5 Helpful Resume-Boosters To Give You A Career Edge

It’s true to say that a resume isn’t always a puzzle you have to solve with only one answer available. Different employers will look for different things. One might not care that you managed a restaurant because you’re working in an entirely different career now, while another may find that detail essential.

Of course, you’re looking to stand out among your candidate competitors, but that doesn’t mean you’ll automatically achieve a result if you find the perfect option. Sometimes, pure luck dictates your opportunities, you just have to be in the right place at the right time.

That’s why it’s important to consider your potential career edge and how to move forward with clarity. Doing everything you can to boost your profile or give you the competence you need when you need it is a good start. In fact, there are a number of resume boosters that could help you take the next step, and in this post, we hope to offer five suggestions for getting there:

Master A Second Language

Sure, learning a second language and becoming fluent in it to the point where it’s a professional aid is hardly something you snap your fingers and achieve. That being said, second languages are absolutely worth your time to invest in. 

You would be amazed at how many businesses value this skill, but it can also put you in a prime position for governmental positions or other more public roles, too. Being able to connect with, negotiate alongside, and translate people from different languages can make such a massive difference. It also shows a robust approach to learning that almost anyone would prize. 

So, if you have the chance to learn, or you have an old tongue you haven’t kept up with but could certainly reawaken, you may be surprised by the professional benefits involved.

Gain Leadership Experience

Having a kind of leadership experience to hand and that you can prove is often a fantastic place to start. Even if you acted as an interim manager in your workplace, that can help a great deal. Gaining leadership experience can also provide transferable skills from one place to another, even if they’re not connected to the particular field you’re applying for jobs in.

Maybe you volunteered to coach your child’s sports team, or perhaps you’ve managed an inner-city busy kitchen simply because you were understaffed. It all counts, and you’d be surprised just how relevant this can be to your current working priorities. Make sure to emphasize the tasks you focused on, how you managed people, and what changes you made in that position. It all has a positive effect.

Volunteering Matters

Volunteering shows that you have a good heart, but it also shows you’re willing to go the extra mile without necessarily being compensated for it. Sure, that’s not something you should just accept when negotiating a salary, but it does mean that you’ve put your best foot forward and show that when you care, you really will take responsibility for tasks.

Such experience also shows that you’re not afraid to be part of something important or to take on responsibility, be that cleaning up your local park as part of a conservation group, helping to feed the homeless, helping your child’s school with school trips as a chaperone, and more. Volunteering experience within your sector can help, also. If you’re applying for museum jobs, for example, acting as a volunteer for large events show your dedication to the heritage sector and beyond.

First-Aid & Care Practices

Learning first aid skills can be a fantastic booster for your resume. This shows you’re willing to go out of your way to learn new skills that are arguably the most important you could ever have. Not many professional skills outside of the medical field allow you to save a life, but most anyone can learn first aid and yes, you could potentially be in that situation one day.

Moreover, having this skillset is sometimes required, because within offices health and safety protocols stipulate that a certain number of people on-site should have first aid experience. If an employer doesn’t have to pay to send you on that course, well, it might just make you seem like a better option compared to a similar individual. You can begin by learning vital skills such as AHA CPR, which is enjoyable to learn and could have a significant effect one day.

Curate A Web-Hosted Portfolio

If you’re hoping to make it in any particular creative space, it can be helpful to have part of your platform online. This way, you can easily refer possible employers to your online portfolio that you build over the years for the better.

Curating a web-hosted portfolio this way can also help you alter it depending on the job you’re going for. You might highlight your copywriting pages over your graphic design pages if opting for that kind of job. You can also use testimonials from any freelance work you’ve done to help solidify your web presence.

Moreover, employers like having a simple resource they can browse when needed, as opposed to opening a Google Drive link or otherwise collating the resources themselves. You can always add a password to your website if you’re looking for privacy, even just using your name can help you prevent web crawlers from promoting your website to people who wouldn’t see it in other circumstances.

With this advice, we believe you’ll find the best possible balance of extra skills and experiences you can use to boost your resume in the best context. Note that not all of these skills or measures will be perfect, nor will they be the only answer to every single job.

But at the very least, it will show that you’re proactive and happy to add additional tasks, accreditations, qualifications or capabilities to your professional capabilities. What more could a potential employer want? You can also rest easy knowing that you’ve done most everything that you can when applying for roles, allowing you to job hunt in peace.