How to Write a Professional Resume

 

Whether you’re a graduating senior from college or someone who is looking for a job change, making sure that your resume is an accurate representation of your hard work and accomplishments is key to landing that interview. Here are some tips and tricks that will help improve your resume and confidence when finding your dream job.

Format: clear and simple

First impressions are everything, especially when it comes to resumes. Recruiters typically look at your resume for about twenty seconds or less. Therefore, your resume needs to look appealing and professional. You may want to make your resume stand out by filling it with lots of colors and fonts, but it is actually best to stick with a legible black font. Organize your resume by breaking it into sections such as: education, experience, activities, and skills. Under the experience and activity section, use about three bullet points to describe what you accomplished during that particular job.

Use relevant information

Recruiters are not going to care about your homecoming king or queen title and are not interested in your frozen yogurt shop job in high school. Irrelevant and outdated information do not have a place on your resume. Use your time in college to build up your resume by participating in organizations, pursuing internships, and taking on leadership positions. Try to fill your time with jobs and activities related to your desired field of work.

Content: more than filling up a page

Your work experience, activities, and skills are on your resume to showcase why you are the perfect candidate for the position you’re applying for. Don’t include “fluff” or irrelevant information just to make your resume appear longer. If you do not have a long list of accomplishments, then don’t sweat it! The ideal resume should only be one page, so there is no need to make it longer than it needs to. Make sure that the content that you are choosing to include relates to the position you desire. For example, if you are aiming to work as a salesman then list business related work.

Never underestimate the importance of a professional and well put-together resume. Hopefully these tips help you with your future endeavors!