10 Resume Tips
Not sure if your resume is helping you in your job search? Read the below tips to help improve your resume.
- Use a professional email address.
This tip is the most important due to that if a recruiter sees your email address and sees that it’s something rude or silly your application will get rejected 76% of the time.
So, if you haven’t already done so, ditch that email address that you created back in high school. Choose a professional email provider like Gmail or Outlook for creating a professional alternative. Use your name.
Right:
Wrong:
- Make sure your contact information is up to date
Before you hit send on that application double-check your resume. Is your contact number correct? Is your suburb on your resume, correct? Or is it still listed as an address in Western Australia, and you have moved to Victoria.
- Use reverse-chronological order
This means starting with your most recent job listed at the top and working your way back.
In your education section, put your highest degree first.
If your experience section is all jumbled it can be hard to read where you have previously worked and also identify if you have had any gaps in your employment.
- Align your content to the left to make it skimmable
When a hiring manager first receives your resume, they are going to skim it for relevant keywords that relate to the job you have applied for.
Aligning your text to the left makes this easier and makes your resume more presentable.
If your current resume is written in the middle of the page go back and move it to the left.
- Choose an attractive and readable font
You may think that resume fonts are the least of your worries, but the right font is going to do a lot for your resume.
Right:
- Verdana
- Arial
- Helvetica
Wrong:
If you choose a font that is hard to read or childish, a hiring manager might toss your resume in the bin.
- Comic Sans
- Papyrus
- Curlz MT
- Only add jobs you had in the past 10-15 years
You do not need to list every single job you have ever had. Only list the past 10-15 years and make a note that if the hiring manager would like, you can provide further experience on request.
- Give your sections simple subheadings
In any resume layout, you choose, make sure your resume sections are visible and easy to find.
You can do that by giving them simple subheadings.
Right:
- Resume Profile
- Experience
- Education
- Skills
Wrong:
- About Me
- Accreditations
- Professional Background and Work History
- Name your resume file properly
This is a *pro* piece of resume advice: it is important to name your resume files properly.
Right:
- John_Smith_Resume
Wrong:
- Resume2021
Your resume will end up in an inbox with hundreds of other resumes. For a chance to have your resume stand out from the others include your name in the file name.
- Cut the fluff in your experience section
Is your resume longer than the ideal one to two pages length for a resume?
Then start taking out the not-so-important bullet points in your experience section.
If your resume is longer than at most 4 pages the hiring manager may not read your resume or they may miss the important items in your resume due to being at the back of the long resume.
- Write explanations for large gaps in your career history.
If you happen to have significant gaps in your career history, write a brief explanation in-between positions where the gaps occur.
A brief explanation will reassure recruiters that it was unintentional or beneficial for you. As in the case of a layoff or a break to have a child or go back to school.
Bonus Tip!
- Clean up your online presence
While creating your resume is an important part of your job hunt. You may forget that now that technology and social media have a big presence in everyone’s lives. This means that a hiring manager may search for you online to ensure that if they were to hire you that you would be a good representation of someone that works at said company.
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