Ten Tips to Making Your Resume Work for You
Are you sure your resume is doing the best it possibly can for you? After seeing thousands of resumes from screening and checking out potential candidates for a wide variety of positions (e.g., production artists and designers, production managers, IT and HR professionals, salespeople, account managers, customer service representatives, accounting and finance personnel), I have put together what I think are the must-haves for building a great resume no matter the desired position or industry.
First of all, keep in mind that recruiters and/or hiring managers are generally looking for the following:
- Someone who is qualified for a specific position
- Someone who has the right aptitude and work approach for the position/company
- Someone who is a good fit for the company and team
- Someone who really wants the job
Your goal is to prepare a resume that can meet the above criteria and catch the recruiter’s eye quickly. Very often, those charged with hiring have a very limited amount of time to review individual documents. So, here are my ten tips to help ensure your resume catches the recruiter's attention and gets you into the shortlist for the job.{C}{C}
1. Choose a file name.
Always, always include your name in the file name (e.g., JohnSmithResume2011 or John_R_Smith_CV_Sales). Very often, the recruiters file away your resume in their databases so that they can look up the information again later. Recruiters may receive tens or hundreds of resumes every day. You want to make yours as easy to locate as possible.
2. Keep it short.
Stick with two pages max for your resume. Longer documents are used for very senior management and high-level recruiting firms.
3. Include up-to-date contact info.
Always put in your preferred phone number, as well as your email address. It is amazing how many resumes I have come across that have outdated email addresses or phone numbers. You can’t get an interview if the recruiter can’t reach you!
4. State an objective that shows your interest in the job.
Including an objective at the beginning helps recruiters understand if your needs match those of the position. In lieu of a cover letter, just looking at your resume can give the recruiters a clear idea why you are applying for the job. Be sure to customize your objective for the position rather than using a broad, generic statement (that’s a waste of space).
5. Include all relevant facts.
Highlighting work history and relevant experience is the next step. Emphasize special achievements and/or accomplishments to catch recruiters’ eyes. Numbers like percentages, revenues, staff size, leads generated, and other quantifiable results work best. List your strongest achievements and qualifications at the top of your resume. Provide your working experience from most recent to least recent job. Include the dates worked for each employer: recruiters and hiring managers look at that information to check the relevance and depth of your experience.
6. Avoid jargon or buzzwords.
Be direct. List your employment history, education and experiences as they are—facts. However, it is okay to use “power words” and “keywords”. Power words are adjectives to help you describe your achievements (e.g., “reduced operating costs significantly”). “Keywords” will be words that are targeted for the type of jobs you are applying, which is great if a company searches for resumes in resume database or scans resumes using software before being reviewed by people (e.g., “P&L responsibility,” “business development,” “team building,” etc.).
7. Present your accomplishments.
Remember, the purpose of a resume is to take you to the next step in the recruiting process. Highlight the accomplishments you are most proud of and the ones that you can talk about at length in the interview.
8. Be honest.
Do not lie or over-exaggerate experience. It is very easy to get caught. All of your information can be easily validated through the employment and background checks most companies use.
9. Only include what you can explain.
If you get to an interview, you are likely to be questioned on anything in your resume, so don’t keep anything in there that you can't talk about at length. If you don’t remember much about that project you did back in school, keep it out.
9. State your references.
If you are not including your references, always indicate that “references are available upon request.” Of course, you should have references up-to-date, let yours know that they may be called and make them aware of the type of job you are applying for.
6. Format your resume.
Spend some time formatting your resume so it is easy to read. Use one standard font like Times, Arial or Helvetica versus any fancy fonts. Don’t make it extra small because you are trying to fit too much detail on a page. It will only be distracting or even difficult to read. But it is okay to use headings, bold type, bullets or underlines to indicate special details to which you want to call attention (italics tend to be hard on the eyes).
10. Check and re-check for errors.
Proofread and spell check as many times as you need to. Typos and grammatical errors in a resume are no-nos and many recruiters and hiring managers will reject qualified candidates because their documents have these inexcusable flaws. Let a few family members or friends review your resume to make sure it reads well. All right, now. What have I missed? What should tip #11 be?
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