At some point of our life we all need a resume. Having a resume that is well organized and reflects your personality design wise is important because your resume is the first impression the employer gets of you. Companies are always looking for candidates who will go the extra mile, so make your resume look the part. Great resume may not land you the job but it will help you to get to the interview.
1. Make your resume clear and easy to read
This is essential since employers often receive ton of resumes and quickly want to find the details that matters to them. The best way to clarify your resume is to divide your information into columns and sections and use clear stand out headings.
2. Things to include in your resume
The key information you should have in your resume are:
Name and contact information
The employer needs to know who you are and how to contact you if you get invited to an interview. Include your contact information on all the pages; cover letter, resume pages, portfolio and references (provide references in the interview).
Profile and Qualifications
Under your professional profile/objective section you should tell what is your relationship to the position. Sell your skills in few sentence. On top of that you can also list your highlights and qualifications with bullet points.
Work experience
You don’t need to list all past work experience, only list 3-4 relevant positions including your present job (if any). Each work experience should include: company name, city and state, position you held (list the highest position if you got promoted), employment period, brief description and/or bullet list of responsibilities.
Education
College and special training in usually enough. Remove references of high school if you have college credits. Put work experience before education if you have more than 5 years of work experience in a related field. Put education before work experience if you are a recent graduate or you are changing careers and have continued your education towards your new career objective. Academic and scientific professionals usually place education before work experience on their resumes.
Special skills
List skills related to the job. Knowing how to use Microsoft Word is a given so you should leave stuff like that out. Nowadays this is one of the most important sections of your resume, so feature all relevant skills in a legible format. Try to back your skills up and connect them with real life and work experience.
3. Use clean and professional fonts and consistent colors
You might be tempted to use a pretty cursive font but stick with clean and easy-to-read fonts. When it comes to the colors, it’s alright to use colors but stick with 1-2 or max 3 different colors.
4. Should I include a photo?
People get very opinionated when it comes to adding a photo on resume. If you are puzzled, take in to consideration 1. the type of job you are applying for (for actors and models appearance is a legitimate consideration for employment) and 2. whether it’s asked for or not.
There are also differences between countries: In the UK you wouldn’t attach a photo but in Germany or France you would. Many Asian countries as well include a photo on their resume. In the US and Australia it is not recommended or encouraged.
You might see lot of resume templates with a photo on them but the beauty of a fully editable resume template is that you don’t have to include a photo and you can get rid of the photo by simply hitting delete.
5. When do I need a reference page
Unless otherwise requested, references are provided in the job interview. Generally you should have 3-4 references and those seeking for senior positions should list 5-7 references. List your strongest reference first and make sure your references know that you will be using them as references.
Need help writing your resume?
Here are few helpful articles to help you with your resume writing
Land an Interview by Using Keywords in Your Resume
How to Write a Job-Winning Cover Letter
Resume Tips for Recent Graduates – Entry Level Resumes
Top Tips for a Successful Phone Interview
Resume templates
Nowadays you can find great resume templates in Microsoft Word and Photoshop formats that will make your resume crafting easier and faster. You can find our resume selection at Lime Resumes. The resume templates are fully editable, you can change colors and font, edit charts and remove elements that you don’t need. Take a look at our Resume Template selection.
Premium resumes
Still looking for that right resume template? Take a look at our complete resume selection. All of our resumes are easy to edit but they can also be customized to your liking.
