Whether you’re a new college grad or an industry veteran, I highly suggest having a carefully crafted and kick-ass resume at all times. A great resume can be the difference between getting an interview or being overlooked for the competition. If you’re lucky, you have about 30 seconds to impress a recruiter and it’s vital that you make the time they spend looking over your experience worth it. Not sure how to create an attention-grabbing resume? Read on to find out the do’s and don’ts for building your best resume yet.
- Don’t make it about you. Focus on showing what you can do for them.
- Do show them what you’ve achieved. They want to see how you will bring results.
- Don’t make it more than one page (if you can). The key to a solid resume is to be concise.
- Do get creative. This could mean creating a logo for yourself or just switching up the format. Make yourself stand out but remember to always stay professional.
- Don’t have ANY typos. 58% of resumes are said to have had typos or grammatical errors. Print that bad boy out and have your spouse, children, neighbors, parents and pets proofread it.
- Do use data. If you created a new business plan that resulted in an increase of sales, list the results. Your future employer will be impressed.
- Don’t send it in the wrong format. With the variety of computer systems these days, it’s difficult to know which format (Microsoft Word, Pages, etc.) to submit your resume. Play it safe and send it as a PDF. This ensures your future employer will see it in the format you want them to.
- Do lead with action words. Leading bullets with action words like “built” and “increased” shows them you get things done.
Do you have any do’s and don’ts for creating a kick ass resume? Leave us a comment below.
