They say a piece of paper cannot decide your future – clearly, a resume is not something they’d heard of! A good resume for an experienced candidate can not only decide your future but can truly make or break it. A great resume brings you one step closer to landing a job you’ve been eyeing. Identifying the best resume format for experienced professionals can be tricky. Lucky for you, we’ve got your back!

In this article, we are going to talk about writing a career objective and resume headline for an experienced professional and figure out the best resume format for experienced candidates. 

Important Segments In A Resume For Experienced Professionals

Let’s look at some of the important segments that make your resume stand out. 

Resume Headline 

A resume headline condenses your work experience, skills, and knowledge into one brief sentence. Things to keep in mind here are: Make it crisp, and avoid cliches. 

A resume headline for experienced professionals is like an elevator pitch for your actual resume. Here are four major components of your headline: 

• Results From Past Experience: A statistical achievement that is one of your best to date
• Domain Of Expertise: This provides context to the recruiter
• Associated Brand: If you’ve worked at a well-known company for 3 years, its best to mention that in your resume headline
• Adjective: One earnest adjective that describes you best professionally

Example: Results-driven Content Strategist with 5+ years of experience and 100+bylines. 

While you’re at it, remember to put in content that is true. It goes without saying – faking numbers or results in your resume is a big no-no. An authentic profile is more likely to be considered than a dodgy one.  

Career Objective 

Now that you’ve been in the industry for a while, you must have a good idea of your strengths and interests. This is what you need to include in your career objective. 

Although some experts say that there isn’t any particular need for a career objective for experienced professionals, it is a great way to summarise why you’d be a good fit for the role. 

Mentioning Your Work Experience

Your work experience needs to be mentioned in a way that creates a solid impact on the recruiters. Here are a few pointers to keep in mind when mentioning work experience as an experienced professional. 

• Your work experience needs to be mentioned along with the years of experience and a short description of each job. 
• Add relevant keywords for the job you’re applying to, along with metrics depicting the impact created by your work. 
• This description is not a CTRL C + CTRL V of your job description. 

The R-A-C Approach

The RAC method lets you explain your work in an impactful manner. The RAC method refers to Result – Action – Context.

This is how you can employ it to enhance your resume. 

• Result: This is the perfect opportunity to brag about your achievements. Make the most of it! Talk about the impact you made in your previous organisation(s) through the results you achieved. 

Take some time to figure this out. Your role might have merely been akin to a cog in the wheel, but it did lead to the completion of a bigger goal for the organisation. That is where your impact lies. 

• Action: Here, you talk about the precise actionables that you worked on that lead to tangible results.
• Context: Include the context of the problem you solved. This can also be done by mentioning the domain of work or the nature of work done by you. 

Example: Generated 50+ content ideas through team brainstorming sessions for social media handles of the company. 

Resume Format And Sample Resume 

The best resume format for experienced candidates in 2021 is the reverse chronological resume.

It has details of your work experience in reverse chronological order for the recruiters and the Applicant Tracking System (ATS) to skim through seamlessly. 

Attached below is an example of a simple resume for experienced professionals. 

Now that you’ve done your research, you can go ahead and make a resume that will make the cut and impress your recruiters. Keep these pointers in mind and you will be well on your way to sit for a virtual interview in no time! 

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