What is the Purpose of a Resume?

Before applying for a job, it’s important to know what is a resume, and what purpose it serves in the job market?

Most of the time, when you look at your resume, you think of it as a list of your job descriptions or your autobiography that can probably get you a job. However, it’s not true. The main purpose of a resume is to get you an interview call, and it serves as a marketing tool for your career. Resume convince your recruiter to consider you for the screening process or reject you right away within seconds. If you failed to build an impression with your marketing document, i.e., your resume, you would end up having nothing.

If an average of 200 candidates applied for an open position, some might have more experience than you and probably more skills. However, still, recruiters would need a clean and well-written resume that can represent the candidates well. Recruiters judge your resume within seconds so, you must ensure that they get a complete insight of you and your career in a glimpse.

As we mentioned above, your resume helps the employer to identify you, your strengths, qualifications, and achievements. It’s more about how you want the recruiter to see you and how your relevant experience can benefit the organization. With the resume, you can convey your personal narrative about the job. The purpose of a resume is to provide recruiters an insight into the person they will be meeting at the interview. If your resume matches their criteria, you are likely to get an invitation for an interview.

A resume is your personal marketing representative going out into the world and representing you. Remember that it’s not a summary of your entire life and career but an overview of your relevant work experience and qualifications. You must be specific with what previous job experiences you include in your resume and whether they are related to the open position in any way or not. Because when recruiters skim through your resume, they look for where you started your career and what you have achieved up until now. So, it tells the recruiters how well you were doing before applying for the job.

Your resume provides a detailed outline of your expertise, certifications, and communication skills. The recruiter would know what you can bring to the table and how your achievements can benefit the organization. Relevance is the key. Your skills and expertise should be relevant to the job. In this way, the recruiter would decide if you’re the right fit for the job or not.

The primary purpose of your resume is to convince the recruiter to consider you for the job. If your resume is neat, concise, and relevant, you are more likely to receive interview calls. Good resumes also help you get through the ATS and reach the recruiters because 90% of the time, your resume doesn’t even pass the ATS and ends up in the trash before even being reviewed by the recruiter.