How much education will better sell my resume?
Education is so imperative to the employer that in some cases, this is where the resume reviewer first takes her eyes. For positions where the amount, quality and kind of education are central to the smooth and efficient execution of the functions, the qualification of the jobseeker assumes a role much more important than even relevant work experience.
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In a situation such as this, the recommended format of the order of items should be such that education is listed before the-all-so-important item, work experience.
In fact corporations that prefer virgins (used here to imply jobseekers who have never had any work experience) will only continue to review your resume provided your experience is a simple catalogue of holiday jobs and academic internships.
But where companies have a strict human resource policy and prefer real virgins, even the National Service experience, if executed in a typical industrial set up, may suffice to disqualify the prospect.
List only usefully relevant certs
The amount of education and corresponding proficiency certificates that a jobseeker lists under this heading is essential. As much as listing all the certificates one has worked for may seem such an exhilarating exercise, it is noteworthy to know that not all certificates have value to the employer.
In fact, some certificates actually dilute your worth in the eyes of the reviewer and predispose the latter to treating your document as a second fiddle and incapable of competing with the other best.
For instance, if you are a holder of a degree in biochemistry yet have gone to the banking college to collect a set of certificates that are almost entirely out of synch with your earlier certificates, unless the institution that is proposing to hire you first throws an aptitude test which you pass, you may miss being picked by the resume sorting officer.
Where the sorting is carried out by a software whose intelligence has been psyched to recognise some set of words in the resumes it is screening, you can be about sure that the filtering software will fail your resume.
However, if you hold a degree in mechanical engineering with an option in plant but wish to help heavy equipment dealers in your country sell their machinery, a certificate in marketing and sales will act as a positive tipping point for your resume.
When products are highly technical in nature and with vast degrees of sophistication, employers prefer to hire engineers or persons with advanced knowledge in the commodity. But because the advanced degree is only a necessary but not a sufficient qualification, the jobseekers with some fundamental background in sales and marketing will tend to lead the way.
If the job setting is such that the ideal candidate is expected to repeatedly fall on the skills obtained at formation level only, certificates that are a proof of such skills, no matter the numbers, will be of serious relevance. This is where professional certificates, as distinct from academic ones, serve their relevance better.
If you were reacting to an employment announcement in which private carbon credit companies were seeking to hire a lawyer with a background in environmental sciences and a working knowledge of carbon credit business, candidates with backgrounds in agriculture science, environmental management, botany, agricultural economics and related fields would be hotly sought after.
In that case, certificate proofs of knowledge in these areas will be a plus for the professional law holder-candidate.
In the above example, job prospects who list certificates in areas as itemised above, including the law certificate will have a better chance relative to the ones whose lower certificates were in disciplines inconsistent with the technical background knowledge.
The listing of technical and professional certificates on your resume is the right catalyst for securing a job provided that success at the vacant position requires such practical competencies. When you hold a degree in computer engineering but without any technical acumen in C++, Java, Python, Ruby and or PHP on your resume, you could spend a lot more months hunting a job if you want a vocation in computer programming.