Maximizing Your Opportunities with a Combination Resume Format

This will help you stand out against other job candidates.

Photo courtesy: Subiyanto

(SALEM, Ore.) - A combination resume format is great for job seekers with diverse experience. It helps candidates who are switching careers showcase necessary transferable skills while allowing those with extensive employment gaps to highlight their strongest credentials.

A combination resume features a career summary, qualifications summary, work history section and other sections as needed. This format also works well for recent college graduates and entry-level workers.

There are lots of resume format sites where you can easily find the format according to your requirements.

Focus on Your Transferable Skills

It’s important to focus on transferable skills and make your experience relevant to the role you are seeking.

Identify your most valuable skills in your professional summary or qualifications section. Then, use your work experience to support these skills in your experience section by linking each position to the skills outlined in your professional summary or qualifications statement. Be sure to include specific, quantifiable results for each job to add a higher level of credibility and impact.

You can also use the work experience section to highlight prestigious companies you’ve worked for, key accomplishments, and any notable certifications or awards you’ve earned. This will help you stand out against other candidates.

The experience section should be short. Therefore, hiring managers can easily see your value proposition.

Make Your Experience Relevant

You can also include a “skills summary” section to show recruiters your most pertinent professional abilities.

Alternatively, you can also list your key responsibilities as well as any notable milestones and accolades. For instance, if you managed multiple projects in different locations at once or exceeded project deadlines.

Include a Summary Statement

Use quantifiable examples, such as dollar amounts saved or percentages improved, to show how you benefited your previous employers.

It can also be a good choice for a senior-level professional who is seeking to tell a more consistent story about their work experience, as opposed to one that focuses on their most recent positions.

You can also add a summary section at the beginning of your resume to summarize your strongest credentials, which may be more effective than a career objective or key skills statement at the top of a functional resume.

Highlight Your Education

Similarly, your work experience section can be as compressed or as detailed as you want it to be. Regardless, you must write this section carefully and use keywords from the job posting to customize your resume for each application.

With a little planning, you can create a powerful combination resume that will boost your job search. Try using Jobseeker’s professional resume builder to easily combine your work and education experience into a winning document that will impress hiring managers.

Source: Salem-News.com Special Features Dept.