7 Tips for How to Write a Professional Resume
It’s no secret that if you want to land that coveted new job, you need a professional resume to get you in the door. Your resume is essentially your first impression to a potential employer. It will be the deciding factor in whether or not you even make it in the door for an interview. So, you better make sure you resume stands out from the crowd and leaves an employer wanting to know more!
To help you write a professional resume on your own, here are seven tips you should always keep in mind. These tips will help you land interviews time and time again so you can finally secure that dream job of yours! Check it out…
1. Cater Your Resume for the Employer & Industry
Are you handing out the same exact resume to every single job you apply to? Hate to break it to you, but you’re doing it wrong! You need to cater your resume to the job and the industry you’re applying for. Why? Different jobs and different industries will require various skills and experience and you should highlight the qualities of yours that most appeal to the job in question.
Not only do you need to tweak your skills and experience for each job you apply to, but you will also want to consider the style of resume you are using. Some jobs will require longer resumes, while others don’t want to see a resume that’s longer than a page. All of these things are important to keep in mind, which is why you need to change up your resume for each job you apply to. It really can make all the difference!
2. Put the Most Important Information First
This goes hand-in-hand with catering your resume for the job and industry you’re applying to. You need to figure out what would best sell you on the job you want. Is it your years of experience already working in the field? Or is it that you have strong skills that would make you a valuable asset on the job? Whatever is most important, put that front and center on your resume. This is a sure-fire way to make sure it gets seen!
In many cases, people immediately put their previous work experience at the top of a resume. There’s nothing wrong with that because it can work out well for certain jobs. However, what if you don’t have the right work experience for a job, but you have all the skills they require? List your skills first so people can see exactly what you’re capable of doing for them.
3. Share Your Accomplishments
Odds are, you have done some pretty impressive things in your previous jobs. You should be showing that off on your resume! Instead of just sharing your job descriptions in your employment history, take it a step further.
When you list your previous employers and the positions you have held, include a job description. Then, kick it up a notch by sharing what you did while on the job. Show off your accomplishments in a way that will be relevant to any potential employers who will read your resume. They will see exactly what you were able to accomplish for other companies and know that you can do the same thing for them if they hire you.
4. Keep It Simple
There’s no need to include every single detail about your life on your resume. Potential employers don’t care about every job you’ve ever held. They don’t want to see an entire page listing all the awesome skills you surely have. Instead, you need to keep it simple. Focus on the employment experience and the skills that will be relevant to the job you’re applying for and impressive to the employer.
5. Format Your Resume for Readability
Take a look at your resume. Have you used any formatting such as bold headings or bulleted lists? If not, you need to change that right away! Why? Well, big blocks of text on your resume don’t look too impressive to employers. It actually looks a bit overwhelming and isn’t easy to read.
The truth is, people are going to skim your resume and you want to make sure you have formatted it for readability. You want to make sure you put all the attention on the most important features so they don’t overlook it. Use bold headings to divide your resume into various sections. Then, use bulleted lists to make sure everything is nice and easy to read. Bullet points are great because you can use short sentences that describe your work experiences, educational background, and your skills. There’s no need for long, run-on sentences on a resume!
6. Proofread it Twice (or Maybe Even Three Times)
Let’s face it. There isn’t much worse than handing over a resume that’s filled with typos, grammatical errors, and formatting mistakes. While you might not think it’s a big deal, it actually sends the wrong impression to potential employers. It comes across as sloppy and unprofessional. An employer wants to know that you are dedicated to putting your best work forward and a resume that’s sprinkled with mistakes does not give off that impression.
Before you print out your resume or before you hit send on that email, double-check your document for any errors. Triple-check it if you have to! It’s better to take those extra few minutes to make sure everything is correct before giving it to potential employers. Make sure you also check that your contact information is accurate, too! Otherwise, you just might miss out on the call of a lifetime.
7. Be Honest
In case it wasn’t obvious, the number one rule on how to write a professional resume is to never lie. At some point in your life, you probably believed this was an acceptable thing to do. Whether someone told you to fudge your resume to land a job or your saw your favorite TV show character do it, it’s a bad idea.
If an employer found out that you lied on a resume, it didn’t portray you as being trustworthy and honest. It just might get you fired if your lie was discovered after you landed the job! Instead, you need to honest about your experience and your skills. You don’t need to pad your resume with lies in order to land the dream job.
