Learn how to Write an excellent Resume

Regularly updating your resume is a wise practice, ensuring that you’re prepared for new job opportunities or potential career changes. In a competitive job market, how can you ensure that your resume stands out? How do you go about crafting an effective resume?

Fret not. We’re providing valuable resume writing tips suitable for various job seekers—from those embarking on their career journey and needing guidance for their inaugural resume, to individuals transitioning careers and requiring assistance in presenting their experience and skills as valuable assets.

Resume Writing Tips: Delving into These 6 Key Aspects

If you’re seeking guidance on composing your job search tool, here are pragmatic pointers to bear in mind when creating your resume.

1. Work Smarter, Not Harder

Prior to commencing your resume writing process, clarify the position you’re pursuing. Rather than indiscriminately sending out numerous tailored resumes (or, worse, employing a generic, one-size-fits-all approach), focus on one or two specific roles. This approach conserves your effort by minimizing the need for frequent resume customization.

Furthermore, this strategy enables contemplation of your career trajectory and prospects. Evaluate whether the prospective role aligns with your career aspirations.

2. Precision and Conciseness Matter

Among the resume writing tips, precision is crucial—especially for job seekers with diverse work backgrounds and a plethora of skills. After identifying a specific job position, tailor your resume to suit that role. Omitting irrelevant skills and work history that aren’t pertinent to the desired position avoids unnecessary elongation of your resume. Recognize that hiring managers are pressed for time, sifting through countless resumes daily; thus, it’s imperative that every component you include is relevant.

If you’re uncertain about which details to incorporate, especially when switching career tracks, reference the job description. Moreover, don’t overlook the importance of personalizing your cover letter to align with the targeted job position rather than your current role.

3. Eliminate Redundancies

Utilize of the pronouns “I,” “me,” and “my” is unnecessary. The context inherently involves self-reference, rendering these pronouns redundant. Furthermore, this practice economizes space, optimizing every inch of your resume—a document ideally confined to a single page. This conservation of space prevents needless wordiness that can detract from the content’s impact.

4. Prioritize Key Information Above the Fold

Given that many hiring managers tend to skim through resumes, job seekers should ensure that vital information appears above the fold, which constitutes the top half of the resume. This strategic placement increases the likelihood that hiring managers will peruse the details that distinguish you as an exceptional candidate.

5. Customize Your Template

Using a template as a foundation is acceptable; however, it’s imperative to regard it as a mere guideline. Refraining from modifying your template results in a lack of innovation and originality, conveying an absence of adaptability. Moreover, adhering strictly to a template may hinder your resume’s efficacy, as it might not effectively showcase your strengths. You are the best judge of your capabilities, so tailor your template to showcase yourself optimally.

6. Stay Current with Trends

One of the most critical resume writing tips is to remain current with ongoing trends in the field. Present resume trends place a strong emphasis on integrating technology and the digital realm. Some of these current trends encompass:

• Incorporating Social Media Profiles: An increasing number of hiring managers peruse prospective employees’ social media profiles to gauge their professionalism. Provide your profile links to save them the effort. However, exercise this option only if your profiles are curated and devoid of unprofessional content. If you deem your profiles unsuitable for professional viewing, set them to private.
• Including a Digital Portfolio: This is particularly relevant for individuals in creative domains. Supplying a link to your portfolio spares you the need to furnish a physical copy and seamlessly showcases your skills to hiring managers.
• Creating Mobile-Friendly Resumes and Documents: Given the prevalence of mobile apps for job hunting and the ease of checking emails on smartphones, craft a resume that reads well on mobile devices. This adaptation is especially pertinent if the hiring manager reviewing your resume is doing so on a mobile device.
• Prioritizing Visual Appeal: A captivating header can capture hiring managers’ attention. However, refrain from compromising legibility for aesthetics. Leverage visual elements judiciously, using them to highlight specific elements that warrant emphasis, such as notable achievements.
• Eliminating Outdated Sections: Some sections, like objective statements and character references, have become obsolete. This doesn’t imply you should discard your references altogether; interviewers and hiring managers may still request them when needed. Given that the provision of references is anticipated, including them can come across as presumptuous.

Resume Writing Tips: Selecting and Employing the Optimal Format

Diverse resume formats emphasize different facets; consequently, choose the most fitting format based on your objectives. We’ve delineated various resume formats along with scenarios in which they excel, aiding your decision-making process to determine which format aligns best with your needs.

Select a resume format prior to initiating the writing process; each format necessitates a distinct narrative approach.

1. Chronological Resume

A chronological resume presents your work history in reverse chronological order, starting with your most recent position. It showcases the various roles you’ve held over the years and is particularly advantageous for individuals with substantial work experience. However, it may not be suitable for job seekers with gaps in their employment history due to unemployment, breaks, or terminations.

2. Functional Resume

The functional resume is a valuable option for job seekers with employment gaps, as highlighted earlier. This format focuses on skills, responsibilities, and accomplishments from past roles. Notably, it omits specific dates, making it an effective choice for individuals with work history gaps. Additionally, it proves beneficial for those transitioning careers, demonstrating to hiring managers that your lacking experience is compensated by relevant skills.

3. Combination Resume

The combination resume amalgamates the advantages of both aforementioned formats. It details your roles and achievements chronologically, beginning with the most recent. This structure is ideal for candidates with diverse work experiences across various roles. To create a combination resume, emphasize your most remarkable skills, accomplishments, and responsibilities, followed by a succinct chronological overview of your employment history.

4. Targeted Resume

Targeted resumes are apt for individuals whose work history encompasses both pertinent and unrelated positions for their intended job roles. To employ this format, scrutinize your work history and group relevant experiences to prominently display above the fold. While you may list unrelated positions, the focus should gravitate towards the pertinent content.

Resume Writing Tips: Content Focus

Upon finalizing your resume format selection, it’s time to craft the content. Here are some tips to guide you through the various aspects of the writing process.

1. Design and Appearance

Strive for a balance between visual appeal and readability in your resume, as recommended in general resume writing tips. To craft a resume that rivals professionals’, optimize your use of visual elements to segregate different sections effectively.

Employ bullet points to highlight crucial aspects, such as accomplishments. Bulleted points facilitate swift comprehension (hence their suitability for pivotal information) and also break up lengthy paragraphs. Additionally, they incorporate white space that’s sometimes overlooked during resume design.

Achieving equilibrium in white space is crucial. Inadequate white space leads to visual congestion, while excessive white space yields sparsity. Excess white space also means sacrificing valuable resume real estate that could serve alternative purposes.

2. Storytelling

An essential principle in resume writing tips is to remember that you’re telling a narrative. Therefore, when composing your resume, adhere to the storytelling axiom of “show, don’t tell.”

Integrate powerful words to describe yourself, revealing facets of your personality. Incorporate skills and responsibilities pertinent to the job description. However, these words hold little value devoid of corroborating evidence.

Hence, consistently interlace your accomplishments while describing yourself. Rather than merely stating “efficiently managed inventory for three years,” opt for the more impactful “achieved a 20% reduction in stock checking time in 2020.” Don’t hesitate to include quantifiable figures and data to bolster your claims. Be sure to retain documented proof of these accomplishments.

Furthermore, don’t shy away from taking credit for accomplishments during past roles. Refuting this notion is unwarranted. Nevertheless, avoid shouldering sole responsibility for collective efforts. Not only does this compromise your integrity, but it also neglects your ability to collaborate—a trait highly esteemed by managers.

3. Work Experience

When it comes to work experience, job seekers should primarily include relevant positions. This is particularly important if your work history is extensive and diverse. The most recent and pertinent roles should be showcased prominently.

However, there’s an exception to this resume writing guideline—career shifters. Individuals transitioning to new fields might benefit from incorporating seemingly “irrelevant” roles. Some skills acquired in different contexts can translate well across industries, such as soft skills like communication. It’s crucial to demonstrate how these “unrelated” roles contribute to organizational growth.

4. Education

The education section is traditionally placed towards the end of the resume, especially for those with established work histories. Nevertheless, if you’re a recent graduate from a prestigious institution, positioning your education near the beginning can be advantageous. Conversely, if you possess unconventional experience, such as volunteer work or event management, it’s better to position that before your education.

Constructing the education section is straightforward. Detail your degrees and any honors received. If relevant, include dates and your GPA. Don’t forget to mention ongoing courses or degrees.

In this section, you can also incorporate relevant training sessions and completed seminars.

Additional Resume Writing Tips to Remember

Before finalizing your resume and sending it out, take these additional aspects into consideration:

1. Utilizing Keywords

Many companies now employ applicant tracking systems (ATS) to scan resumes for specific keywords. While companies may not disclose the exact keywords they’re seeking, job seekers can mitigate the guesswork by analyzing the job description. Often, keywords in the description are what the ATS will target. Ensuring you’ve incorporated relevant keywords is essential for getting your resume noticed by hiring managers.

2. File Formats and Clear Filenames

Storing files solely in the .docx format isn’t advisable due to potential formatting issues. To maintain your design’s integrity, it’s prudent to save a PDF version alongside the .docx version. However, some ATS can’t parse PDFs, so having both formats is beneficial.

Regardless of the format, name your file clearly with your first and last name and an indicator of its content, such as “resume” or “cover letter.”

3. Sending the Resume with Proper Attachments

Ensure you include all required documents when submitting your application, adhering to the instructions provided in the job listing. For physical copies of your resume, maintain crisp quality and ensure the paper is untarnished, unfolded, and unblemished. Presenting a well-kept physical resume conveys your attention to detail.

4. Crafting an Appropriate Cover Letter

Cover letters can significantly impact your application’s success. A well-crafted cover letter can set you apart from the competition. Align your cover letter with the job description, showcasing your qualifications for the position and your enthusiasm for both the role and the organization.

If you’re uncertain about writing your own, you can refer to our article on creating an effective cover letter.

Resume Composing Tips: Create Your Own or even Consult an expert?

Having reviewed our resume writing tips, you should now be equipped to craft an impressive resume on your own. However, if you still harbor doubts about your writing abilities or believe that an expert could enhance your chances even further, there’s no shame in seeking the assistance of professional resume writers. But how do you choose the right consultant? Which service is truly worth your investment? How can you distinguish genuine resume services from the rest?

Fret not, as Best 10 Resume Writers has compiled a comprehensive list of the best professional resume writing services for the year 2023.

Once you’ve submitted those meticulously crafted resumes, the next step is to ensure that you excel in potential interviews. To this end, it’s essential to prepare a comprehensive list of do’s and don’ts prior to your interview. We recommend perusing our advice and utilizing the tools provided for effective interview preparation, which can help dispel any interview-related apprehensions.

If you’re considering seeking guidance from professional interview coaches, we’ve also curated a list of the finest interview coaching services. Armed with these insights, you’ll be better equipped to master your interview and secure that coveted dream job!