As a millennial, it’s difficult to know exactly what employers are looking for on your resumes. For many millennials, this will be the first time they are applying for a job but, as enthusiastic as they are, many recruiters have been in the industry for years and won’t be familiar with the passion that millennials possess.
Today, we’ll explore eight key things that employers are looking for in your resume, helping you to secure the job of your dreams.
A Cover Letter is Essential
Including a cover letter with your resume is essential to your success. If you don’t include a cover letter, the employer will automatically assume that you’re simply after the paycheck and not really looking to become a part of the business.
As a millennial, securing your first job is vital to getting yourself onto the career ladder and nailing your first job is a great way, easily achievable with a cover letter in hand.
Teachable Students
Regarding your test grades, employers don’t tend to look for what subjects you’ve learnt, unless it’s a job like a lawyer etc, but they are looking for somebody who can be taught the ins and outs of their business so they can become a functioning member of the team. This is all apparent in the grades you achieve.
Linda Buda, the HR manager for Academized, continues;
“Most employers won’t actually care what grades you achieved in college. Many are in fact looking for good communication and writing skills that can help improve their business.”
Customize and Personalize
It’s essential that every single job you apply for has a customized resume and cover letter. Employers have potentially been in the recruitment industry for many years and will know if you’re sending them a generic resume and cover letter that you’ve sent to a tonne of other companies.
When writing your documents, make sure you research the business to see what kind of style they write in and what language they’ll use. This way, you can tailor your documents perfectly for that business, helping you improve your chances of securing that position.
Use Tools to Perfect Your Work
If your resume is full of spelling mistakes, grammar errors or any other silly mistakes, your application will be chucked in the bin. This shows you haven’t paid a lot of attention to the details of your application and they won’t want this in their business. Here are a few tools to help you achieve perfection.
- Then Vs Than: Use this free online blog to brush up on your grammar knowledge.
- Resume Writing Service: An online resume builder that can help you to format your resume professionally.
- State of Writing: Whatever you’re writing, whether it’s your resume or cover letter, use this blog for free writing guides.
- CV Service: An online writing community that can help you brush up on your writing skills, including resume and cover letter writing.
- Easy Word Counter: A free online tool that can help you to track your word count in real-time, helping you keep your paragraphs short and sweet.
- Boom Essays: An online writing service that can provide advice for writing resumes and cover letters. According to HuffingtonPost article “Write An Essay” it is one of the most popular millennial writing services.
- Cite It In: A free online tool that can help you add citations, references and quotes to your resume in a professional way.
- EssayRoo: Use this online service to have your resume created on your behalf by a professional writer.
Relevant Skills, Not Work Experience
As a millennial, the chances are that you’ve just come out of school, college or university and you haven’t really got any part-time jobs or years worth of experience behind you. However, employers aren’t so much interested in your history but more the skills that you got from these past positions.
However, despite having little or no work history, you will have still collected a selection of skills throughout your education.
Whether you’ve volunteered in a project, starting your own little enterprise during university or college, or any other projects you’ve worked on in or outside your education, include them in your resume.
A Willingness to Go Further
With resumes these days, employers are looking for people that can go above and beyond the call of duty. With how instant everything is, most businesses will be looking for people who will be willing to put in the extra hours such as evenings and weekends and remain flexible with their hours. If you’re willing to do this, say so in your application.
Convey Your Work Ethic
One of the most important aspects of employment these days is finding someone that can fit into the business well, works hard and has a good work ethic. You need to make this evident in your application, in both your resume and cover letter. Show your employer how ambitious you are.
Include All Relevant Documents
One of the most important things that millennials overlook is not including all the information that the employer is asking for. If you’re supposed to include some kind of check or other documents with your application, make sure you do. Otherwise, your application will be automatically rejected.