I hope you enjoy the below article. We will have . I encourage you to check out my book recommendation of the week titled, “Resume: The Definitive Guide on Writing a Professional Resume to Land You Your Dream Job.” This is a great starter book on resume writing which I highly recommend:
By Gary Jones, Owner of Pines Career Services. We offer Premium Resume Coaching and Interview Preparation at a discounted price. Contact gary@thepinescareerservices.com and please attach a copy of your resume if you are interested in individual sessions.
When writing, editing, and formatting your resume, there are quite literally hundreds of things to keep in mind. It can get downright complicated. Yet, there are some quick and easy steps to instantly upgrade your resume.
Here are 5 ways to immediately make your resume better:
1) Add a Well Written Professional Summary
A solid professional summary will not only make your resume better, it is an absolute “must have” to get your resume noticed by decision makers.
In fact, a resume without a professional summary will reduce your chances of getting hired by over 237 percent. Okay, I completely made that number up, but I bet it’s pretty close to accurate!
A professional summary demonstrates your skills, background, and offers a keen overview of who you are as a candidate. Plus, the reader simply will not take their valuable time to search all over your resume for key skills. They simply do not have that kind of time.
The information will be right there in your summary. Time will be saved and everyone will be happy!
For help with writing your summary, book a session with me at Pines Career Services.
2) On all of your job headings, add all of the following: City, State, Company, Job Title, Start and End Dates (month and year)
Properly detailed job headings are essential. I can tell you first-hand hiring managers are looking for these four items listed in the above title.
Here is an example of a heading with the correct details:
If any of these items are omitted, such as start month and end the month, the manager might have to guess “did they leave off the months because they have a gap?” or “did they leave off the location because they live 1000 miles from our job site?”
Eliminate the instances of having decision makers climb the deadly “ladders of inference” when they read your resume, and provide the details they are seeking in your job headings.
3) Add bullet points
Bullet points are helpful to anyone who views your resume. They should be in the summary, job headings, and sometimes in the educational, achievement or technical summary depending on the resume.
Adding bullet points organizes the information and makes the resume much easier to read.
One important aspect of bullet points is if you add it to under one job heading, you must add them to under all job headings. Continuity is key to your resume. It might appear you forgot to add bullet points, and it will appear inconsistent.
4) Nix the Objective Statement if you are applying for a specific job
Objective statements mostly not necessary since the advent of the online application.
Applying for a job, with an objective statement on the resume, is like a golfer telling everyone before their swing, “My objective is to hit this ball off the tee.” The objective statement is very redundant. It should be understood if you are applying for a position, that’s the position you want.
However, if you would like to add an objective statement to your resume when you are dropping it off at a job fair, forwarding it your network, it’s acceptable to have the objective statement since you are not applying for a specific job.
With that said, I am personally “anti-objective statement” across the board. I believe a job seeker can craft their resume to weave the implied objective.
5) Have someone proofread your resume for grammar and spelling errors (or better yet, book a session with an expert at The Pines!)
After I write this blog post, I am going to send it to my friend to proofread. He will reply back 30 seconds later and say it looks good. He probably won’t even open my link. He is a bad friend.
Have a better friend than mine or someone in your network review your resume for grammar and spelling (or if they offer additional suggestions, great). It’s essential to have another set of eyes review your resume. They can offer great feedback and help you along substantially.
And remember, you have a great friend here at Pines Career Services who can review your resume in a “One on One” setting and provide expert assistance on writing your resume.
I hope you enjoyed the shameless plug as much as I did.
Good day and Be Kind!
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