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As a freelancer, you don’t have the same experiences as someone in a big company. For a start, you can’t be promoted since you are already at the top of your own business! But this doesn’t mean that you can’t create a resume that isn’t just as effective. In fact, for freelancers, a humble resume is just the thing to give potential clients a taste of your skillset, experience, and talents.
What constitutes the perfect resume? First, don’t fret about making it so distinctive that it’s barely recognizable. Using a great resume template as a base is a fine starting point, but if you want to showcase your design skills, you can make some alterations.
Crafting Your Resume Overview
- Highlight your niche: Showcase your area of expertise and how it can benefit your potential clients.
- Showcase your portfolio: Include links to your best work samples and highlight your accomplishments.
- Highlight your unique selling points: Showcase your unique skills, experiences, or personal qualities that set you apart from other candidates.
- Keep it concise: Keep
your resume to one page and only include relevant information. - Use keywords: Include industry-specific keywords to help
your resume stand out to potential clients or employers. - Showcase your education: Highlight any relevant degrees, certifications, or courses you’ve taken.
- Include your contact information: Make it easy for clients to contact you by including your email, phone number, and website (if you have one).
- Customize for each job: Tailor
your resume to the specific job you’re applying for to show your relevance and fit for the role. - Include references: List references or testimonials from past clients to showcase your credibility and experience.
- Proofread and edit: Review
your resume for spelling, grammar, and formatting errors, and ensure that it’s visually appealing and easy to read.
Here are a few other ideas to get you started.
Use Keywords
One of the most important aspects of a resume. Some employers actually use bots to spool through the number of resumes they receive but even if they don’t, people tend to skim through the text to find what they are looking for.
Looking to craft the perfect freelancer resume? Check out our latest blog post for ideas and tips to showcase your skills and land your dream clients! #freelancer #resumetips #jobsearch #careeradviceClick To TweetIf you aren’t sure whether you are using the right keywords, Jobscan is a great reference point. With a list of 500 keywords to browse and a scanning tool that compares
“The problem with these hundreds of identical resumes is that all of them look alike, like clones. Moreover, some of them are almost as annoying as spam messages, which have miraculously gotten through a spam filter. How to observe the rules of business etiquette and make
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Keep It Brief
A resume should be a single-page document that covers as much as possible but this doesn’t mean that you can ramble on. You need to be as efficient with the space available as possible which means that you need to curate the details you include and be as brief as possible everywhere else.
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Unlike a CV,
Be Confident
It’s important to remember that
If you’re unsure how to convey confidence without coming across as arrogant, start with the facts. Include quantifiable results and explain how you achieved them. Also, mention if you worked with a team or built upon someone else’s work. After all, great work often involves collaboration and building upon the work of others.
Tell a Story
While you may not have space for a long-winded poem, a concise story of problem-solving can showcase your expertise. As a freelancer, highlighting your ability to spot areas for improvement and provide solutions can impress potential clients. Choose from a range of stories to showcase your skills and entice your next client.
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Bringing personality to a resume can be quite a challenge in so little space but there are a couple of methods you can use. For example, even if your cv will be read by a bot, it should still scan well to a human being. Writing in your own voice is a good place to start and a more conversational tone is appropriate in most situations now.
Call to Action
Finally, every resume should come with a call to action at the bottom of the page. This might be a link to your website which contains much more information about your work and experience but it might simply be an email address and an offer to get in touch.
If a potential employer doesn’t have anywhere to go immediately after reading your resume, you are increasing the chances that they are going to stick in their filing system and never return to it. The easier you can make it for them to continue researching you or get in touch to set up a meeting, the more likely they are to do it.
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