Everyone wants their resume or CV to be the swankiest of all. That includes you.
But your job has been keeping you busy all along. Isn’t it?
Now that you are finally home on self-quarantine due to the nation-wide lockdown, you do have some time to spare.
Instead of watching the hours tick away, revisit your resume.
Polish it with some of the latest and relevant buzzwords to draw recruiters like bees!
Here's how you can start.
Level up your skill game
Why not pick up new professional skills and enhance your CV?
You never know this exercise might land you an interview call from that dream company of yours after the lockdown reopens.
Did you know that employers prefer to upskill their existing workforce?
It is always a better strategy than hiring new employees.
If you are a professional, you need to keep this in mind and upgrade constantly to stay ahead in your career.
Current lockdown is the best time to do a self-review of your professional skills.
Identify gaps and prepare a list of action items to close.
Once the list is ready, start acting on the points immediately.
Buck up your skills even while you are locked up indoors.
Participate in online events
Learning is not confined to brick and mortar classrooms and in-person events anymore.
To help you stay competitive in the digital age, instructors have made themselves readily available online.
Experts these days prefer to LIVE stream or upload their event videos on YouTube.
You can participate in them by registering in advance or download them to continue learning offline.
You can also cherry pick from online webcasts, expert masterclasses and blended digital transformation programs.
It’s now or never.
Empower your knowledge, add it to your resume and stand out from the crowd with your newly acquired skills.
Sign up for online courses
When you opt for online education, you will be spoilt for choices with both free and paid course options through MOOC/MOOV (Massive Open Online Courses/Varsity).
Online learning portals such as Naukri Learning come with structured and non-formal learning courses.
You can learn a course at your own pace and still complete it!
Another way to upskill online is to choose from compulsory and voluntary training options provided by your office or employer.
These internal upskilling lists also include e-learning courses.
In addition to formal courses, you can also start taking up courses with online hands-on projects for a practical learning exposure.
Work alongside a friend or a colleague
An important reason to learn in a group or in pairs is to produce better results.
You will end up with better solutions than either one of you could have produced in silos.
When you pick up a book or course or a problem with a friend, both of you can identify potential gaps, errors, mistakes and bugs faster.
Also, you can mentor each other mutually and pick up concepts in the absence of a teacher.
In the process you will be able to brush up one another's basics as well.
Attend webinars and podcasts
Opt in for webinars for topical learning. These are live audio-cum-video sessions.
In a webinar, you can also interact with your instructor and with the audience 'face-to-face'.
In the end, you may share live feedback about the interaction.
Podcasts are also a great way to acquire knowledge in various topics at your own pace.
These are pre-recorded audio files posted on a site that you can download and listen to while doing your daily chores, while making dinner or on the treadmill.
Search iTunes for podcasts on a particular topic and access them instantly.
You can also subscribe to receive your latest recordings automatically through RSS feeds.
Be social savvy
Finally, polish your knowledge on social media too!
Start by tracking industry thought leaders and latest advances in your domain.
Liked the above points? Add them to your skill-game list.
If you successfully accomplish most of the above pointers and add the results as brownie points to your resume, 90% of your task will be done.
So here’s a quick recap.
Your ultimate objectives are to become visible in the recruiter’s eye, get priority in a sea of mediocre resumes, stand out from the rest, and eventually get shortlisted.
Points enlisted above will help you accomplish new skills and reach your ultimate goal of revamping the resume and getting noticed, minus any scope of error.
Nevertheless, this exercise will also boost the overall quality of your job application.
Still unsure about crafting an impactful CV by yourself? In that case, please seek professional help from a career counselor or approach an expert in resume writing services.
All the best!
