Things You'll Need:
- Your resume
- Microsoft Word or other program to edit your resume
-
Step 1
** Avoid spelling and grammar errors **
It is extremely important that your resume be free of any spelling and grammar errors! And that's because in the minds of employers, mistakes on a resume translate to mistakes on the job. And nobody wants to hire someone who makes mistakes!
Now you may be saying, "Gee, a typo isn't so bad. I'm a good worker, have experience and training, and would do well on the job." Yes, you may be a great worker. And have experience and/or training. But what you have to understand here is that employers are judging you by what you give them. And what you gave them was something that had errors in it. Errors that you either missed or were actually aware of!
If you simply missed it, then you didn't double-check to make sure it was accurate. Or did double-check and still didn't catch it. So either way, you don't look very good.
Now if you did know about your error(s), then that's even worse! And that's because you left the error(s) on there anyway. So you let them slide! To employers, this says you are accepting of mistakes on the job.
To employers, mistakes are not something that are to be simply glossed-over and tolerated. They are to be dealt with appropriately and quickly. In fact, the best way to handle them is to avoid making them in the first place. But if an error does occur, then you correct it as quickly as possible.
Remember, a resume is a very simple document to an employer. So if you can't even avoid mistakes on this, then you'll definitely make mistakes on something more complex. And that's exactly what employer's will be thinking! -
Step 2
** Word it well **
I've seen and worked on a lot of resumes over the years. And have run across many that looked very good on the surface. In other words, they were laid-out nicely, had the right info on there, etc.
But where they fell short was in the actual wording of things. Some were overly wordy and long. Others were too broad and less detailed. There were some that one couldn't understand because they were worded so badly. Or meant to say one thing but were really saying another.
My point here is that a great resume is one that's worded in just the right way. So really concentrate your efforts on improving your actual wording of your info.
Get each of your points across quickly and clearly! So "short, sweet, and to the point" is the rule of success. Remember, employers are very busy. So they won't spend lots of time reading. They want to make a quickie yes or no decision. You must play into this if you are to be successful!
No paragraphs! They're lengthy and take too much time. Plus, the words will all blend together after a while and I'll simply move on to somebody else who's easier on the eyes. Bulleted points are much easier to see and ready. But make your bullet points relatively short. No bulleted paragraphs!
The only place on a resume for a paragraph is your career summary, if you have one. And that paragraph should be short. 1-3 quick sentences is more than sufficient!
Make sure your wording says exactly what it means to. A good suggestion is to have somebody else look at it to see if he or she can understand what you mean to say. And don't tell them or give them any hint! Let them read it for themselves and see if they can understand it. If not, then you probably need to reword it.
And just so you know, the hardest part of resume writing is getting the wording just right. And in many cases, the ability to word things in just the right way comes from experience and one's own expertise. -
Step 3
** Watch your layout **
The first thing an employer is going to do is take a quick glance at the overall layout of your resume. In other words, does it look professional? The answer to this must be a 100% yes!
Even if you have a poorly worded resume right now, your layout must be great! If not, then you'll be cut out even before somebody actually took the time to read through it. So before I even begin reading your resume, I take a look at the overall look and feel of it. And if that doesn't look nice, then I won't even bother going any further. It'll be immediately put in the reject pile.
So what does a good layout involve?
(a) Readibility
I have to be easily able to read what's on there. So your text (font) size has to be large enough for me to see. And in my book, I provide a listing of minimum and suggested sizes to use for various parts of a resume. It's something you won't find in many other resources!
For example, never go below 10 pt! Doing that simply makes it pretty hard to ready without really looking at it very closely. And employers don't have the time to do that! Plus, to someone who's eyesight is less than perfect, it'll be much harder on their eyes. Remember, you don't know how good the interviewer's eyes are! For all you know, I could have 20-60 vision.
(b) Headings are clear
Here's one classic mistake that I discuss in my book. People will make their headings the same size and style as their info. No! Your headings must stand out!
And that's because an employer needs to immediately be able to tell where a section begins. So you must make all your headings stand out from the info within that section. That makes it visually very appealing and easier on the eyes.
(c) Have plenty of whitespace
This is another classic resume mistake that I've seen over and over again. The resume will have so much info on there that it literally takes up the entire page. In other words, it's one big page with tons of words and info everywhere.
This is very difficult on the eyes and is information overload. So avoid this at all costs! Instead, have some blank areas on your resume.
I've taken plenty of resumes that had this problem, revising them so they have more whitespace on there. And when you put the two versions side-by-side, the difference is very noticeable!
Many make the mistake of thinking you have to put everything on a resume. No! You only need enough to peak my interest. So leave some room on there.
