Do Resumes Make You Crazy
Many people have a problem when it comes down to resumes, either they aren’t properly formatted, they have no experience writing in an objective or professional tone, or they just simply don’t know what information to put in there. This article will cover the basics to help you out and demystify resume writing for you.
Basic information
At the very beginning type your full name, address, contact number and email address. Double check your spelling and numbers, make the font larger and make sure this part stands out in order to be clear to anyone reading it.
The format
You should write down your objective, previous experience in the field you are applying for and relevant fields, education, relevant skills and any additional certifications and honors that are relevant to the field. You can see that the word “relevant” is used quite a bit here, that is because you should try and tailor your resume to the specific job you are applying for and not writing an autobiography that encompasses everything you have ever done in your life. So if you are applying for a management job there is no need to list your 6 years of piano lessons. The words underlined in this passage should be all caps and bold, aligned to the left, and the information should be presented neatly in a couple of rows of text or in bullet points.
The objective summarizes what you are looking for in the specific job in one sentence, while the other key points should be listed regarding their importance to the job. For instance if you have a fairly standard education, but have years of experience in the field, possess some positive innate or acquired skills (good people skills are innate, whereas computer skills are acquired) and have improved your knowledge through the years and gained some certificates, then you should start off by listing your previous experience, then moving on to skills and certificates, and leaving education for last. If you have had excellent grades, high level education with multiple honors, but lack work experience, then you should start off by listing your education and honors then work your way down to skills and experience.
The style
The most important thing is that you keep your resume short and to the point, the employer will have to go through a lot of resumes and you want yours to catch his/her eye. Being easy to read and precise are two important characteristics of a resume, as well as not being too modest about your skills and achievements – don’t lie but don’t hold back either. When you are finished, double or even triple check for errors in spelling and formatting – presentation is very important.
As long as you follow these basic guidelines and keep everything coherent, properly prioritized and relevant to the job you are seeking you can’t go wrong. You are your own manager here, no one else will tell the employers about your skills, accomplishments and good work ethics, so remember to put it all down – it’s not bragging if it is true.
Damian Wolf is an online strategist for mining jobs in Queensland website. He mostly works with prominent real Australian businesses in order to improve quality and visibility of a website.