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Let's examine in the current year, what are the generally agreed-upon aspects that are in vogue, and which ones are now old.
Best practices for crafting your résumé in 2012:
Cease making "objective statements" happen
The trend of a career objective and/or professional summary is passé. It's considered to be a misuse of precious space. Rather, just manage this element with a sentence in your cover letter that define how the position you intend applying for complements your overall career plan.
Be factual
Employ numbers and tangible proof of what you've accomplished. For example, "Amplified sales' by 35 percent via client profiling campaign", is superior to "Increased sales in my area". Don't put general tasks down, and rather, get creative in representing what you performed in your role or how you fetched forth new ideas for products, processes, efficiency, etc. The more you can enumerate your efforts with real numeric's or data, the more improved position you'll be in.
Cover letters are in trend
Like the "two page versus one page" debate, the subject of cover letters is intense. Some recruiters' convey that they don't hassle looking at them, others think that some job seekers have become idle and won't allot time to draft the cover letter or tailor one specially to the company to which they are applying. In fact, the reality is that it's a ideal opportunity to market yourself, and this is where you can instill personality into your application.
Also, after drafting a great cover letter, also spare the extra few minutes to modify it to why you want that specific job at that particular company and why your skills would advantage the overall organization if recruited.
Keywords are a must
The recruiter or manager puts your résumé side-by-side with the job requirements and checks, so if the identical keywords are there, you've hit the right spot. In place of using futile jargons on your résumé, use the keywords in the job posting. Do use them in your résumé and cover letter, as even the candidate tracking systems depend on keyword searches.
Get innovative with quick response codes
Young professionals are utilizing QR codes -- bar codes that can be scanned by smartphones to download or connect to information -- on the back of business cards and on their résumé to link to online portfolios. As you set up connections and be present at career fairs, you can pass out business cards with the QR code that can connect recruiters and other contacts to either your portfolio or LinkedIn profile so they can instantly network with you.
Wow with visual résumés
Many people are utilizing tools to help exhibit their work history via sites such as Vizualize.me. These sites contain tools to assist individuals present the information on their résumés in a different way that makes them unique. Just keep in mind that you still need a traditional format to hand out or append to make it easy for saving in company record.
Give video an opportunity
In this rough economy, job seekers are getting creative to get their name, talents and traits in front of employers, like this résumé video for a Google position. If you're willing to create something of this sort, make sure you're giving substance or showing off your soft skills inside the video as an alternative to mere doing anything flashy to get the recruiter's attention.
Social media are here to stay
If you're not utilizing social media to endorse yourself, you're missing out. Just as employers use multiple paths to push out job postings, you as a job seeker also require using all the channels obtainable to you to put yourself in recruiters' attention.
Using Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn as a tool to give updates on your career or connect with other professionals gives your résumé a lift and can turn you more memorable as a candidate. Just be sure that your online profiles are professional or private.
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