This is a quick overview of resume tips and best practices.
Your resume is a marketing document showcasing how you could contribute to the company if hired. Accomplishments and impacts are what sell you to a company.
First and foremost, you want the resume to be reader friendly, easy to import into a company’s system, with a clear file name. Use word or a PDF, name the file with last name, first name, and resume (Smith, John –Resume) If you are trying to keep up different copies you can add something to distinguish at the end.
- Do not use borders, boxes, fancy headers, or pictures; keep it simple to import and visually clean.
- Unless you are changing career directions, avoid having an objective. Do lead with a short career summary and briefly highlight 2-3 of your biggest accomplishments.
- Don’t say things like team player, work well on own or with groups, self assessments don’t add value.
- Don’t list a group of accomplishments before your job history. It is important to show impact in each role by having achievements tied to a job.
- Start with the most recent job and title first.
- You may want to note something about the company such as revenue, public or private, below the company name in a short paragraph. You can talk about the reporting structure, how you started working there, and other details that don’t fit well in a resume.
- Use bullet points; do not write paragraphs to explain your role or accomplishments.
- If you have been with a company that was merged, combine dates up front and notate; don’t make it look like you changed jobs.
- Make sure your dates are accurate and match your LinkedIn profile.
- Titles do not always reflect what you really do. I have known a lot of managers that report to top management that would be a director of VP elsewhere. Be clear about your reporting structure.
- Include staff size and scope, budgets, and revenues.
- In each role impact and achievements are what sell you, show impact in every job. Did you save money, grow revenue or improve profitability, come up with ideas that were utilized, processes, software enhancements.
- Avoid redundancy; do not list the same thing over and over in each job. Avoid using the same words over and over. Mix up your phrases and look at an online Thesaurus to find different words to use.
- Do not use I.
- Make sure you are consistent with punctuation and usage of capital letters.
- Proof read it, then have others look it over.
- List industry software utilized at the bottom.
- Volunteer experience is good to list if applicable. Belonging to industry groups should be reflected.
- Prior to education, list any certifications and relevant training if you have not already incorporated them.
- No hobbies unless they are relevant to your industry, marital status, or references listed.