Creating a Killer Resume to Get Your Dream Real Estate Job

Creating your own resume and making it ‘great’ is not an easy thing. We generally don’t like to brag about our skills and often personally undervalue them particularly when changing careers. There are many things to consider when creating a great resume. We’ve written some top tips to get you resume ready for your dream job.

A Resume Format That Sells

When employers receive hundreds of resumes they can spend as little as 6 seconds scanning your CV to see if it makes the cut.  If it is not properly formatted and easy to read you won’t get a look in. Formatting is one of the most important steps of writing a resume. The two most popular types of formatting include chronological and functional:

• Chronological format is best used when you are staying in the same profession. It is a traditional format that lists your experiences from most recent to eldest. Resume Genius offer a good template here.
• Functional format is ideal for career changers. This is because it focuses rather on your skills than your previous jobs and allows you to highlight your most relevant strengths. Resume Genius offer a good template here. Career changers may also consider a combined resume with chronological and functional elements.

Have a career objective at the top of your resume to explain your future career direction and highlight your skills – reinforce why an employer should hire you. Keep your career objective to a minimum of three to four sentences.

Resumes are best saved in PDF formats as they are easily accessible on most computers and cannot be edited.

Get Personal In A Cover Letter

Always include a cover letter as this is your chance to expand and customise your career objective and highlight your skills specific to the job at hand. It is essential your cover letter is tailored to each employer! The Guardian suggest the following format for your cover letter:

• Name/contact details and including your LinkedIn url or online portfolio
• Use the job role title as the subject line your cover letter
• Your first paragraphs should outline why you want to work for the company and why you want this job. It should also highlight your strengths and value to the organisation.
• Then include any extras such as community or voluntary work, professional qualifications, testimonials, that are relevant to the job at hand
• Then summarise the key skills and areas of expertise and relevant work history
• Lastly mention any qualification specific to the role

Remember this is a cover letter and it should be in a letter format – it should enhance your resume with tailored highlights specific to the application not merely replicate it.

Sell your strengths and transferrable skills

Your resume is essentially your marketing piece of material about yourself. It is your chance to sell your strengths and skills to an employer. Rockport Institute suggests that your resume must show at least 70% of the advertised jobs requirements to have any hope of landing an interview.

We suggest:

• Read the job ad and look at what skills they are looking for, then look at your resume and list your skills that are similar from previous jobs.
• If you don’t have experience in real estate yet, that is perfectly fine – look at profiling your skills that would be involved in real estate. For example, a retail assistant may have skills in customer service, attention to detail and the ability to work under pressure. These are all skills a real estate agent needs and things that employers may look for in a resume.
• Add volunteer or community experience
• List your achievements in quantitative terms

Get creative and think outside the box when writing this section of your resume.

Be Prepared – First In Best Dressed

Don’t wait for the job advertisement to pop up to start your resume, be prepared by having your resume written and a cover letter template and update them regularly. Timing is everything. Role Ready suggests getting in before the 24/48-hour window is gone – this is the best opportunity to get your application in before the employer is flooded with candidates and takes the role down.  They are also the most keen to review applications at this stage.

Being prepared also includes doing your homework about the organisation in which you are applying for. This is your chance to:

• Review their website and social media pages
• Demonstrate you have good knowledge about the job and the organisation
• Use this research for insights and customisation when creating your cover letter

Follow up with a phone call after you have submitted your application to confirm if they have received it and also to personally introduce yourself and let them know how keen you are for the job and why.

Who Are You Competing Against

On average employers receive 300+ applicants for each job advertisement. That’s a lot of competition. Many employers are also now using resume automated screening – Resume Hacker suggest as many as 60% of all companies. To have the best chance of make it through one of these resume screening processes, have a good clear format and mirror any key words in the job ad – word for word.  This should at least get you to the shortlist allowing a real person to view your CV not a machine.

Consider Engaging Professional Help

A professional can help create a killer resume by extracting from you and focusing on the key elements employers are looking for. Once you make it to the interview stage you can then confidently sell yourself in person allowing employers to see your great personality first hand. If you’d like to engage a professional, we recommend Role Ready – the investment will be well worth it and just may land you that dream job.  Contact Role Ready on www.roleready.com.au or call 3388 6500.

Following these simple tips and use your successes from previous careers to demonstrate how you could be a great in real estate. Having a real estate qualification is also a great way to get noticed by employers. If you’d like to know more about real estate courses, contact Validum Institute on (07) 3193 57270 to discuss your options that will assist you in landing your dream career.