I don’t have to tell you how important your resume is to your success. All of the years that you’ve spent working hard to pursue your goals are for nothing if your CV can’t showcase them.

A great resume needs to make you stand out and grab a potential employer’s attention. Even if you’re new to job searching, and you’re not sure how to create something that looks professional, sit back and read a few of our tips.

It’s rarely a good idea to set about with a blank page in Microsoft Word and get writing. Generic text on a white backdrop looks dull, and won’t stand out. That doesn’t mean that you should be putting color all over the place, but you want a stylish look that makes you seem professional.

The best way to do this is to download resume templates and samples that have the correct formatting applied already. This will save you a lot of time, giving you a great head start as you start filling in information.

Once you’ve got the right layout, you need to include the relevant information. Start off with a short summary of your skills and personality. The employer needs to know what you can bring to the table.

Here, you’re going to want to talk about things like teamwork abilities and your strong work ethic. After this, summarize your previous roles. You’ll want to highlight the skills you obtained and the responsibilities you were given. Make yourself sound as good as you can. You did a great job to get to this position — don’t sell yourself short.

You’ll also want to include your educational achievements. Don’t throw them all over the page; keep them in a clear, organized format. Emphasize your most important or relevant achievements here.

Once you’re done with this, you’ll want a small section at the bottom that indicates your hobbies and interests. Keep this short and sweet and don’t go into too much detail. Try and make yourself seem varied and interesting.

While you’re filling in your resume, you’re going to want to come back and revisit it to check for any grammar errors that you might encounter. Don’t assume that it’s done when you come to the final sentence. One spelling mistake could be the difference between getting the job and having your resume thrown in the bin.

Try and look at your CV from the point of view of a potential recruiter. Would you hire yourself based on what you see? If not, try to think of other ways to highlight your talents.

Remember, an employer will normally make a decision after around 20-30 seconds of looking at your resume. It’s not a good idea to make it too long, or they might not even bother looking at it. Once you’ve got the finished article, print it out using high-quality paper if you can. If you’re sending it via email, convert it to something like PDF format to give it a smarter look.

Good luck in your job search!

This post has been contributed by Ryan Gatt, it contains affiliate links.