Resume Writing Tips
- Use Titles or Headings That Match The Jobs You Want.
- Use resume designs that grabs attention.
- Analyze advertisement for job description and identify the key words.
- se these keywords in your resume.
- Identify the employer's hidden needs. Solve these hidden needs in your resume.
- Create an image of yourself that matches with the salary you are expecting. For example, language used in a resume for an $6 an hour position is much different than the language used for a $16 an hour position.
- You can generate many more interviews by tweaking your resume and cover letter so that they address the specific skills each employer requests.
- List your technical knowledge first, in an organized way. Your technical strengths must stand out clearly at the beginning of your resume.
- List your qualifications in order of relevance, from most to least. Only list your degree and educational qualifications first if they are truly relevant to the job for which you are applying. If you've already done what you want to do in a new job, by all means, list it first, even if it wasn't your most recent job. Abandon any strict adherence to a chronological ordering of your experience.
- Quantify your experience wherever possible. Cite numerical figures, such as monetary budgets/funds saved, time periods/efficiency improved, lines of code written/debugged, numbers of machines administered/fixed, etc. which demonstrate progress or accomplishments due directly to your work.
- Begin sentences with action verbs. Portray yourself as someone who is active, uses their brain, and gets things done. Stick with the past tense, even for descriptions of currently held positions, to avoid confusion.
- Don't sell yourself short. Your experiences are worthy for review by hiring managers. Treat your resume as an advertisement for you.
- Keep your resume concise. Avoid lengthy descriptions of whole projects of which you were only a part.
- Minimize usage of articles (the, an, a) and never use "I" or other pronouns to identify yourself.
- Have a trusted friend review your resume.
- Proofread. Your resume should never go with errors, grammatical weaknesses, unusual punctuation, and inconsistent capitalizations.
- Sometimes you need to hide your age. If you're over 40 or 50 or 60, remember that you don't have to present your entire work history!
- You can simply label THAT part of your resume "Recent Work History" or "Relevant Work History" and then describe only the last 10 or 15 years of your experience.
- What if you never had any "real" paid jobs? Give yourself credit, and create an accurate, fair job-title for yourself. For example, A&S Hauling & Cleaning (Self-employed) or Household Repairman, Self-employed.
- Best way to impress your employer is, fill your resume with "PAR" statements. PAR stands for Problem-Action-Results; in other words, first you state the problem that existed in your workplace, then you describe what you did about it, and finally you point out the beneficial results.
- Don't go far back in your work history. About 10 or 15 years is usually enough - unless your "juiciest" work experience is from farther back.
- How can a student list summer jobs? Students can make their resume look neater by listing seasonal jobs very simply, such as "Spring 1996" or "Summer 1996" rather than 6/96 to 9/96.