How To Place A Year Gap In Your Professional Resume?

There is no lie in the fact that your professional resume must look a comprehensive one while showcasing your career in a trail. Mostly when the hiring managers go through your professional resume, the first thing that they notice is your experience and skills. Though the career trail is the next important thing that they choose to go through, it has equal importance.

Though the hiring managers expect a complete visual resume writing from the job seekers, but they will not be surprised to see any gap in your resume. Many job seekers go for another level of qualification, try to accomplish new degrees and also take some time to balance their personal and professional lives- and trust me that is entirely alright.

But being a job seeker, you can’t go like “my life my rules” kind of an attitude, and you need to have enough courage to justify the importance of the gap. A well-described and truthful justification about the career gap in your professional resume helps you to get more opportunity to grab a great job. You need to know how you must explain any year gap in your resume.

There is no need to panic if you have any year gap in your resume, as this professional CV writing guide will help you turn your gap into a reason to create more career-building experiences.

1. Tell the truth:

Honesty is the best policy, and when it is about facing the flaws, you must stick into speaking the truth. The first thing that you need to remember is that having a gap in the professional resume is wholly alright and you don’t need to go to some immense or sensitive details like health issues, to explain it.

Telling the truth is the simplest thing as you don’t need to take many pauses and create random stories in front of the hiring managers.

Avoid resume writing mistakes like trying to extend your previous work experience to cover up the gap. The hiring managers will find that out during any background check. Lying about your career gap can make the gap stand out even more.

2. Be clear about the questions:

What is the utmost situation that you might need to face for having some year gaps? It is nothing but a few questions regarding the whats and the whys of the gap. On the other hand, when you leave so many years gap unexplained, there are more chances that it will create more questions in the minds of the employers and your professional resume can end up at the dustbin.

It is always better to show your career gap where it actually took place. If you have several gaps and periods of unemployment, you must hire resume writing services or choose a skill-based resume format. The skill-based resume formats allow you to demonstrate your experience without stressing much about the sequence.

3. Emphasize the positive:

There can be many reasons for you to take a gap year or maybe several. But be sure that you focus upon the constructive activities you were part of doing those gaps. Ask your LinkedIn profile writing services to mention the productive activities in your profile too, which may include the volunteer work that you have taken up, can be any course that you were a part of for the betterment of your skills, it can be freelancing or even can be your work profile in abroad.

Draw the positive aspects of the year gap which have helped you to be a better person in both the ways; professionally and individually. Even if you have taken a career gap while suffering from some ailments or also you were taking care of someone ill, mention how that has made you a better and stronger person.

4. Describe your career achievements:

At the end of the day, the hiring managers don’t only want to know where did you work and what you did, but they also want to listen to what have you achieved or accomplished in your previous job roles. Even though you have one or several year gaps, the hiring managers would love to know about the achievements that you have attained during those periods.

You can quantify your accomplishments and use bullet points to list down your achievements during the gap period.

Even though you have taken the career gap to learn something new like learning a new language or a new skill, don’t forget to list that down. Phrase your achievements in business terms for better results.

5. Explain the reasons for the gaps:

If you have taken the gap to learning something new or even the cause of the career gap is nothing but you wanted to explore the world with your friends, you must give the reason that how that helped you to grow professionally.

The online resume maker may help you to explain how it helped you to be close to new cultures, how you have learned to adapt to new challenges in unique circumstances and situations. List a set of skills that you have gained and attained during the period of the gaps and how you can use those in the job responsibilities that will be given to you.

6. Show your commitment to stability:

Having a career or year gap to your professional resume doesn’t mean that you are just not a competent professional who can make commitments.

If your gap year is very recent, then the hiring managers may think that you can be failed at keeping commitments. But you need to explain the carefully planned gap year and you also need to demonstrate that you are ready for responsibilities in your professional life right now. If your career gap was a few years back, then you also need to explain some events which have brought you renewed focus.

7. Structure your professional resume appropriately:

It is not about the information that you provide but how you structure them in your resume is all that matters. According to the career gap that you had, you can structure the information in your resume accordingly.

It is easy to obscure the gap of a few months by mentioning the years and not the dates in particular. You in person can explain the gap you had during that period, but your professional resume doesn’t need to carry the information.

You can obscure a long gap by explaining the achievements that you attained during the gap. For example, if you were in any foreign country and worked with some social cause, let your hiring managers know that how you have worked hard for raising funds and what all have you learned during that period.

Choosing a skill-based professional resume is another way to obscure a long or a short gap. Unlike the chronological resume format, you don’t need to mention your work experience in a trail in this kind of a resume format. Which is more comfortable to follow when you have career gap patches in your professional life.

8. Show your transferable skills:

The hiring managers don’t only look for academic based skills that you have achieved during your theoretical training period. To handle the job position given to you, you will also need to have practical and transferable skills along with the hands-on experience that satisfies the requirements of the position.

If you have a career gap and you have developed some transferrable skills during that period, then don’t forget to mention that to your professional resume.

Here are some of the skills that you can add to your resume:

·   Negotiation:

If you had been on a trip to any part of the world, you could explain how you have developed your negation skills while haggling with the local market and the hawkers. Let your hiring managers know that you have learned that bagging sharp deals help a business to work better.

·   Budgeting and planning:

This is another transferable skill that you can mention to your professional resume. It is undeniable that since you were not under the payroll of an organization during the period of your gap, you needed to plan for your personal budget. Explain how you have learned the planning and budgeting about your personal day to day finance and even when you were traveling.

·   Communication:

Traveling and making new experiences consist of lots of interaction with different groups and people. It also helps you to overcome your language barrier and also elevate the level of your self-confidence. The intercultural skill that you have developed can be an excellent asset for your workplace skills too.

·   Adaptability:

You need to adapt to new and unexpected circumstances when you travel. Adaptability to unique ambiances and situations is another skill that the hiring managers will look for in you. Your plans change rapidly when you visit and you learn to adapt quickly and easily to be able to deal, with those situations. Being flexible in any situation is a skill that you can mention on your professional resume.

9. Try to make the gap year relevant to the job you are applying for: 

      It is one of the best resume writing tips. If you have spent the time of the gap year learning new things and new skills, then you can take those skills to be the helping keywords for your resume. Go through the job posting that the hiring managers have put and try to alter your resume according to the job you are applying for. You can demonstrate that you have learned a new language or maybe new software to be able to apply for the job that you are doing now.

A gap year can come to anyone and everyone, but you need to learn how to spin the gap according to your comfort and which can also have some explainable details for the hiring managers to digest. First of all, you need to know about the 30 words to avoid in your resume and try to grab the attention of the hiring managers to the global perspective that you gained throughout the time of the year gap.

If it is difficult for you to deal with the year gap in your resume, you can always seek the help of a professional resume writer to make it possible for you.

Source: How To Place A Year Gap In Your Professional Resume?

30 Words You Should Never Use in a Resume

A resume is a gateway for a great job. You can create a great first impression while seeking employment in front of the managers with your resume alone. In the queue of many job seekers, you need to stand out with your resume. On average, the hiring managers spend only 5 to 20 seconds while reviewing your resume. Thus, it would help if you are mindful of the words that you must add and the words to avoid in a resume.

While your resume needs to be attractive, it must also contain the information they want to see in the resume. Choosing a fancy or beautiful template is not enough to impress the hiring managers. Now, if you are thinking that how to make a resume, the first thing you need to know is you must be very mindful about what you are adding and how you are choosing your words while creating a professional resume to benefit your job search.

The first thing that you need to do to make an apt resume is to avoid resume writing mistakes. If your resume looks cool but is full of silly mistakes, you can’t make it suitable for the job you are applying to. Instead, you must be focused on creating an error-free resume, even though you stick to a basic looking one.

While there are words you must add to your resume, and there are words to avoid in the resume too. Here is a list of worst words to add to your resume and it will be better if you can avoid using them instead.

Here are 30 words to avoid in a resume and make it appropriate for your job search

1. Unemployed:

Though you are not currently working with any organization and the state of your current working situation merely is “unemployed”, but you still don’t need to use the word in your resume. When you are adding the working span in your previous organization, the hiring managers can find out themselves that you are not working at this moment and is unemployed.

2. Microsoft Office:

Everyone writing a resume to apply for a job tries to add as many skills as they van to their resume. While you alone or along with a professional resume writer, making your list of skills to be added to the resume, try to add skills that are relevant to the job profile you are applying for and not the ones which are not skills at all. Having a command upon Microsoft is not a skill.

3. Hard Worker:

Everyone who is applying for a job promise to work hard for the organization. Also, no one claims themselves to be not so hard working in their last job. Being hardworking is not a skill that you need to be proud of. Being diligent is an ethic that you must have in life, be it your job or your personal life. In the end, the employers need the given task to be completed, either you choose to work hard or work smart instead.

4. Creative:

This is one of the words to avoid in a resume as it can be replaced with something more soothing and useful, like “worked with a team of creative people.” Demanding to be someone creative is a bit more exaggerating.

5. Reference Available upon request:

This is an outdated term that is unnecessary at the same time. If the hiring managers feel that they must have some recommendations from your previous organization, they will ask for it. As per the modern resume writing rules, you don’t mention the term in your resume.

6. I, He, Him, Her:

You must not forget 1st or 3rd person words to avoid in a resume. It is you who have written the resume for yourself and not someone else. Thus, you don’t need to mention phrases like

 “I worked with….”

“I led a team…..” 

7. Expert:

Unless you indeed are an expert in something, you must refrain from using the phrase in your resume. But if you think that you must mention, you must also get prepared with answers to the questions regarding your expertise.

8. Can’t:

You must choose negative words to avoid in a resume. Your resume must demonstrate your skills and must mention things that you can do.

9. Responsible for:

If you are using an online resume builder and are being suggested with the term repeatedly in your resume to demonstrate your scope of work, then this is the high time you stop overusing the word.

10. Result Oriented:

Everyone is result oriented in an organization. You are hired and get paid to get some results for the organization.Thus, being result-oriented is pretty evident for all the job seekers. It is not a skill, and you can replace this term with suitable examples from your previous job experience in your cv writing.

11.  Highly Qualified:

There is not any parameter to justify the term ‘highly qualified.’ There are ample of skills available in this world which you don’t even know. Thus, being highly qualified is unrealistic and among the words to avoid in a resume.

12. Energetic:

You can’t measure your energy in ‘Horsepower’ in your resume. Thus energetic is a term you don’t need to use. You are energetic means absolutely nothing in the professional aspect facet.

13. Out of the box:

This is probably the phrases which have already bored the hiring managers. This phrase is overused, and if you are willing to demonstrate your creative thinking skill with the words, stop and replace the same with something better.

14. Savvy:

‘I am a tech-savvy’ or ‘internet savvy’ – these are the words to avoid in a resume if you want it to look like a professional one.

15. Smart:

Being smart is a personality trait, like being honest is a quality. Your resume must contain relevant information about you. Being smart is not a skill it is given and thus, it will be a smarter option you choose such words to avoid in a resume.

16. Professional:

You can only prove your professionalism once you are hired by an organization or maybe during the interview process. Thus, rather than being self-remarking about you being professional, let your hiring managers decide that.

17. Team Player:

It is hard to prove if you are a team player or not. This term is prevalent, and most of the resume carries this easy to say but hard to prove term. You must have some genuine example where you have worked in a team or have mentored a group of people. As per our resume writing tips, you can better choose some other action verb to replace the term.

18. Honesty:

Honesty is a virtue quality, and the hiring managers have to do nothing with a person who is honest by nature. This is especially the quality of the right people.

19. Punctual:

Punctuality is a professional characteristic that is expected from everyone in the workplace. Thus, if you value your own time, it is a better choice for you and you don’t need to showcase that.

20. Synergy:

This sounds like a trendy term. But your hiring managers can find this to one of the cv buzzwords to avoid. The use of specific action verbs in every place is a must-do thing while writing your resume. If you are “collaborating” or “interacting” with various departments, stick to using those terms only to clarify what you mean to say.

21. Intelligent:

Your intelligence can be tested only when you are dealing with some real-life challenges. The word deserves to be justified rather than just mentioned.

22. Influential:

Many words that you choose can have a negative impact too. This is among the words to avoid in a resume as the hiring managers can misinterpret this term to be challenging for the workplace.

23. Best of Breed:

The word sounds like an annoying one. This is not some club dog show winner we are talking about, but it is you who is being represented.

24. Communication Skills:

You need to have some validated parameters while you are trying to demonstrate any of your skills. While you use the word communication skills on your resume, it sounds to be very self-serving.

25. Talented:

The definition of talent varies from person to person. While something you claim to be your talent may be fundamental to someone else, on another hand, when you demand to have specific expertise, maybe not so required skill for the organization you are applying for. Isn’t it a better idea to let your organization and hiring managers to find you are talented through some examples?

26. Go-getter:

Don’t you think the term is a real cliché? The term is generally used to demonstrate that the job seeker is an initiative taker, but rather than using the term, you must be specific with some examples. Professional resume writing services will suggest you write examples that are way much persuasive than using any word.

27. Strategic Thinker:

Being able to think strategically can help you to have a better life for yourself. Thus, if you are blessed with the skill or have achieved that, it’s a great thing for you and not for the hiring managers to know until you can prove it.

28. Dynamic:

Being dynamic is more a personality trait than a skill to be added to your resume. There is no way you can follow to prove your outgoing personality in your resume. If you think that your dynamic nature can help the organization somehow, try to demonstrate some examples.

29. Detail Oriented:

This is one of the most suggested words to avoid in a resume. You can demonstrate the skill in your resume itself by arranging your resume information in a proper way, rather than just using the phrase. You can use more polished words instead and can also give some examples for the same from your previous work experiences.

30. Bottom Line:

The hiring managers want to know about your achievements in the previous organization. Instead of using the term bottom line, try to quantify your progress in the last organization.

Source: 30 words to avoid in a resume

How To Format A Cover Letter That Can Help You Land A Job

Cover letter formatting can have an adverse effect, if not done right. While creating a cover letter for your professional portfolio, you need to be sure about two things:

Your cover letter formatting should be perfect and must be presentable, which also follow all the rules and guideline of the formatting etiquettes.

Secondly, your cover letter must be structured in such a way so that it can help the hiring managers of an organization to understand your value proposition as early as possible,

But the challenge is that most of the job seekers who are willing to bag their dream jobs, don’t know how to format a cover letter effectively. But as a professional resume writer, I want you to know that it takes not more than 10 minutes for you to be ahead of all the competition?

Well, here are some guidelines for you.

How To Format A Cover Letter

First of all, you need to know that there are 5 parts of a cover letter:

1. The header

2. The salutation

3. The central paragraph with your offer

4. Call to action

5. Sign off

• HEADER:

Your header consists of your name, job title, address, contact information including your phone number, email addresses and other social media profiles like LinkedIn. After which you must put the date when you are sending or submitting the resume cover letter. The contact information of the hiring manager must be followed to that.

While writing a business cover letter, this part is essential.

• SALUTATION:

Though the salutation part can be varied for each of the job seekers, there are specific guidelines one must follow in this segment too. You don’t want your hiring manager to get bored after reviewing your job application letter, right? If you wish your hiring managers to be excited to interview you, that can also be achieved.

Always prefer to address your hiring managers by their names. You can add “Dear” as the prefix. But you must not use terms like “Whomsoever it may concern”, “Dear Sir/Madam” or “Hey Team” instead.

Once you put the right name at the place, it helps you to grab the attention of your hiring manager.

• THE PARAGRAPH:

Your paragraph must not carry information which is very obvious like “I am writing this in response to your job offer” etc. Rather be very specific and make your paragraph of offering or motivation to be more appealing.

You can choose sharing your achievements, something you love about the company, recent awards, or any exciting fact that you think is appropriate to share with your hiring manager.

Remember when the central paragraph is more about them than it’s about you, you get more opportunity to steal the deal. You must mention what you have to offer to the organization in the application letter, instead of what you want to get out of it.

• CALL TO ACTION:

If your hiring managers have come a long way to get you an opportunity to get interviewed by them, don’t upset them with an awkward call to action. It must be very compelling for your hiring manager to give you an appointment call.

Be very specific in your call to action. You can ask for a call or meeting, or even you can restate how you can help the organization to achieve its objectives.

• SIGN OFF:

With this segment, you get over with the chance of making your Cover letter any better. This is the closing of your cover letter. Thus, you may prefer thanking the hiring managers for their time to go through your cover letter of a professional profile. Use sincerely in the end or synonyms of the same. Don’t forget to write your name in full and your necessary contact details.

Source: How to Format a Cover Letter