Happy Monday, Sparxsters! We’ve already told you what not to do when creating your resume (“Building Your Resume: What NOT to Do“) as well as how to keep your resume on life support when you don’t have a job (“5 Ways to Build Your Resume When You’re Unemployed“), but what we haven’t shared with you yet are actual tips on how to best write one.
Since Monday seems to be a good day to get things done, why don’t you carve out a few hours today to work on putting it together. That way you can go from thinking, “I’ll get to it tomorrow,” to “I just finished my resume!” It’s not as daunting as you think. I’m sure by now you already have some form of your resume written, and if you don’t, join the CareerSparx course right now for an easy “how to” guide. (Hint: It’s in the first lesson!) But today I’m going to give you some added guidance on how to bring your resume from average to A+!
1) Less Tasks, More Achievements
As you’re writing your resume it’s a good idea to keep it active. Nobody wants a lazy employee, and nobody wants to read a resume that explains in minutiae detail how you updated spreadsheets and organized files. What a potential employer does want to know; however, is how you took your tasks and turned them into achievements. Maybe all your job did consist of was updating spreadsheets and organizing files, but think to yourself, “What is the result of this?” Maybe you created a new spreadsheet system for storing your company’s public relations contacts, or maybe you found new software on the Internet (for free) that helped your company go paperless. Either way, make sure to highlight your accomplishments while in an internship or past job versus the not-so-exciting daily tasks.
2) Think Twice Before Creating an “Objective”
Maybe while you were in high school they taught you to create an objective on your resume. (Let’s hope they didn’t!) If so, it’s time to realize that old school of thought is just that — antiquated! It’s time you scrape that lame objective off your resume and create room for more valuable real estate, like the fact that you interned at not one, but four different companies while you were in college, or that you organized a team and raised $5,000 for the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life. This is what a potential employer wants to see. They could care less if you hope to someday “strategically promote developing businesses across multiple platforms.” What does that gobbledy-gook mean anyway?
3) Relate Your Experience
You know how sometimes you can be driving down the road and that perfect song comes on and you think, “This is exactly how I feel. I could have written this!” In a nutshell, you related to that song. The same type of tone should exist with your resume. You want the employer’s needs to relate to your experience. It’s easier to do than it sounds. Really, all you need to focus on is how to take your work experience and translate those skills on paper to what the job requires. For example, if the job needs someone who is organized, demonstrate you are organized by saying that you created deadline schedules for press releases, sent packets to media contacts and followed up with them — or how you helped your boss stay on budget with daily reports. These are all just examples, and of course you shouldn’t say these things if you weren’t in public relations or if you didn’t actually do them, but you get the point. Show that your experience can relate to the needs of the job you are applying for.
Finally, don’t forget to format your resume consistently, proofread (more than once) and turn the final product into a PDF (“The One Resume Step You Can’t Forget“). By following these three tips you will be ahead of the competition, and before you know it your friends will be asking you for resume help!
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