A RESUME IS A BROCHURE DESIGNED TO MARKET YOU. It should be unique and true. When you first look at it, you should think “Wow, I’m good.” It also should lead an interviewer’s questions to your strengths
Keep these rules in mind as you create or brush up your resume.
- You should be cautious about who you share your resume with. Speak with any recruiter offering to represent you and understand all terms regarding your private information. Do not allow any third party to represent you without first telling who he will be sending your information to. Before sending your resume to a website or business understand their terms regarding your personal information. Always make sure everyone reading your resume knows they do not have your permission to investigate your resume without your permission.
- What your resume must contain
- Contact information. Your full name, the city where you live, your email address and phone number
- Relevant work experience. Most people choose to list their experience beginning with their most recent job. Don’t include everything you did in your past jobs. Instead, focus on achievements over responsibilities.
- Relevant skills and your level of mastery (for example, “conversational Spanish” or “familiar with Microsoft Excel” vs. “fluent in Spanish” or “expert at Microsoft Excel”).
- Relevant educational degrees or certifications
- Use as few words as possible
Employers need to quickly understand your work experience. Format your experience as a list of short, scannable statements, rather than writing out dense paragraphs. For example:
- Quantify your accomplishments whenever possible. Numbers and data bring your work experience to life and help hiring managers envision the potential impact you could have in their organization. When you can, back up your achievements with real data to boost your credibility and add informative detail to your resume. For example:
5 Use keywords that employers are using in their job descriptions
- To demonstrate your strong work ethic or accomplishments, consider using :Achieved, Capitalized, Deciphered, Discerned, Drove, Enacted, Endeavored, Established, Exceeded, Sharpened, Shattered, Sparked, Spearheaded, Steered, Stimulated, Supervised or Surpassed
- Instead of “duties included,” “responsible for,” “served as,” or “actions encompassed,” try: Accelerated, Accomplished, Analyzed, Assembled, Built, Founded, Created, Constructed, Delivered, Developed, Executed, Expanded, Finalized, Forged, Guided, Handled, Headed, Improved, Increased, Initiated, Implemented, Instituted, Produced, Reached, Simplified, Volunteered
- To illustrate your communication skills, try: Collaborated, Conveyed, Enlivened, Instructed, Performed, Presented, Spoke, Trained
- Proofread several times to catch typos and misspellings Unfortunately, a single typographical or spelling error is sometimes enough to get your resume discarded early in the game. Review your resume multiple times, doing a thorough line-by-line, word-by-word edit. Reading content backwards—awkward and time-consuming though it may be—is a great way to catch minor mistakes that you might otherwise miss. And an outside perspective is always a good idea. Ask a friend, mentor, or family member to review your resume for you before you begin submitting it to employers.