CV Branding: Building an Irresistible Brand

Are you in the job search market? If you have applied to nothing less than 10 job openings and have not gotten any callbacks, that is most likely because of the quality of your resume and online brand. In this post, you will discover:

• Tips to building a game-changing resume
• Networking tips to spur your career growth
• Dos and don’ts of resume writing
• Steps to take after a job application.

A resume is your ticket to get to the interview door. Your resume helps you have the first contact or conversation with your employer. What gets you the job is how well you can defend your resume.

Tips to building a game-changing resume.

1. Focus on result-oriented tasks: Take note of what you’re doing, your achievements, and your mistakes at your current place of work. This would help you present your experiences with the things you achieved in your resume. What if you have no work experience? Volunteering is a good idea. Reach out to companies and pitch to them. You can also intern to get some work experience.
2. Articulate well with active words: This helps you to properly distribute the information you’re trying to pass across to whoever is viewing your resume. The words you use reflect how vast your vocabulary is. Use words that drive easy comprehension but are not too inconsequential. Find a balance. E.g. Instead of using ‘I worked with’ use ‘, I collaborated with.’
3. Add relevant experiences: Only include the experiences that are related to the role you’re applying for.
4. Your experiences must display the skills you claim to have: The skills you have must be a reflection of your experiences.

The main focus of your resume is your work experiences.

Networking tips to spur your career growth.

1. Be intentional about meeting people in and outside your industry of work. A good place to connect with industry leaders is on LinkedIn, seminars, etc.
2. Be conscious of the conversations you’re having with these people.
3. Always be ready to give a pitch about what you do for a living.
4. Attend webinars and seminars that will improve your career growth.
5. Research about the person or group of people you want to meet.
6. Utilize your online presence. Be mindful of what you put online, it can make or mar an opportunity of employment.
7. Select a few key associations or organizations and participate actively.

Dos and Don'ts of resume writing

Do’s:

1. Professional summary: This describes who you are, what you do or have done over time, what you are learning or hope to achieve from the role you’re applying for.
2. Work experience: what roles have you handled, where you worked, and time duration.
3. Skills
4. Volunteer experience
5. Education: first degree and masters. Including your primary and secondary education is slowly becoming outdated except for some government roles.
6. Certifications, whether relevant to your career or not
7. Memberships
8. Name, location phone number, LinkedIn account ad professional email.
9. Use legible font and font size.

Don’ts:

1. Date of birth
2. Home address
3. Generic summaries

Your resume should be one or two pages, at most 3 pages.

If you are a researcher, social media manager, etc. people want to see the work you’ve done. You could also include a link to your portfolio in your resume.

Steps to take after a job application.

1. Research about the company, its goals, and your role in that company.
2. Find people in that role in the company on LinkedIn to have a feel of their culture.
3. Have conversations with anyone from the company or organization, ask questions, and network.
4. Consume content around interviews. There are a ton of helpful videos on YouTube.
5. Pay for mock interviews so you can be guided by a recruiter.
6. Remember the companies you applied to and what role you applied for.

Questions and Answer:

Q: What are your thoughts on including one’s picture in a resume?

A: Attaching your picture to a resume is not compulsory and not advised. The employer may not like your face and refuse to contact you for an interview because of that.

Q: Is including a referee necessary in a resume?

A: Referee is not necessary except requested.

Kataye Ganiyat Aderinsola

Shoot us a mail — brownhrsolution@gmail.com to get a brand new CV!

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