How to write your resume?

 

A resume is a positive summary of your personal experience aiming to highlight your strengths. Its primary goal is to attract the recruiter and lead to an interview. A secondary role of the resume is to prepare for the interview; by explaining who you are, what you have done, and what you can do, it allows the recruiter to understand you. To fulfill these functions, the resume must be clear, informative, coherent, and personalized. To achieve this, focus on presentation and writing.

1. Presentation and writing
The presentation must be perfectly clear, well-spaced and easy to read. Again, spelling or grammatical errors are unacceptable. Ideally, your resume should be only one page, two at most, only if your professional experience requires it.

2. The photo
Sending a photo with your resume is mandatory whenever requested. If not mandatory, it's highly recommended to include one, as it allows the recruiter to form a first impression of you and to make your application stand out. Obviously, it must be of good quality and not detract from your application in any way.

3. The title
The title, placed at the top of the resume, summarizes a significant point of your career (position sought, aspirations, particular skills...). Its goal is to attract attention, awaken the recruiter's interest, and thus encourage them to continue reading the resume.

4. Professional experience
The most important section of the resume, professional experience should represent half of the resume, regardless of the type of resume you choose. There are 3 types of resumes, detailed below:

Chronological resume
Experiences are listed by employer in reverse chronological order.

You specify for each

• Dates (start and end);
• Company (Name, address, turnover, size);
• Job title;
• Responsibilities (one or two short sentences);
• Achievements and quantified results (choosing those that best match the position sought).

Functional resume
The elements of your professional experience are classified by function, emphasizing skills and giving little importance to dates.

This type of resume is recommended for people who have stayed with the same employer for many years, candidates returning to the job market after a long absence, and older professionals or those at the end of their career who have gained significant experience.

Chrono-functional resume
It combines the characteristics of the previous two and is suitable for candidates with a good professional background. It includes:

• Skills classified by function.
• Professional career listed chronologically.

5. Education
This is placed after the professional experience for experienced candidates (more than three years), or at the beginning of the resume, immediately after the personal information and title, for young recent graduates. The recommended presentation order is reverse chronological, from most recent to oldest, and only studies of a level equal to or higher than the baccalaureate should be included.

6. Foreign languages
Given the difficulty of a good evaluation, it is preferable here to cite concrete elements of comparison (stays, diplomas, letters, dissertations...).

7. Additional information
This allows the recruiter to better understand your personality by shedding light on your professional experience. This may include associative activities, hobbies, publications (books/articles)...