As students near the end of their
school days, it is important for them to update their resumes, and stand apart
from the rest. A resume that is formatted the correct way, with information
displayed in an easy to understand manner, the chances of receiving a call for
an interview are increased substantially. Since I am no headhunter, I found
some extremely helpful tips from forbes.com, and encourage everyone to follow
what is suggested.
- Avoid the fancy-schmancy layout, font, and other special effects. Stick to traditional font of Times New Roman, 9 to 12 point size, and black type against a white paper. You might try a different type size for your name and the companies you have worked for, perhaps your title. But try to be consistent. Go easy on boldface type, italics, and underlining.
- Prepare it in a simple Word format that can easily be viewed on most computers. Not a table format or template.
- Use a reverse chronological order. List your present, or most recent job, first, and then work backwards. You state the complete name of the company you work for, or have worked for, and what they do, how long you were there–month and year. Then list the position you held and your accomplishments. You don’t have to use full sentences. Begin with verbs. “Managed company tax reporting, finance, invoicing, purchasing,” for example.
- Get rid of objectives and summary and all that silly stuff. It’s all fluff. An employer doesn’t care about your objective. He cares about his.
- Skip personal information such as married with three kids. Sounds stable to you. But to a hiring authority looking for someone to travel, it may keep you from being interviewed.
- Stories sell. Numbers, statistics, percentages get attention if you put in bold type. Increased profit by this 28%. Came under budget by 30%. If you were born and raised on chicken farm, note it on your résumé.
- Fuzzy key words and phrases should be avoided. These include customer-oriented, excellent communications skills, and creative. These words lack meaning and do absolutely nothing to help you get an interview.
- Use words that refer to titles- customer service, controller, manager, accountant,
- Get the photos off your résumé. You are looking for a job, not a date.
Good luck with the job hunt!
Great post.
ReplyDeleteI can agree with some of the tips you posted, but I have seen some of them work for the applicants advantage many times before.
Not all jobs are the same, some are a little more creative than others, this is why I believe that changing up the font to make it look a little more appealing than the others could catch the employers eye. Keeping it the same as everyone else's could be a good idea sometimes
Also, I do admit that adding a photo is quite tacky, but I have witnessed two applicants being hired at two different jobs because the employers were able to put a face to a name after conducting over 50 interviews. Not all resumes should have a picture, but sometimes I do believe that it can be appropriate.
The third point that really caught my attention was "cutting out the objectives". Yes it adds fluff, but I thought it was standard? Every resume should be different and altered to each location a person applies to. What if the applicant is really interested into working their way up and staying there for the long run, don't you believe this is a strong objective to add? Its just my opinion!
Thanks for the Tips!!
Whoops! Forgot to add the website where I found the tips from.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.forbes.com/sites/kerryhannon/2011/08/24/want-an-unbeatable-resume-read-these-tips-from-a-top-recruiter/
if you want to continue reading!