When seeking a job, the most powerful and essential tool you will need will be your resume or CV (curriculum vitae). It is basically a listing of your past work experiences, qualifications and a bit of personal information. Your resume will be what represents you in the employment market; hence will dictate how a potential employer sees you.

Due to this, it is vital that your resume is developed in such a way that only your best points are displayed. This article will talk you through the top 5 necessities that every resume should have.

When creating a CV ensure that it has:

1. A Targeted Format

There are a variety of resume types available in the employment market. It is vital that you select the best format that highlights your specific information, as well as the targeted position. Try to get it focussed on the responsibilities and skills that you will be required to fulfill and any skill or past experience you possess that will adequately fit that position.

2. A Value Proposition Statement

Your resume should have about three to four sentences that state exactly what your current focus is and your strengths related to the position. This will be your value proposition statement. This should not be confused with a personal objective statement, as you will be focussing on your professional strengths and not personal desires or aspirations.

3. Your Tangible Achievements

Your Tangible Achievements are a very critical addition to your resume, as you will not just be writing a mere list of the schools you attended, but rather showing your potential employer the skills you learnt along the way and how you used them in the real world. You want to show them how these skills will be useful to their organisation, as well as how it relates to the position being offered. It would also be good if you could show them how your skills could be used to solve any problem currently being faced in their organisation.

4. Keyword Optimised Content

By including certain keywords in your resume, you will be able to make it more visible when listing your resume on the internet. This makes you more accessible, as companies, from time to time, utilise scanners, which are basically internet spiders that search the net to find the resumes with the keywords that apply to their job posts.

This way, if you have a resume that is focussed on programming and you list the languages that you know individually, the potential employer can easily find your resume by running a search for keywords like -programming language, programming or any specific language they need you to know.  They highlight the required strengths you have that are related to the targeted position.

Read more: Top 5 Tips For Creating A Quality Resume