should have the following sections:

Heading
Introduction
Career Summary
Professional Experience
Education
Personal particulars

2. Put important details in the heading. Don’t put picture. In the heading, make sure you use a big font to write down your name. It immediately attracts attention and increases the chance of the hiring manager remembering you. As much as possible, put a Singapore address, contact number and a professional sounding email address. If you’re still using cutie_me143@yahoo.com, it’s time to give this a break and opt for a more professional one like juana.delacruz@yahoo.com, believe me it will do you good. Also, it is not advisable to put your photo especially if it’s the first time you are submitting your resume to a prospective employer. Not putting a photo means your qualifications get better attention.

3. Grab attention with your powerful introduction. Page 1 of your resume is the most valuable page; make sure you have a powerful introduction that immediately captures your best asset in one sentence. Example: Charismatic leader known for ability to energize a team and produce impressive results. You can be creative in your intro. You can quote a famous individual, write your guiding principle or simply just describe yourself. Remember, your objective is to grab attention.

4. Offer a career summary that highlights your relevant experiences. In no particular order, write down in bullet points all relevant experiences you’ve had in your career. If you are just starting in your career, you may want to list down school experiences that tested your key qualities like leadership, creativity, resourcefulness, etc.

5. The form is as important as the substance. The substance is what you say, the form is how you say it. You may have excellent credentials complete with MBA or Ph.D under your belt but if in writing your resume, you use fonts like “Comic Sans” or your spacing and margin is in disarray, chances are, the hiring manager won’t even take 2 seconds reading your resume. Use professional looking fonts, observe proper spacing and indention, highlight relevant words or phrases, use bullets in enumerating your skills and major achievements. Bottom-line, keep it neat.

6. Your resume should just be 2-4 pages long. Unless you have been working for more than 20 years already, it is best to keep your resume between 2-4 pages long only. Remember, less is more. The less (but relevant) words you put in your resume, the more chance that the hiring manager will remember those words, and therefore remember you.

7. Learn the power of keyword search. Keyword search is the process wherein employers login to major job sites like Monster.com.sg and Jobsdb.com.sg and search for a resume relevant to what they are looking for. To do this, they will type words like “Sales Manager”, “IT Support Engineer”, “Call Center Specialist”, “10 years experience”, etc., then hit “Search” button. The system will then display all resume that contains these words and does a ranking based on relevance, usually based on the number of times that a particular keyword appeared on a given resume. If resume A has the word “Sales Manager” 10 times in it, while resume B has the same word 3 times in it only, resume A will be displayed first then B second. Of course, the resume that gets to be displayed first has the most chance of being viewed by the hiring manager and therefore get a chance to be interviewed. Learn the power of keyword search and modify your resume accordingly.

8. Remember: Less is more. That’s exactly it. Less is more. Need I say more?

The tips stated above are some proven ways to create an impressive resume. Of course, there is no single format or set of rules that dominate when it comes to resume writing. However, if after sending your resume to hundreds of companies you’re still not getting any requests for interview, the tips above might help you.

Happy job hunting!

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