Today we’re going to take a closer look at our resumes and make sure that we are following all the rules so we got a call back next time we submit our resume for a job application. I spent many years working my resume and I reviewed it with career coaches and also with many executives that I’ve done informational interviews with and taken all their feedback and put it into my resume now.
In case you are reading this at work and can’t watch the video, you can read all of the great advice below instead!
I wanted to show you my resume because when I first started in the professional world, I found that very helpful to look at other people’s resume templates and kind of follow their templates especially if they’re getting calls back. I do get calls back on my resume so it’s a good template to use and I really want it to show you so you have something to go off. I really hope it helps you even if you don’t have resume, hope it helps you create one. If you do already have a resume, hopefully you’ll see some things that you can maybe add or take away on your current resume to make it even better.
- The first thing you’ll see at the top is I like to use a highlight section in order to grab attention. And I used words that help them put a face on my resume. I put in what am really good at and what my expertise is so that they know right away and they don’t have to look through my entire resume to figure out what I can do well at and how I could help their company. I also put my years of experience in here as well.
- Another thing that I do is brag of how awesome I am and that is what you need to do as well. I put in how well I’ve done on my blog because I want other people to know that. Now is not the time to be shy in your resume, brag about how awesome you are. And also you want to quantify results when every possible like cost-savings, productivity, you increase job satisfaction of employees and new higher intention, customer satisfaction, did you save the company thousands of dollars, if so put it on your resume. Right here I put, implement process changes the result within 90% on-time deliveries of communication systems to eight navy ships, put in numbers because that helps a lot. Also, make sure you answer the question “So, What?” If I would have just put, develop change strategies to provide an annual cost-savings of 2 million dollars to the government, and if I would have stop there I won’t answered the question so what? But instead I kept on going, meeting the navy’s budget, goals and objectives and that’s the so what and that’s so important. Make sure you add value to every company you worked for so every job you have listed on your resume you wanna make sure you show how you added value so that the new company can see how you can add value to their company as well.
- I also wanted to show you something I did not do very well on my resume. Right here where I say, I have established financial plans for clients including retirement insurance and tax planning. Well, that doesn’t answer the question “so what” because am just listing my responsibilities and not listing my achievements. Make sure you list your achievements not just the tasks and the responsibilities that you have. You also don’t want to list all your work experience on your resume just because you have it. If it doesn’t apply to the job that you are applying to you don’t need to list it. You also want to make sure that all of your bullets line up and everything looks very neat and organized. Look and see if every term is parallel. All the verbs, are in past tense. But, on the front page if you’re still working everything should be in present tense. You really want to make sure that everything is parallel. And feel free to add few extras to show that you are unique and memorable.
- When creating your resume, you wanna make sure that you look at the job description very closely and use the keywords that are in the job description. I highlighted on the sample job description all the keywords that I need to have in my resume if I want to submit this resume for this job. You should have different resume in different job application that you’re applying to because there’s different keywords that you are most likely need to include in your resume. Make sure everything in your resume correlates to this job that you are applying to. And make sure you have met the minimum qualifications and additional qualifications if possible. And those are always on the job description.
The Final Checklist
If you think you’re done, make sure you complete these last few steps before you submit your resume. These are really important and they are almost always forgotten.
- Have you had someone that you trust proofread your resume and provided you with their input?
- Have you proofread it one last time?
- Have you spell check your resume?
- Are there blank spaces that you can delete on your resume? And is it possible to condense it to just one page?
- Do you include any acronym that an average person won’t understand? You have to remember that your resume may go to HR first and so if you have a lot of acronyms that HR won’t understand, you need to make sure you spell them out.
- Think about your resume itself. Is your resume boring? Because your resume doesn’t have to be boring. Pretend you are hiring yourself, what type of resume you want to look at? And if your resume is just a list of things you hate to do, maybe you’re good at them but you just hate them if so you need to reevaluate the job that you’re applying to.
- Look at your resume and see if it’s easy to read.
What other resume tips do you have?
P.S. Make sure you check out my job search and networking checklists before you head to your next interview or networking event! Click here for my free resources.
