Do you have a love/hate relationship with your resume?
Resumes are intimidating - we can all relate to this. It’s intimidating to try to boil down your entire personality and experience to just a page or two of text. As recruiters, it’s our job to understand who you are after reading those pages highlighting your experience. We want to help you make the best first impression.
Resumes are important; they help you find your next exciting opportunity, so we’d like to give some tips about what we look for in your resumes to make the process a little less daunting and help you make your resume something you’re proud of! Here’s how to show your resume a little love...
Make it skimmable.
Your resume should be an easy read. Use consistent fonts, sizes, and other formatting. Make sure each section is clearly labeled. Are your margins even? The bullet points should be lined up. Don’t have too much white space, you might seem inexperienced, but also don’t have too much text, it will look cluttered.
Test it by having a friend glance at your resume for 5-10 seconds. When they look away, can they tell you the names of each section of your resume? If they can, yours is skimmable.
Make it relevant.
We don’t recommend sending out a “general” resume unless you have no idea what position you’d like to be considered for. Instead, take the time to make resumes for the different positions you’re interested in that highlight strengths relevant to the opportunity. When we read your resume, we’re looking for the buzzwords that indicate you could succeed in this role.
Test it by comparing your resume to the job description. Do you use any of the same words to describe your strengths? Are the “required” or “recommended” skills in the job description listed on your resume? If so, then it is relevant.
Make it intentional.
Your resume should tell a story. It can show growth in a particular area; it can show a change of passions. It can demonstrate a strong education; it can demonstrate a drive to work hard. Your story is your own to create, but make sure we can follow it. This makes you into a complete person, rather than simply some experience on a piece of paper.
Test it by comparing your resume to your your elevator pitch. Do you highlight your relevant experience with descriptions that showcase your qualifications for the position? If so, then it's intentional.
Make it error free.
It goes without saying, but resumes should have correct grammar and spelling. This shows attention to detail and makes the best first impression. Proofreading will also confirm that it is skimmable, because resumes are hard to skim when there are grammar or spelling mistakes.
Test it by asking a friend to look over it for you and suggest that they look closely and/or read it outloud. Once you’ve been working on something for a while, your brain no longer registers mistakes so getting another opinion can help! After they’ve made their corrections, and you’ve taken a break, you can proofread it to make sure the changes make sense. If everything looks ok, then it’s been completely proofread.
* * *
You officially have the knowledge, time to turn your resume into something you love and something you’d be proud to show off to a potential employer. We’d like to see your work as well! Apply for any open positions here.
Check out a sample of resumes we love!