While you might feel confident about the current draft of your resume, there is always room for improvement! Everyone has a different way they create and revise their resume, so there are many paths you can take while tweaking it before attaching the final draft to job applications. Spending extra time reviewing and editing it will increase your chances of getting the job you want!
Here are some simple ways to help you get the job and kick start your career!
Even if you are convinced that your resume is error-free, look at it again. If you can, ask a friend or a family member to read it for you. Believe it or not, it is easy to slip up and make simple mistakes on resumes that could prevent you from getting that job! Just because there are no little red lines underneath words, does not mean that your resume does not lack any mistakes. Try reading it out loud to ensure you corrected everything just to be safe!
Most college or university campuses have either online or physical resources to help prepare you for the job application and interviewing process! Whether this takes the form of various papers and brochures, a website, workshops, or an in-person advisor, make sure you take advantage of these free resources while you can.
There are many websites that provide free resume consultation! Sometimes you need to have yours looked at by a professional. They can make suggestions that you may not have thought of on your own! Employers are looking for any reason they can to eliminate you from the candidate pool so make sure you do not give them that chance.
Black is always a professional color, but if you only include black on your resume, it can become difficult to differentiate between the various types of information you included! Visually it will look like a black blob, and will not help you stand out from the rest of the competition. Make sure you use darker shades of your colors of choice to ensure your employer can read your information and still maintains the professionalism of your resume!
These little guys are a simple and effective way to break up large blocks of text! Whether you are summarizing the various things you did at your last job, or are trying to list your skills, bullet points are perfect! Use them to sell yourself and draw your future employer’s attention to what you want them to notice most.
What kind of role are you applying for? Are you applying for an internship, a job in your hometown, or something that could kickstart your career? Depending on where you are school-wise (high school or college), listing work experience like that babysitting job you had one summer may not be relevant to the job you are going after right now! However, if you do not have much work experience, list the least relevant roles you had at the bottom of your list.
Despite what you might think, not every single activity or role you have participated in or held is relevant to your current job search. Try to reduce your experience to the roles most relevant for the job you want! If you volunteered, involved yourself in community service, or had leadership opportunities, make sure you list the ones where you contributed the most. Be concise in your descriptions to ensure those reviewing your resume will not become lost or confused.
Unless the company you are applying to states otherwise or depending on what field of work you are trying to get into, keep your resume limited to one page. List your name and contact information, experience, education, skills, and more if necessary! While being concise is great, make sure you are not cutting out too much that makes your phrases and sentences incoherent. Keep it short and sweet!
Are you currently working a job or interning with a company? Make sure you have your current or most recent job or role listed first and allow everything else to follow. Organize your jobs by the dates you held them to ensure your resume looks more cohesive and thought out!
According to resume experts, future employers are looking for any reason not to give you the job. No matter how big the application pool is, you need to do everything you can to help yourself stand out! This is the time to think about the various tasks you did as a normal part of your jobs and see if there are stronger words to use to more accurately represent everything you were responsible for!
This tells employers that you have initiative and determination! If you were involved in a club and held one or more positions on the executive board, you prove that you are willing to put in the time and effort to see your organization succeed. They want to know what kind of worker you are and including leadership roles on your resume is a simple way to do that! Plus, it shows that you have passions and interests other than just school and work.
While this is not always the easiest thing to do, one of the best guaranteed to ensure you will get the job you want is to get more working experience! Whether this includes an internship, a job, or another opportunity, you can prove that you are qualified for the role you are going after and have the experience future employers want in a new employee. Always keep an eye out for different opportunities on and off campus to ensure you are setting yourself up for success after you graduate!
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