Five Tips for Resume Writing

By: Sam Miller

You need to find a new job. You know you do. But that means you need to create/update your resume, and nobody wants to do that! With these five tips, working on your resume will be — dare I say it? — easy!

1. DON’T include every job you’ve ever had.— Unless, of course, every single job you’ve ever had is relevant to the position you’re applying for. But, they’re most likely not all relevant. For instance, I worked as a camp counselor, at McDonald’s, and at Abercrombie & Fitch when I was in high school. But, now I’m working as a content developer. None of those previous jobs were on my resume because I’ve since had job experiences that were comparable to the position I applied for. Your potential employer doesn’t need to know every place you’ve worked for. Just the ones that are applicable to the job you want.

 

2. DON’T embellish!Sure, you want to sell yourself. However, you shouldn’t sell yourself by lying to make it seem like you’re qualified for a position that you’re not qualified for. If one of the job requirements is five years of experience in a field you’ve never worked in, don’t waste your time applying.* If the only requirement you don’t have is experience with Microsoft Excel, though, you should take the time to learn Excel (YouTube videos are a Godsend!) and then add it to your resume.

 

*If you think you have the skill set to do the job you’re applying for and it’s something you really want to do, it can’t hurt to apply. But don’t lie to yourself about it, and don’t try to lie on your resume to get the job.

 

3. DO highlight relevant skills.If you’ve worked for a company that gave you a lot of experience in many different areas, but only half of what you did for them is relevant to the position you’re applying for, only include the half that’s compatible. The company your applying for could have thousands of applicants sending in resumes. They don’t need to hear about skills you have that don’t matter to that position. You sell yourself better when all of what your selling matters to the person you’re trying to sell it to.

 

4. DO keep it to a page.If you follow tips one and four, you shouldn’t have a problem keeping your resume to a page! You want to impress the company you’re applying to as quickly as possible, so make sure you’re really only including what’s necessary.

 

5. DO ask a friend to review it.Whether that friend is in the field you’re applying for and can give you helpful tips on how to improve your resume, or he/she is just proofing for any errors or typos that might cause you to automatically be eliminated from consideration, it’s always a good idea to have an extra set of eyes review your resume. You could always seek help from companies geared toward resume writing if you still feel like you need more assistance and you don’t know who else to ask.