How to make a resume
Here's
a great on article on how to make a resume. It talks about the right
way to format your resume to achive maximum results.
Six Steps to a Blockbuster Resume
by ResumeEdge.com
STEP
TWO: Formatting for
Maximum Impact
The
moment your resume is opened by a hiring manager or admissions
director, it must appeal to him or her on an aesthetic level, while
accurately reflecting your industry or career goal.
To
do anything else is to relegate your resume -- no matter how
brilliantly it is written -- to the rejection stack.
In
order to ensure that your resume receives the initial attention it
deserves, it’s important to adhere to certain formatting
guidelines, which include:
- Template and Font Choice
- Effective Use of White Space
- Prioritization of Data
Free
Online Resume Builder Tool: Use this tool to build a high quality
resume in about ten minutes.
Template and Font Choice
In all cases, templates and font choice should:
- Be easy to follow. There
is no greater irritation to a busy hiring manager or admissions
director than to receive a resume where data is presented in a
haphazard or inconsistent manner. That’s
why templates are used. An effective
template will present company names, dates, job titles, academic
information, and all other pertinent data in a clear manner, so that a
quick glance will tell the contact person what they need to know.
But consistency in format isn’t the only point to consider. Templates should be chosen because they
accurately reflect a candidate’s career or goal. In other words,
a banker, accountant, or administrative assistant would
choose a more conservative format than a graphic artist or interior
designer. Nothing is more jarring -- or
disastrous -- than to receive a financial professional’s resume
written in italics or script with accompanying graphics.
-
Be easy to read. Resumes written in bold text or italics are
extremely difficult to read and project a lack of professionalism. The same goes for artistic fonts that
resemble handwriting. It’s a common
misconception that jazzing up a resume with these stylistic
tricks will get the document read. On the
contrary, the resume will get noticed -- and discarded -- within
seconds. It’s not the font you
use that attracts attention, but rather the resume’s initial
appearance and the words crafted within it.
When in doubt about font choice, always err on the
conservative side. Two good choices are
Times New Roman or Arial in 11 points -- no smaller, or the text will
be difficult to read.
Effective Use of
White Space
There is no quicker
way to get your resume ignored than to create a document with (narrow
or nonexistent) margins, and block after block of uninterrupted text. No one wants to read a text-heavy document
with sentences that run on for four or five lines.
In today’s
fast-paced world, you must get your point across quickly, with a
minimum of words presented as bulleted sentences within special
sections (i.e. Professional Experience, Education, Qualifications
Summary), separated by well-placed white space.
Think of white
spaces as necessary pauses -- a chance for the hiring manager or
admissions director to catch her breath, collect her thoughts, and
digest (and appreciate) the data you’ve presented.
Prioritization
of Data
Imagine
you’re a hiring manager. It’s
7:30 on a Monday morning, and an important position needs to be filled
in your company’s legal department.
Over the weekend,
200 resumes came in from eager applicants all wanting to fill this one
job. Most of the resumes are attractively
formatted and use the appropriate font type.
So far so good. But on closer inspection, most of the
candidates have relegated their willingness to relocate for the
position -- a core qualification -- to the very end of their two-page
resumes.
More than a few
have buried accomplishments within the text, figuring this will force
the hiring manager to search for that data, which means the entire
resume will have to be read.
Some have placed
bar admission, another important qualification, dead last on the
resume, believing that where they can practice law certainly
isn’t as important as the fact that they are attorneys.
And a few misguided
souls simply list company names and dates of employment, assuming that
the hiring manager should know without asking what legal
duties they performed at these firms.
It’s enough
to drive a hiring manager to distraction -- or another career.
But then, at last,
there are those few resumes that list the important data at the top of
the first page. In less than five seconds the hiring manager
knows that the first candidate is willing to relocate and assume the
cost of those expenses, if required.
This candidate also
provides a special section beneath the Qualifications Summary that
indicates where she is licensed to practice law.
The second
candidate does the same, while also pulling out Career Accomplishments
and placing them at the top of the first page.
After all, why keep
a 100% win rate at trial a secret, or the fact that one can practice
before the state’s Supreme Court?
Given the above
scenario, it’s clear which applicants will be called in for an
interview. No hiring manager will read
every single resume that comes across his desk. Nor
will a hiring manager search for data.
In today’s
tight job market it’s up to the candidate to prioritize data so
that a hiring manager knows at a glance what the job seeker
has to offer the company in terms of achievement, work experience,
education, licensing, certifications, and special concessions, such as
relocation.
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resume in about ten minutes.
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