Employers and recruiters receive hundreds (sometimes thousands) of resumes each day. While Job Seekers are competing against other applicants for the same job, they also only have less than 10 seconds to catch their readers’ interest to review their profile further. Here are a few Do’s and Don’ts tips to maximize your chances in those precious few seconds!
Do’s:
1) Highlight Relevant Achievements
Relevant and tangible achievements are clear examples on how you can become a great addition for an employer and the value that you can bring value to the team.
2) Show Relevant and Transferable Skills
It is important that you tell prospective Employers all about the skills that you’ve gained in your experience and you want to showcase how these skills can be put to good use if you joined their team.
3) Experience in Reverse-Chronological Order
Your current or most recently work experience is what Employers are most interested in. Employers want to know what you are doing now and if they like what they see, then will they look at how you got to where you are today.
4) Relevant Education and Professional Development
Most jobs have some level of education or professional development requirements. Make sure you show all your education and professional credentials with clear dates of completion. You gave your time and effort to complete your education and development, make sure they go to work for you now.
5) Simple and Easy to Read
You want to format your resume in such a way that there is a natural flow from one section to the next. Do not try to fill all the white spaces and fit as much information as you can. Sometimes less is more!
6) Proofread
Spend the time to read over your resume and make sure that there are no typos, spelling / grammar mistakes, or conflicting dates / information. Have someone else read over your resume because sometimes a fresh set of eyes can catch errors that the writer simply overlooks.
7) Use Keywords
With all of today’s technology and automation, companies have automated keywords searches set up to quickly scan through resumes to identify potential candidates. Make sure you review job postings and include keywords in your resume.
Don’ts:
1) Incorrect / Missing Contact Information
Remember, no matter how great your experience is and how impressive your resume looks, if the person reading your resume can’t reach you because your contact information is incorrect or missing, you will never be contacted for that next dream job!
2) Personal Information and Photographs
Keep it Professional. There is no need to include your photo, age, sex, height, weight, marital status, religious affiliation, or other personal information that is irrelevant to the position. Companies prefers not to have such information to avoid the possibility of being accused of discrimination.
3) Inconsistent Formatting
When updating your resume, most of the time you are not rewriting it from scratch. You are simply adding to what you have written in earlier versions of your resume and this would involve lots of copy-and-paste. Make sure that your font style, font size, line spacing, point bullet styles, indents, and other formatting styles are consistent throughout.
4) Missing and Errors in Your Dates
While it is important to highlight your education, professional developments, achievements, and experiences, it is just as important to know when you completed these things and the duration of it. Don’t leave your readers guessing and make sure that the dates do not conflict with each other.
5) Excessive Length
There is no absolute rule of how long a resume should be, but with hundreds of resumes passing through a recruiter’s desk each day, they may avoid someone’s lengthy autobiography. Avoid rambling on irrelevant details.
6) Overuse of Creative Fonts and Images
Creative fonts and images are not what captures your readers’ attention. Sometimes these things are a distraction from what you really want a recruiter or employer to see, and that is your experience and skills.
7) A Generic Objective Statement
Having a bland and generic objective statement is worst than have no statement at all. Remember, you are trying to stand out from the rest of the playing field, and not be categorized as the same as everyone else.
8) The “One-Size-Fit-All” Resume
There are no two jobs that are the exactly the same, so the resume that you use to apply for each job shouldn’t be the same either. Sending the same generic resume for every job can put you at a disadvantage because you may not have highlighted your skills and experiences that are most relevant to each job.
By keeping these few tips in mind when writing your resume, you will maximize your chances and give your best first impressions to prospective Employers when they read your resume.
Contact us today to speak with one of our Recruitment Specialists and let us help you find new opportunities for the next step in your career!