The hiring industry is changing with each passing day. Hiring managers are always updating their methods of screening the candidates and inculcating new technologies so as to recruit better talent for their company. In order to ensure you are not left behind, it’s better to update your resume with the following tips.

If in the New Year you are considering a new job, time is perfect for updating your resume. The job search game has become very competitive and if you want to maintain your edge over your peers, an updated resume is surely what you need. So instead of sitting around all day surfing job boards and applying to different vacancies, just take some time out to update your resume, because without a fresh CV that rings the bells with employers you cannot expect to break through even the first round. Therefore, it is time to take a hold of whatever you knew about resume building, and upgrade your knowledge with the latest trends. Here are some expert tips that will help you out in making your resume as per the current standards. However, before that a question that must be answered is:

Is a resume worth so much of attention?

People tend to fret over CV building so much because it is the only thing which is under their control. In fact, they spend so much building resume owing to the simple reason that it is the only activity that can control in the whole job search process. Instead of picking up the phone and calling a prospective employer for a personal interview, people prefer fussing over their resumes. However, the truth is that there are few in this world that has been hired just owing to their resumes being brilliant. The sole purpose of the resume is to get you an interview, where 40 percent of the hiring decisions are based on your personality. This doesn’t mean that you don’t have to pay attention to resume building as you can’t win the race until you ride the horse.

How to make your resume unbeatable?

2014 is a year where aspirants aren’t afraid of experimenting with different kinds of resumes, with infographic resume, video resume and all sorts of other formats arriving on the scene, for those who still like playing it safe, the good old MS Word works just fine. Here are some tips for those with special love for a Word resume.

• First of all your resume shouldn’t be like a small autobiography which has all details regarding your personal and professional life. Going by a research conducted by The Ladders, recruiters spend an average of six seconds looking at a resume. You have to make every second count. For the same, your resume should be professionally written that presents the recruiter with clear visual hierarchy and relevant information. Everything on the resume should be concise and clear, just enough to give the recruiter a fair idea of the message you are trying to get across.

• Keep it short and simple. Avoid a fancy-schmancy layout. It’s not necessary that you restrict your font choice to Times New Roman. However, anything too out of the box should be avoided. It’s a formal document and should appear like one. Other special effects like multiple colors and formatting should be avoided as they distract the recruiter from the important written material.

• You can do better without all the fluff like objective and summary. Most recruiters do not even care to give a glance to these sections as they are more interested in your achievements, education, and experience and how he can benefit from them.

• Use numbers to quantify your achievements as they easily catch attention and are also impactful.

• You would be too silly to include personal information like marital status or number of kids.

• Finally use reverse chronological order to list your jobs and educational qualification. Use proper titles such customer service, controller, manager to refer to the job positions you have served before.

Think about new formats such as infographic resume

If you are applying to a creative position such as graphic designing you can guarantee an interview call by going unconventional and pitching yourself through an infographic resume. Not only will it have that novelty factor, you can also use it to showcase to the employer your designing skills. The concept has been around for about couple of years and you can find plenty of online advice on how to go about creating an infographic resume. However, proceed only if you are dead sure of the whole concept.

Another new fad is a social media resume. Many recruiters refer to candidate’s LinkedIn profiles for calling them to appear for interviews. Hence treating such social networks seriously and filling in all the details should be a high priority. Video resume is still in its nascent stage and has yet to catch the imagination of the recruiters and therefore, you can safely ignore it for the time being.

The final advice is to keep updating your resume regularly as in this volatile economy and world of uncertainties; you may never know when the right opportunity strikes at your door.

Author Bio:

Saurabh Tyagi is a career author with good experience in writing articles for leading online blogs on topics such as professional resume writing. He also offers career advices to beginners related to various industries.