This guide outlines how to produce the perfect resume format to land you job interviews, with steps and expert tips to create a high-impact professional resume
For the majority of recruiters, the curriculum vitae is the most important part of the application documents with which the first selection is already made. At the same time, for many applicants, it is also the aspect that receives the least attention in the daily job search.
Once created, quickly adjusted the date and some specific details, and the resume will find its place in every application, no matter which company it is addressed to. This is simple and saves time, but you waste potential. For a perfect resume formate, you have to invest more time and effort, but thus increase your chances of the dream job and can convince interviewers from the first impression…
Resume format: overview
The resume is still the central element of an application. Expectations of this are correspondingly high. The resume should give a first and vivid impression of you and your professional career so far.
However, there should be no retelling of your life in the resume. It should invite questions and arouse curiosity. But what has to go in, what can and what can’t? Information about professional stations is, for example, a must, further training is optional.
More detailed information on the resume format, scope and structure, the function of the resume and important topics such as the application photo and performance examples follow.
The resume format should provide the reader with all relevant information about you as a person as well as your life, professional and study or training path. In this guide, we show you step by step how to optimally present yourself and your career in your resume.
The fine art of the resume format
The days when a handwritten resume was still expected are long gone. Nevertheless, a lot of effort should be invested in the preparation of the resume. This also means that the resume is not a standard document that is simply attached to every application. Rather, the resume should show a consistent orientation towards the respective position. In the best case, he provides proof of your argument that you are the most suitable candidate for the advertised position.
Shape, scope and structure
A resume is not a novel and should therefore be written in tabular form. Exceptions confirm the rule here: The usual tabular form can be deviated from if companies or organizations prescribe a specific style for applications. This is often the case with authorities or applications via online portals.
In addition, a good tabular resume format convinces with its meaningfulness, concise formulations, pictorial job descriptions, a logical structure and the absence of obvious or unexplained gaps. Equally important is that the resume format is visually appealing, uniformly formatted and error-free.
How to avoid mistakes in your cover letter
Depending on age, variety of tasks, hierarchy and personality, a curriculum vitae may consist of up to three pages. In addition, we recommend that you build up your resume chronologically descending so that the most important and recent qualifications are visible at first glance. Make sure that your resume format differs from your Xing or LinkedIn profile as well as your short profile differs in intensity and depth.
Task and function of the resume format
The resume should give a first and vivid impression of you and your previous professional career. He doesn’t have to answer all the questions, but should invite questions and arouse curiosity. Your resume is quite comparable to a shop window: It should invite you to go to the store, but it does not show the entire range. In the store, the impression promised in the shop window should then be confirmed and expanded – not corrected. Thus, the resume format should also prepare the interview, present you in the best possible way and enable professional and personal expectations of the potential incumbent to be confirmed and expanded.
Step by step to the perfect resume format
The following information must be included in the resume format:
• Name & coordinates
• Highest educational qualification
• Professional stations
The following information may, but does not have to, be included in the resume format:
• Executive summary or short profile
• Personal objective
• Further training
• Other knowledge
• Publications
• Memberships and Hobbies
• Employers’ websites
• Brief description of the employers
The following elements do not have to be in the resume format, but are recommended:
• Picture
• Date of birth
• Family situation
The following information should not be included in the resume format:
• References – only at the express request of the potential employer
• Salary information – both the last salary and the desired salary
• Information about your parents – only conceivable for school leavers
The photo
An application photo is not part of the mandatory scope of a resume format. Nevertheless, a meaningful application photo is often still taken for granted. Finally, it makes a decisive contribution to conveying a positive and professional overall impression.
An application picture can guide the reader’s perception, because it attracts the first glance. This first impression of the applicant is not just a purely optical one. Ideally, you convince with your appearance – from facial expression, clothing, hairstyle to posture.
Performance examples
In order to make the resume format as meaningful as possible with regard to your tasks, experience, knowledge and successes, develop performance examples. By developing performance examples, you become aware of what you have achieved during your working life. A variety of actions, initiatives and contributions that you have made in your professional life build a stronger profile. You will become aware of what you are particularly good at, where your strengths lie and what problems you are able to solve. You can also use these performance examples very vividly in the interview.
In a first step, to create performance examples, you collect tasks and challenges that you have developed and solved during your various employment relationships and positions. First of all, this includes the tasks whose solution was or is of particular importance for the successful performance of your area of responsibility and activity. Ask yourself about this:
• What main tasks/objectives were assigned to me in my position?
• What tasks do I also do, on behalf of my manager?
• Which projects have I worked on in the course of my work?
• Which one did I manage?
• Which one was I involved in?
• What special tasks were assigned to me?
• Which problems have I solved on my own initiative?
The resume format prepares for the interview
With a resume format prepared in this way, you not only qualify for job interviews, but also structure interview content at the same time. In addition, you gain more security because you are well prepared for all questions about your professional knowledge and experience and can concentrate entirely on the situation and the respective interlocutor in the interview. We wish you every success with your next application!
