What should my resume look like?
TheLadders, a LinkedIn for professionals, had a lot to say to Business Insider on the topic of resumes. According to their research, an employer will consider a resume for only about six seconds. Here are seven tips to get someone to read your entire resume!
1) Brand yourself! However you choose to present your name, keep it consistent on every platform you use. If you have a particularly ordinary name, consider throwing in a middle initial.
2) An objective statement will always be too broad and corny to really help you. Besides, it’s a waste of white space! Instead, throw in an elevator pitch, which elaborates on your strengths, interests, and skills that the employer would consider valuable.
3) Reverse chronological order your work experience. It is easier for them to get to know the current YOU rather than your freshman self.
4) Know the keywords that apply to you. Companies that receive hundreds of resumes a day are going to first rely on technology to do some filtering. With that in mind, do not confuse the software with headers and footers; this also includes images, tables, and charts.
5) Space things out. Ever notice how the paragraphs in news articles are about 2-3 sentences long? That is because humans no longer have the patience to focus on a huge block of texts.
6) Under “work experience,” describe the company in about two sentences. This should also include its size and focus.
7) List your education at the bottom. Do NOT include anything from your high school years, unless you know it will benefit you.
More tips to make everything fit on a single page:
-Extend the margins.
-Remove pronouns.
-Write in the first person.
-“References upon request” is a statement they already know. Delete it.
BUT WAIT! What about those artsy resumes for artsy people trying to land arty jobs?
The creator of Google resume, Eric Gandhi, is a very strong believer in making your application aesthetically pleasing. He told Business Insider that the only negative reactions he has gotten were always from “a company that had a very old-industry culture.”
Hagan Blount, whose creative resume blew up the Internet, now has his own company to create interesting resumes for others. But he goes on to comment that “it’s not necessarily going to get applicants a job, but it might get them a foot in the door.”
Author: Lesley Rowland – Smartte Contributor
Sources:
[Business Insider article: http://www.businessinsider.com/why-this-is-an-excellent-resume-2013-11]
[Aritcle URL: http://www.businessinsider.com/12-people-share-whether-creative-resumes-really-work-2012-3?op=1]
