Written by Olia Lantier, Director of Consulting
There are many recommendations out there for resumes and truthfully, there is no right format or right answers when it comes to resumes. I’ve taken some workshops on resumes and had an internship at DKCNews where the Executive Vice President; John Griffin, spoke to us and gave us a few tips and tricks. Based on my own knowledge and some tricks from John, here are some suggestions:
The Header
The first thing at the top is your name. You should make this a decent size because you want employers to remember you who are. Underneath your name or somewhere near it you should include your address, contact information (number and email), and a website if you have one. Something else that’s good to put on a resume is your LinkedIn. Over the years LinkedIn has become a resource used by almost every company you could think of, so its inclusion can never hurt.
Sections
Underneath the header your resume should be organized into different sections. Typically sections are featured in the following order and include: experience (in your field), student organizations, other employment, and any volunteer work. However, which sections matter most for you all depend on your experiences and formatting them best to show how might benefit the specific company you apply to. You don’t need a whole bunch of sections, sometimes it helps to keep it simple with education, relevant experience, extracurriculars and employment.
Avoiding The “NO” Pile
If you really want to stand out from the crowd, here’s a list of ideas to make sure your resume isn’t in the “I don’t want to look at it again” pile:
- Tense is important when it comes to writing resumes. If the job is current, make sure you use present tense, and vice versa. (draft vs. drafted, create vs. created)
- Use first person, not the third person (but don’t use personal pronouns).
- Employers are looking to see if you have attention to detail and a good writing ability.
- If possible, show off the impact you had in your previous positions by using metrics and KPIs
- It’s highly recommended to create different versions of your resume for each application, however at a minimum you should ask others for feedback and update yours regularly.
Position Descriptions
Bullets should start out with action verbs like, “Led, collaborated, researched, etc…” The only tip here is to try to avoid using the same verbs. Try not to use one more than a few times. When you are talking about what you did, be specific. An example of a project you worked on is so much better than a vague overview of the internship/job. Two bullets is too few and six is too many. Give them your best ones, and move on to your next experience to tell them what great things you did there! Facts and Figures are also always great. Example: if you worked on a special project and you have data to back up your findings, employers always love to see that.
The Little Details
A summary statement is a little bit of a step up, but again, not necessary. Always send your resumes as a PDF. Otherwise, they can get distorted through Word or other softwares. Soft skills and certifications are great to include on the bottom if you have lines to spare. Try to keep the same type of format and grammar throughout your resume. This includes simple things like the same spacing or putting dashes in the same pattern. Lastly, these little details are all very important to get right but keep in mind that a resume is only looked at for about 3 seconds. So the overall formatting, design, and order to the positions are extremely important in making your first impression.
Mistakes To Avoid
Don’t make it longer than one page. Don’t misspell anything…but actually read it over and over. Have someone else take a look at it for you with fresh eyes, just to be sure you make all the corrections and changes you didn’t catch. FYI, Everybody uses Times New Roman, and moving away from that trend in order to express your eye for design is a good idea that might make you stand out from the crowd of resumes.
There are of course so many other tips and tricks that can benefit and perfect your resume, but these are a good few basics to start out with. The most important thing is make sure you are showing the employer who you are, with great grammar and punctuation. This is your chance to let them know why your skill set is the best fit for them and just how passionate you are!
Happy Valley Comm 