For most people their resume is their primary branding tool. Therefore you should certainly approach resume writing carefully. But it is not that complicated….and as long as you don’t completely stuff it up, people will make an effort to read through it and extract the relevant info.
DO
1. Organise your resume with a backwards chronology and include all responsibilities, skills and achievements UNDER THE APPROPRIATE POSITION/EMPLOYER. Listing your skills and experience at the top of the resume, disconnected from the environment where you picked up those skills is not helpful. Then it is just an assertion, and the resume reader has now way to evaluate those assertions.
2. Put in plenty of detail about your achievements, preferably with numbers so that there is some kind of objective, quantified assessment of what you achieved.
3. Make your professional brand clear in your resume. The reader should be able to see that the job you are applying for is the next logical step in your career narrative. Rewrite your resume for the specific job you are applying for if necessary.
4. Do include the keywords from the job description. It could be that an HR person who does not understand your resume will be screening it, and they will screen by looking for keywords.
DON’T
1. Use excessive formatting, colour, borders, multiple fonts, strange layouts. Make everything clean, simple and black, unless you are applying for a creative role.
2. Put in a lot of personal information. A couple of words about your hobbies and interests is enough. A lot of personal stuff says high maintenance
3. Make your resume too long or too short. A front page with a career summary, then a page per 3-5 years of experience is appropriate.
Filed under: resumes
