Hobbies, soft skills and languages: 5 ways to improve your resume
These days, having a good resume is not enough. To land that dream job or internship, you’ll need a great resume, and creating a great resume is about more than listing your academic achievements and professional experiences. Of course, it’s essential to include the previous topics, but there’s a lot more you can do to make your “curriculum vitae” work in your favor.
Your resume is also an introduction about yourself, your amazing personality, your passions and hobbies. People applying for the same job will have qualifications similar to yours, so the key is to be the type of person your future employer can’t wait to have on their team.
1. Work on your soft skills
Are you great at giving presentations, or are you comfortable sharing your work and ideas in a room full of people? Well, you would put it on your resume if you were great at organizing spreadsheets (sorry, not sorry), so let your employer know that you’re a people person, great at communicating and problem solving as part of a team, and you don’t care. intimidates when it’s your turn to slap!
All these skills, known as “soft skills” make you a better and more complete candidate, and can help your interviewer to imagine you as part of their team. Traveling, studying abroad and enjoying new experiences can help you nurture your soft skills portfolio.
2. Learn a language
Having a second or third language under your belt is one of the best ways to make your application stand out from the crowd. Bilingual people are often better at creative problem solving.
As the list of benefits of having a bilingual workforce continues to grow, more and more employers are looking to recruit people who are fluent in another language. Given the ability to learn a new language, you are a great candidate for business with international clients and travel opportunities. Furthermore, such an achievement is proof that you can work hard to achieve big goals.
You can develop the necessary language skills with a study abroad program. One of the coolest things about an exchange is that you can put the study abroad experience on your CV as well as your newfound fluency in the language – it’s great fun for you and looks good on your CV, making it a win-win. wins (Which is totally sizable).
3. And don’t forget about your hobbies
Not all skills may seem totally relevant to your new job, but that doesn’t mean they don’t deserve a spot on your resume. Leave a space near the bottom of the page to include a little bit about your hobbies and interests to help your future employer get to know who you really are.
Sharing that you’re a qualified diver with a passion for marine conservation or declaring that you volunteer at a local animal shelter in your spare time, these accomplishments allow your values to show on paper.
If you’re a keen runner, part of a triathlon club, or love to spend your weekends on long bike rides, the people in your new office might love those things, too. It’s all about being open and honest so you can connect with the work and be part of a team that’s right for you.
4. Me, me, me
It’s not all about you… Well, it actually is, but you don’t want to start every sentence with “I” either. Demonstrate your language skills to make it easier for your future employer to read and understand your creativity. By way of example, one could replace sentences like “I can speak French” and “I studied abroad” with “During my six-month internship abroad in Paris, I improved my language skills and am now fluent in French.
5. When finished, ask someone else to proofread
Whether you ask a parent, an older sibling, a teacher, or the neighbor who has known you since you were a kid, make sure someone reads your resume before you send it out. First, they’ll help you catch any spelling or grammatical errors, and second, they’re the best people to suggest things you might have forgotten to include!
Talking about yourself might sound a little out of the ordinary, but these people know you so well that they’ll remember that event you attended a few years ago or the course you took when you were in school, which can really bolster your CV.
