Do you find yourself shopping for a new job? Then you will need a resume. A resume is nothing more than a statement about your past skills and knowledge, but formatted into an easy to read way.
A resume is your personal business card, so this gives you the chances to write everything good about yourself - this may be one of the only few times socially it is acceptable to brag.
Skip using the pre-formatted templates in Microsoft Word or any other kind of desktop publishing software suite. These resumes focus too much just on what you ‘did’ at work versus what you can do.
You want your resume to be a complete reflection about you. A lot of times these resumes in Word leave very little room for you to talk about your outside personal life. What other kinds of activities do you spend a lot of time in? This helps expand upon what you really know and does not just define the kinds of technical tasks you did at your last place of employment.
Here is an incomplete list of tips you can use to create a quick effective resume without pulling your hair out.
Top 1. Put your name in bold and in 16 point font in the very top of the page and center it. Your name is your headline like in a newspaper.
Tip 2. Put your contact information right your name including an email address now. Many employers or recruiters rely on email to send information or request resumes.
Tip 3. Write an objective. This area seems to be one of the toughest for people to wrap their minds around. Your objective should be about a simple 10 word sentence or less. What kind of job are you applying for? Are you applying for a teaching assistant at your local school district? Then just write: “Position as a teaching assistant at Wilson Elementary.”
This lets the employer know you are specifically seeking employment with them and also it personalizes your resume. It is specific to them. They are not on some mailing list of 100 other places you sent your resume out to. That is known as a broadcast mailing.
Tip 4. Open up a clean Word document. Now, begin brainstorming everything and anything you have ever done in the past including jobs, volunteer opportunities, vacations, schools, classes, and so on.
You are looking for certain skills that may be useful to your potential new employer through your various experiences. Your experiences are proof that, yes, you can do such and such.
Previous Experience: You played the piano for 7 years while a kid and now want to get a job as an executive assistant.
Skill: You learned how to type in grade school at the same time and have the ability to move your fingers rapidly across the keywords. You can type 75 words per minute. This is a skill backed by proof through experience that you can do what you say you can.
Tip 5. Spell check, spell check, spell check. There’s nothing worse off than sending a resume to an employer without combing through your resume with a fine tooth comb.
Ask 3 or 4 friends and relatives to read over it. Also, take a break from your resume mentally for two or three days. When you take a break and look back at it later, there are many things that will jump right out at you that you wouldn’t have noticed before. Maybe you need to change the way something sounds or you think of new ideas to add.
Your resume is a living, working document. When it comes to job hunting, look at the description of the job. Is there a skill you can honestly perform that is listed in the description? Write that into your resume and use a few of their words. By using their language you are giving them exactly what they want and your chances of getting the job are higher.
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