Savvy professionals see their resumes as marketing brochures, selling their candidacy in a way that will stand out from any potential rival candidates. Does that sound like a tall order? It'll be worth it when you get hired for that dream job. Here are some tips for how to write a resume.
First, how do you get started, how do you write the professional resume you need? You start at the top of the page and work your way down. We'll guide you through it step by step.
Name, title, contact
The very top of the first page of your resume is where you put your name, job title, and contact information. Include your full name along with one email address and one phone number.
Some people like to include a cell number, a work number, and a home phone number. Don't do this. First off, never use a work phone number on your resume. It doesn't look good to potential employers that you are using your current company's resources to look for other jobs.
Also, including more than one phone number just causes confusion. If a caller gets your voicemail on the first number, should they leave a message or try the other? Or both? Make it easy for potential employers to reach you by simply choosing one phone number. Answer that phone whenever possible, and check the voicemail for new messages regularly.
Your email address should not be a work email account – for the same reason as I mentioned about your phone number – but it should be a professional looking account. Just your name – or as close to it as possible.
The job title at the top of your resume should match the job title you are applying for. Otherwise, it could look to employers receiving your application as though you have applied to the wrong job. In the case that you are preparing a resume to post online or for a potential job search where there isn't yet a specific job to which you want to apply, the title at the top of your resume should be for the job that you want to be hired for. The role you aspire to.
Professional summary
Where traditional resumes often open with an objective statement about what the job seeker was looking for in a new position, more strategic modern resumes use this space to pitch their candidacy to employers instead. Do you want the first thing a potential employer reads to be a list of things you want? Or would it be stronger to open with what you can do for them?
Write a professional summary. This should just be a few sentences that highlight your key selling points for the job title at the top of the page. What are your top achievements, job experience, or other credentials that will impress employers with your ability to excel at the job?
For example:
Ambitious, passionate senior online professional with a proven track record of taking brands to the top position in their industries. Under my direction, three major brands have seen significant boosts in online traffic, achieved massive social media followings, and grown large communities of loyal fans, ambassadors, and customers. I am a proactive, collaborative leader, coach, and mentor with a solid history of building lasting and successful creative teams.
Work history
The next section of your resume is where you detail your experience. Studies have shown that after your name and location, employers turn their eyes to focus on your work history. They want to see where you have worked – especially recently – and what your job was at that company.
That is why it is important to list this information in a way that is easy for employers to find, pleasing to the eye to read, and focusses on your top professional achievements. List your experience in reverse chronological order, with your most recent job at the top and working your way backward.
Use bolded text for the dates, employer names, or job titles to differentiate between jobs. Describe your work in short sentences and bullet points rather than long paragraphs of dense text. Using white space makes your resume more readable, especially at a glance. This is crucial to your success because most employers read through resumes very quickly the first time before deciding whether to shortlist the candidate for further consideration or move on.
Don't describe your previous work by merely listing the duties and responsibilities of the role. Focus instead on what you accomplished on the job that sets you apart as a top performer in that position. Use numbers to quantify these achievements wherever possible.
For example:
Launched a new sales outreach program thatexceeded revenue goals of $120,000 by 18 percent in its first year.
Or
Increased the ROI for marketing and communication spend by 35 percent by re-engineering the messaging and target audience model.
Education and credentials
Next, list your education along with any certifications or special training that you have had. The earlier you are in your career, the more important this section is in your resume. For your very first job, where you have little professional experience to describe, you might even move it up to just below your summary statement.
It can be a key selling point that you are fresh out of school with the latest training in your field. Conversely, if you graduated many years ago, you might want to leave the years of your schooling off your resume as they can give the implication that you are out of date.
Be sure to include any degrees or certifications that are critical to the role, of course, but you can also mention any education you have that can be an asset on the job, above and beyond what is required. The key to a successful resume, after all, is to show how you stand out from any potential rival candidates.
Essential skills
Finally, I recommend including a section that highlights your essential skills. This is a good place to list any languages you speak, software you have mastered, or soft skills you have that will be beneficial on the job. You can do this in bullet points or short sentences. It is also a good way to ensure that any skills listed as required in the job description are also found in your resume.
Keywords
Matching the wording in your resume to a job description is particularly important when you are applying for a specific job posted online. Many such job ads receive more applications than a hiring manager could possibly have time to read through. Therefore, most mid-sized and larger organizations use Applicant Tracking Software to filter resumes for certain critical keywords.
If your resume doesn't have the keywords that the program is scanning for, your application could be rejected before even being read by a human recruiter. So read the job description carefully, match your job title to the role in question, and use each section down the page to point out how you would be a top performer in that position. Be sure to list all of the relevant skills you have that the employer is looking for, and use as much of the same wording as possible from the job posting in your resume to try to match the keywords they will likely be scanning for.
And finally, of course, proofread. Then put it aside and proofread it again with fresh eyes. When trying your best to impress a potential employer, the least you can do is submit an error-free resume.
