Visual Cv Good For More Personalized Resume Versions
Visual CV provides great templates to help you create your resume and then gives you tools to customize your resume for each job you apply for. The design templates for resumes are on par with the other tools weve mentioned, and the resume creator is also friendly and easy to use. You can import your existing resume or create a new one using the available templates. The templates are highly customizable, so you dont have to worry about your resume looking like anyone elses.
If you have no experience in designing or creating an effective CV, the VisualCV team will format your first resume for you . Plans start at $ 12 per month .
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Write In First Person But Remove Pronouns
As there are guidelines around using your photo in the resume, there are guidelines for the language you should use in your resume. Some prefer to write resumes in the third person but everybody knows that youre writing your resume by yourself. Therefore always write in the first person but remove pronouns. Pronouns are extra words you would be adding in descriptions. Remove them and save space.
Also, take care of the grammar. If youve bad grammar like me, do get it to proofread from someone proficient in grammar. You dont want to create a bad impression by using bad grammar in your resume.
Structuring Your Work Experience
Researching about companies and roles youre applying before also helps to figure out what skills recruiters are looking for in the candidate. Dont forget to mention these specific keywords which they are looking for. Mention a short description of your work experience including these keywords.
You should also mention the value added by you in the business . Recruiters would rather read about your accomplishments than your job description. For example, They know what a UX designer does, but what specifically did you do? Did you design and help launch an app? Did you design 50 wireframes? Did you build a design system? Did you drive utilisation up by 50 or 200%? What was your impact on the company ? Mentioning metrics also give a quantitative measure to judge your skills better.
Also, write each work experience in a reverse chronological order. When presenting work history on a resume, the recruiter is more interested in what the candidate has done recently than in the distant past. It also presents the recruiter with the most recent work experience first and then allows them to read back in time to see how the candidates career has progressed.
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Create A Clear Education Section
Having a clear education section is essential for your resume, especially if youre a recent college graduate or have minimal work experience.
If you lack professional experience but have a good track record in school , your education section should be highly detailed to highlight all of your education-related accomplishments.
On the other hand, if you possess more than a few years of professional experience, then its appropriate to keep your education section short and sweet.
Additionally, if youre a student or recent graduate, list your education section above the experience section of your resume. This way, you emphasize your most marketable qualifications at the top of the page.
Here are the main points to include in a standard education section:
- The names of your university, community college, or technical school
- Location of the schools
- Date of graduation
- Degree
- GPA
Additionally, include relevant coursework on your resume if youre a recent graduate and dont have much work experience yet.
Here are two examples demonstrating how to format your education section:
Whats The Best Resume Template
Theres no best resume template. Each job-seeker has their own skill-set and qualifications, so theres no singular template that magically fits the mold for everyone.
To find the best template for you, first consider what format is right for your professional background, as well as what resume design suits your needs.
Our team designed each resume template to meet the requirements of different types of job seekers. From entry-level applicants to experienced professionals and even executives, we aspire to have the perfect template for every candidate.
If you cant find a resume template you like, Google also provides a variety of .
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How To List Skills In Your Resume
When mentioning skills in your resume, there are 3 essential steps to follow:
Step #1 – List Hard Skills with Experience Levels. For each hard skill you list, you want to mention your proficiency level:
As a rule of thumb, you can divide them by:
Beginner – You have some experience with the skill, whether its from some entry-level practice or classroom education.
Intermediate – Youve used the skill in a work environment with a good level of understanding.
Advanced – Youre the go-to person for the skill in your office. You can coach other employees, and understand the skill on a high level.
Expert – Youve applied this skill in more than a handful of different projects & organizations. Youre the go-to person for advice about the skill, not just in your office, but even amongst some of the best professionals in your field.
Make sure to NEVER lie about your skill levels. Otherwise, its going to be pretty awkward both for you and your employer.
Imagine your first task at work as an Illustrator – to create a graphic vector to go nicely with an article. If you end up delivering a hastily drawn stick figure colored with a paint bucket tool in Microsoft Paint, youll be out of the job before your probation period ends.
Step #2 – Tailor Your Skills to the Job. You might have some super rare, awesome skills, but theyre not always going to be useful. For example, its awesome that you know accounting, but would you really need it at your new job as a line cook? Exactly!
Systems:
Tailor Your Resume For Each Position
Its important to revise your resume to tailor it to each position you apply for. For each job, adjust the keywords in the skills section so that its a great fit for what the employer needs. You should also change what you emphasize in the professional history and educational experiences sections depending on whats listed in the job description.
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Choose The Perfect Font
Using a unique font can be a simple way to make your resume stand out from a sea of Arial and Times New Roman. There is no right or wrong font when it comes to resumes, but here are a few basic guidelines to keep in mind:
- Make sure any font you use is legible both on a screen and in print. Keep font sizes between 11 and 13 points. Any smaller than that, and even the sleekest font risks becoming illegible.
- Be consistent with how you use different font sizes. For example, all headers should be the same size, as should all body text.
- Sans serif fonts are usually a good option for more creative or digital fields. Serif fonts still have their place in more traditional or old-school industries.
- Avoid using Comic Sans. Not only is it widely despised by people in the design industry, it gives off an childlike vibe. The same can also be said for Papyrus.
Example #1: Sans serif
This resume is using Montserrat, a font found in the Google Fonts database that can be downloaded for free. Notice how the font allows for the entire resume to be read with much more fluidity than a traditional professional resume. The font usage and overall design leads me to believe that this resume would be perfect for someone applying for a more creative or design-oriented job.
Example #2: Sans serif + script
Example #3: Serif + sans serif
Resume Summary Or Objective
Its not a secret for anyone that first impressions matter, whether theyre in your personal life, or your career.
If you leave a bad first impression, chances are, its there to stay. After all, its very hard to change someones opinion of you.
The same applies to your job search – the HR manager spends around 6 seconds scanning each resume. Yep, your carefully-worded, hand-crafted resume only gets 6 seconds of attention. Unless, of course, you manage to leave an amazing first impression.
The way you accomplish this is through either a good resume summary or objective. Both are placed at the top of your resume, right around the contact information section:
So, heres what you need to know about the two:
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A Corporate & Confident Resume
Featuring a bold header and no-nonsense layout, our Corporate resume template is the perfect example of a resume design thats confident and modern.
The use of a shaded sidebar organizes your contact information, so that your experience can take the spotlight. Meanwhile, the wide header adds a bit of color and gives your name and title the impact they deserve.
This design is ideal for those working in business and anyone aiming to upgrade their career.
Tip 5 Combine Different Fonts
Using only one font throughout your resume would result in a pretty boring resume design. There are thousands of beautiful and free or low cost fonts available online. So, theres no excuse to stick to the same old boring fonts everyone else is using.
Consider using one font for creative resume headings and one font for your body text. You can also experiment with different font weights.
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Whats A Resume Objective & When To Use It
A resume objective is, in a nutshell, the goal of your resume. It communicates your motivation for getting into a new field. As with a resume summary, a resume objective should be around 2-3 sentences.
As weve mentioned before, a resume objective is the go-to for anyone that either has no work experience or is going through a career change.
Formula to Create Your Resume Objective:
Looking to apply my at
to help .
Examples of Resume Objectives
1) So, heres how that would look like if youre a student:
- Hard-working recent graduate with a B.A. in Graphic Design from New York State University seeking new opportunities. 3+ years of practical experience working with Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, creating illustrations & designing UX / UI. Looking to grow as a designer, as well as perfect my art, at the XYZ Design Studio.
2) Or, on the other hand, if youre going through a career change:
- IT project manager with 5+ years of experience in software development. Managed a team of developers to create products for several industries, such as FinTech and HR tech. Looking to leverage my experience in managing outsourced products as a Product Owner at XYZ.
Use Fun Design Elements In Moderation
While design elements such as flat icons, images, and bright colors could help your resume stand out from the pack using too many can cause a visual overload in the viewer and could actually distract from the actual purpose of the resume. To avoid using an overwhelming amount of design elements, here are a handful of tips to be mindful of:
- Use only a small handful of colors, as too many can be distracting .
- Work with the basic shapes that can be found within your word processor.
- Consider using graphic lines to add personality.
See the below example which uses just one color and graphic lines to create a neat and organized resume.
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Graphic Design Resume: Key Skills
The graphic design resume skills section comes fourth in your graphic designer resume section but it should be the second last section that you will write.
The reason behind it is that after you’re done making the above-mentioned sections, you can scan all these sections to look for the graphic design resume skills that you possess.
This process will give you more graphic design resume skills than you thought you had.
When writing your graphic design resume skills in this section, you will include a bullet before each skill. For example: * Typography * Web Designing * UI/UX Design and so forth.
Make sure all your graphic design resume skills just come in three lines and not more. Bold the whole section once you’re done writing your graphic design resume skills.
The bolding will directly seek the recruiter’s attention towards the graphic design resume skills section, hence, giving him/her the broad level idea of your graphic design resume skill set.
If you have graphic design resume skills like that of using Adobe, Photoshop or Illustrator, then don’t include them in the graphic designer resume skills section that you just made.
Within the graphic design resume skills section, create another sub-section of ‘TECHNICAL SKILLS’ and list these skills under the technical skills section.
Italicizing this section will make it clearly visible and will also separate it from the key skills section above.
To get a better idea, look at the graphic designer resume sample given below:
Making Your Content Shine
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Resume Design: 5 Creative Ways To Improve Yours
IT leaders know how little time a hiring manager has to spend skimming CVs when filling a role. The same rule of thumb applies to your own resume. Lets face it, your resume is going to get no more than about 30 seconds of the reviewers time on the initial pass, says Stephen Van Vreede, a resume writer and career adviser for IT executives, so make it count. Ensure that they read the information on your resume that matters most for the role in question.
That means IT leaders should not only carefully consider the information they include in their resume but also how they deliver that information. Thats where design comes in. Smart use of options like color, typeface, shading, or even infographics can catch the attention of a resume reader and get them to engage longer with the document.
So youre not an artist? No problem. The Enterprisers Project talked to some IT resume and career experts about some simple but effectual design tips to help your resume stand out in the stack.
Avoid Overloading Your Resume With Too Much Information
It can be hard to summarize everything youve practiced, learned and accomplished during your time at a company. However, it is important to not say too much on your resume and risk overwhelming the hiring manager with the amount of information you are presenting.
To combat information overload when creating your resume, use a basic resume template with a simple, clean design. This will challenge you to condense your points to focus on what really needs to be said in order to position yourself as an ideal candidate for the role.
For example, this basic resume template only highlights two past jobs:
Sometimes less is more. The simple layout makes this basic resume template easy to read and the core skills easy to detect.
Just make sure to adjust your resume when youre applying to different jobsswap out the skills listed for others that more closely match the job description.
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Use Your Resume As A Personal Branding Document
For those unfamiliar, a personal brand is a way of marketing yourself through a number of avenues which is usually done by crafting a cohesive persona through social media accounts and a website. The idea here is to create an online identity that helps you put your best foot forward, especially when it comes to landing professional opportunities. So why cant your resume also be a part of your personal branding strategy? Here are a handful of tips that you can use to build a personal brand through your resume.
- Create a personal logo for yourself using a symbol or even just your initials. See Aaron Johnsons personal branding logo in the below image.
- Consistency is key make sure that you set rules for the layout of your resume, whether its in font choice, text sizing, and alignment.
- Choose a color scheme that reflects your brand.
For example, Matteo in the below example is using bright colors such as yellow and orange as a part of his personal brand as an illustrator and designer.