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Cross Pollination
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Building Your Resume
7:48 PM | Posted by
Nicole Martin |
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| Source |
This week I will be reviewing a couple friends’ resumes, so I figured that I’d give some of my tips. Keep in mind that this is from an HR perspective, and I have not worked in every industry… so some industry specific tips may not be listed here! All I can guarantee is that if you follow these rules, your resume will be among the strong! :)
Use an Effective Format
While writing your resume can be an overwhelming ordeal, it is really important that the overall format is clean and easy on the eyes. The general format that you should follow is:
- Name and contact information in the header
- Short profile explaining who you are in a nutshell
- College education, keeping details like coursework and clubs to a minimum if you have more than 3-5 years of work experience
- Finally, list your experience in reverse chronological order
Also, a plain font is a readable font… a crazy font will certainly catch a recruiter’s eye, but it will probably give him/her the impression that you are not taking the process seriously.
It’s All in the Details
Here is probably the most intense part of resume writing! I have always found it helpful to do a brain dump of your experience and skills, and then walk away for at least a day. Then, when you’re fresh again, start organizing into coherent phrases. Be sure to consider all the skills necessary for the jobs you are applying for, which means carefully reading the job descriptions. You can also elaborate on the details of your experience as long as you don’t lie. In other words, try not to generalize and instead give as many details as you can without going overboard. Finally, keep your resume concise by focusing on relevant experience only. This may mean that you will have multiple resumes.
Beyond the Resume
Keep in mind that today, a resume is just one tool to help you sell yourself in the marketplace! It is helpful to have a couple “extra curriculars” as support to the work experience you list on your resume. This can include participation in professional associations to maintaining a blog. Read more from Lenny Zeltser.
But this is just my two cents… Do you have any proven resume tips? If so, please share them here!
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