Resume Tips and Tricks
Building a resume isn’t easy no matter what stage of your career. I’ve had the luxury of reviewing hundreds, if not thousands of resumes throughout my careers. Here are some easy tips and tricks to writing a strong and marketable resume:
Use a Professional Email
Eliminate that outdated email you created during high school or college. Reserve it for spam or for signing up for websites that bombard you with advertisements. It is advisable to choose a simple email address from a reputable email provider. If possible, create an email account that incorporates your name. To avoid random numbers at the end, consider including a reference to your career path in the email address..
Examples:
firstnamelastname@email.com (MattPleasant@email.com)
firstname_lastname@email.com (Matt_Pleasant@email.com)
firstnamemiddleinitiallastname@email.com (MattsPleasant@email.com)
firstname_middleinitial_lastname@email.com (Matt_S_Pleasant@email.com)
firstnamelastname_careerpath@email.com (MattPleasant_Planning@email.com)
You get the idea.
Resume Design is Essential
The average time a recruiter looks at your resume is 7 seconds. No, it’s not fair at all. So make your resume stand out and grab their attention long enough to make them read it. Have your resume easily readable and able to pick out important achievements within 5 seconds. If you use color, make it count. Use it to bring the readers eye to something important.
Back-up Your Achievements With Quantifiable Data
Showing you increased sales by 30% by improving a specific process is much more valuable than just saying “gained sales by streamlining process.” Do this as much as possible.
Tailor the Resume to the Job
It sucks but you should always tailor your resume and cover letter for the job you are applying for. Have a “FULL” resume that has literally everything you’ve ever done (mine is over 5 pages) and then tailor it down from there.
1-Page vs 2-Page
Keep Resume to 1 page. 2 pages if lengthy career and ONLY if you can cover over 1 ¾ pages without “fluff.”
