Are you confident in your ability to ace your job interview? While that may be crucial to locking up job offer, you'll never get the job interview if you don't wow them with your resume first. So how do you wow them?
Writing your resume, while being the key to a successful job search, shouldn't fill you with dread. You don't have to write the great American novel. You don't need to come up with some exciting and surprising plot twists. There are definite resume writing tips and techniques you can use to make your resume stand out in a large pile of other resumes.
You need to tailor your resume so that it highlights all the qualifications, work experience and any education that you've had that best represents the type of work you are applying for. You should also include any other work experience that you've had, as well as any accomplishments that you have made in your field.
While you want your resume to be formatted properly, as well as look very professional, it should stand out because of your qualifications and skills, not because it's in green calligraphy font on hot pink 11 x 14 inch paper.
Let's take a look at some crucial resume writing tips you should know to improve your resume. These are some of the things you need to avoid if you want your resume to stand out in a positive way.
* Don't leave out or try and bury crucial information that needs to be on your resume.
* If you have major gaps in your work history, it's best to address that right up front. This is probably something you'll want to include in your resume cover letter. If you just list your work history and there's a big gap of time that you didn't work, the employer is not going to call you and ask you about it. There are plenty of other resumes to look it. Yours will go in the trash.
* If you have a summary, make it short and concise. Employers and recruiters don't want to read your life story.
* Use a standard and simple font like Times New Roman, or Courier. Like I mentioned above, stay away from fancy fonts on your resume.
* Avoid writing your resume as a narrative. It should not be in the first or third person. Your resume will sell you as being arrogant or egotistical. That's not the way to get a job interview.
* No pictures or graphics!! No! No! No! Your resume should be text only. Period.
* I know this one seems obvious but you'd be surprised at what gets put on a resume. Do not lie on your resume. It will come back to haunt you. It may not be until well after you get a job, but it will happen.
* Forget about the trivial stuff, like hobbies. It doesn't help and it could hurt your job search.
* Don't use long paragraphs in your resume. Everything should be short and concise.
* Keep your resume length at two pages maximum. You don't have to worry about fitting your resume on one page but don't go longer than two. Everything you need to convey on your resume can be handled sufficiently in two pages.
* Spelling and grammar errors will kill you. Proofread and proofread again and then get someone you trust to proofread it as well.
Avoiding these resume writing mistakes will go a long way toward writing a resume that gets you a job interview.
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