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I’ve been told I have a knack for making a good resume, so in the spirit of sharing, while I know lots of people are job hunting and in transition professionally, here is a thread of my top 10 favorite resume tips:
1. There are no rules in resume writing! The hierarchy & organization of content comes down to what you deem to be important about yourself. If you are a recent grad without much work experience, you might list education first since it’s your most recent accomplishment.
2. The layout & design of your resume matters & should reflect your industry/job you want. I know graphic designers who create on brand resumes for themselves but it might not make sense for someone in say, finance, to have a heavily designed resume.
3. Times New Roman is out. Pick another serif font — the ones with the little “etches” on the letters. My personal faves on msft word are Georgia or Cambria. Serif fonts create natural lines of text to guide the reader’s eye. Pair with a sans serif font if you want to get fancy
4. A good rule of thumb is one page per 10 years of experience. Play with margins, white space, wording & cut out bs — and I promise you can do it! And when you do add a second page, it better be because you have awards, certifications, titles, leadership activities, etc. to list
5. Each job should list no more than three bullet points — and bullet points are best for readability — that are short but impactful sentences with action words and quantifiable accomplishments. Numbers are your best friends!
6. Grammar, punctuation and spelling do matter here because it’s a reflection of your work ethic and attention to detail. Don’t capitalize non-proper nouns! Have someone review your work!
7. Don’t include a headshot unless maybe you work in an industry like entertainment, news, influencers, etc. It gives potential employers an opp to judge you based on physical appearance & not your quality of work, before they even meet you. This makes space for more impt things!
8. Get rid of high school. Once college is on your resume, the reader can assume you graduated high school & not to bust your bubble but (your high school accomplishments don’t really matter at this point anymore). Accept this & make more room on the page for more impt things
9. Always send your resume as a pdf file and make sure it’s titled with your name. My personal fave is “Firstname_Lastname_resume.pdf”
Sending as a pdf means it’s a read-only document, and ensures it retains the same quality and format you created it in, to be read or printed.
Sending as a pdf means it’s a read-only document, and ensures it retains the same quality and format you created it in, to be read or printed.
10. You are never finished with your resume! It should always be a working document that is constantly updated so you can send it anytime an opp arises. I’m extra, so I tailor my resume to every single individual job I’ve ever applied for. And I have them for diff industries too!
A great point to #2! Canva is a great tool for design, especially if you’re new to it or can’t get adobe products. Canva is free or around $15/month, and has a ton of resume designs and some are even industry-based! https://twitter.com/_laren/status/1264591873647284224
