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Posted by Will on 28th July 2010
Here are my top 3 quick tips for writing a good resume: (I learned these from a cool guide I found about writing resumes. Click here to check it out)
Be Clear And Concise - There's nothing worse than a resume (or cover letter for that matter) that waffles on for ages and ages. Don't pad out your resume with junk and loads of buzzwords. Just stick to the facts. Use short sentences and don't bore your reader with long paragraphs about every minor detail of your previous jobs. Just include the most important bits so people can skim read your resume quickly. Use Verbs A Lot - Use verbs to engage the reader. Words like "Managed", "Organised", "Led", "Designed", "Developed" and so on at the beginning of sentences show the reader that you're good at your job. Verbs are much more exciting to read than long sentences: "I was in charge of organising XYZ", or "The team management was handled by myself...". Plus they're way more short and concise just like the first tip says! Spellcheck, spellcheck, spellcheck! - There's no excuse for spelling or grammar errors in your resume. We all make mistakes from time to time (I bet there's a few on this website!) but when you're submitting a professional resume it's got to be perfect. Use your computer to automatically check spelling and grammar, then print your resume out and read it over. Give it to some friends to read too, they might see stuff that you didn't.
Writing good resume doesn't have to be hard. Just take your time, research as many resume writing tips as you can and don't expect to get it perfect the first time around.
90% of a successful good resume writing is about targeting your resume to the job you're applying for.
A big problem for recruiters is that most people write one resume and then send it out to as many jobs as possible. This means that the resume might be too general and vague, and might not "connect" with the recruiter very well.
For example, say you've got plenty of experience with restaurant management and you're applying for a retail management position. If you don't target your resume properly they might just see "food", "restaurant" and think you used to be a waiter and throw your resume away!
Pick Out Your Best Bits
You might have loads of experience in loads of different fields. If you try to cram all that onto a single piece of paper, it's going to confuse hiring managers who read it.
Be clear about what skills and experience you have that specifically make sense for the job you're applying for. Highlight your best bits and you'll have a much better chance of success.
You've Got To Do The Hard Work For Them
Imagine you're a recruiting manager at a large company. You've just put out a job advert, and now your desk has been flooded with hundreds of resumes.
How are you going to pick the best applicants?
You're going to quickly skim read all the resumes and look for certain key skills and features that match the job advert, and then bin anything that doesn't meet the criteria. Right?
So, write your resume as if you're answering the job advert as a series of questions. Highlight the parts of your work and education history that are required or necessary or helpful for the job. Rise to the top of the pile by writing a good resume. Easy!
How can you start writing good resume if you've got no experience or work history? You might be a young person fresh out of college or university, or you might be a stay-at-home parent who's just getting into work, or you might even want a career change.
There are 3 things you can do:
Show Passion - I had a friend who applied for a job without any relevant experience. He sent in his resume, then followed it up with a phonecall. On the phone he told them he had no experience but he was keen to learn and would work hard. Guess who they hired? That's right, they hired him. Passion counts for a lot when you're applying for jobs. Take Up A New Hobby - You can gain lots of work experience in your spare time by learning stuff at home or in evening classes. Lots of new skills can be picked up in a few hours a week for very little money. Hobby experience might not be counted as heavily as paid fulltime commercial experience, but it shows passion and that counts for a lot! Volunteer - Go round to companies and offer to work for free. This gets you valuable experience, and you might even get a job offer at the end of the volunteer period if you really put the effort in.
Having no experience shouldn't hold you back. You just have to want it more than the next person. With enough passion and some hobby or voluntary experience, you'll be surprised how much more seriously companies will take you.
Posted by Will on
If you want more tips to help you write a good resume, I'd recommend checking out 'Rocket Powered Resumes'. It's a pretty cool guide to writing good resumes written by a former hiring manager who used to read resumes in his day job.
He saw a lot of good and bad resumes, but more bad than good! He decided to write a guide to better resumes so people had more chance at getting jobs they wanted.
The only thing that's wrong with it (in my opinion) is that it doesn't provide any sample resumes. But actually that doesn't matter so much because he tells you exactly what to put in your resume so you don't really need any samples for writing a good resume.
On the plus side though I think if you email him he'll have a look at your resume and give you advice on it. Anyway click here to check it out - it's really good!
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