AmyIn an increasingly competitive marketplace, sometimes sit really can come down to the little things that we often overlook in the resumes, such as awards and achievements, that can make a big difference.
The awards and achievements listed in the resume might be the final factor that can get the student a callback from the job interview.
But just having an award or two on your resume isn’t enough for hiring managers. You need to know what awards are actually important to employers, and how to list them in a resume, to actually get noticed.
While some job seekers may want to include every award that they have ever received in a lifetime of school, work, and extracurriculars, other applicants are a little hesitant to tell their life stories in their resumes.
The best advice lies between these two views: include awards that are relevant to you and the job post.
Awards that provide clear evidence of experience or a skill relevant to your target job will help you to stand out. But you have to be critical, selective, and detail-relevant when it comes down to deciding which awards to include.
This is especially true in our fast-paced world. The latest resume trend is job seekers writing a specific resume based a particular area of expertise, instead of a general professional summary rolled into a one-page resume.
This resume-writing article covers:
1. Exactly how to list awards on a resume
2. How to describe them in a relevant way to employers
3. List of common awards and recognitions to list in a resume
You should also know that while this article is primarily aimed at resumes for students, recent grads, and other professionals at all stages of their career, it also covers specialist professionals in academia, the medical industry, and STEM.
An award is a general term for a broad range of official recognitions on a professional, academic, or personal level. There are many types of awards that a job seeker could have, but not all awards will be relevant for you and the job you’re applying for.
When deciding what awards to include in your resume, bear in mind that not every award needs to be listed. In general, only include awards and other recognition if these provide evidence of experience or hard skills that potential employers may be looking for. For example, if you received a ‘Team Player Award’ in recognition of your collaboration skills, you may consider omitting this unless at an early stage of your career (when you are more likely to seek ways to add grit to your resume).
The same advice goes for common awards that are no longer current, such as the Employee of the Month recognition you received more than five years ago. While the Boy Scouts of America Silver Buffalo Award from twenty years ago may seem attractive to include because of its recognition of national-level noteworthy or extraordinary service, it will be of little interest to a potential employer if you are a mid-career level professional.
When thinking about what awards to include in your resume, don’t forget that some awards don’t actually have the word ‘award’ in their title. These may range from the above-mentioned Employee of the Month (which often drops the word ‘award’) through to Dean’s List. What you ultimately decide to include in your resume, however, will depend very much on your job, industry, career level, and available page space.
Author Bio: Amy is an experienced student counselor, working on behalf of the platform Myassignmenthelp. He is dedicated to writing My Assignment Help Reviews for students.
Apart from that, Kevin is a passionate freelance photographer and motivational
speaker living in Sydney, Australia.
