Top Ten Tips - Editing Your Resume
By Tip Diva | Jul 18, 2008
Categories: Adult, Boss, Difficulty, Editing, Employment, Grammar, Hiring, Job, Job Search, Papers, Proofreading, Spelling, Support, Tips, Websites, Work
Have you cast your resume out into the sea of job postings, but have gotten no bites? Well, your resume may be to blame:
- Check For Contact Info Errors - You may not have been getting contacted because of transposed digits in your phone number or a typo in your e-mail address. How is the potential employer supposed to get in touch with you if you screwed up your personal info?
- Check For Spelling And Grammar Errors - Make sure there are no spelling or grammar errors. Some potential employers will toss a resume for one simple mistake.
- Tweak The Resume For Each Offer - Make sure you’re not sending out the same exact resume for each job posting - the potential employer can sniff out a generic resume. Make sure you tweak your objective to match the job description. Don’t write, “I’m looking to further my career.” Write, “I’m looking to further my career as a sports writer.”
- Make Sure Your Job Experience Is Relevant - Your stint in a hot-dog costume at the age of 17 isn’t going to help you get an accounting job. But mentioning how you kept track of the restaurant’s finances will.
- Don’t Lie - Don’t lie about your job experience, gaps in employment and education. Potential employers do conduct background checks. Be ready to answer questions about these in an interview. For more, see Top Ten Tips - Preparing For A Job Interview.
- Try And Get The Resume Down To One Page - If your resume is more than one page, try and get it down to one, unless you’re in a field where two pages is acceptable. Removing non-relevant job experience will help; you don’t have to include every job you’ve held since you were a teenager.
- Use Bullet Points - Bullet points make the important facts about you stand out.
- Keep The Resume’s Design Simple - Forget fancy fonts, crazy layouts and colored paper. Stick to white or cream-colored resume paper, a simple font like Arial, Times New Roman or Tahoma, a font sized no less than 10 pts. and one-inch margins. For more, see Top Ten Tips - Creating A Resume.
- Include A Cover Letter - If you’ve been sending resumes out without cover letters, that may be another reason why you’re not getting called back. If you need help, check out Alison Doyle’s Cover Letter Samples over at About.com.
- Have Someone Proofread And Suggest Changes - Make sure have another set of eyes glance over your resume. The other person will likely catch the errors that you missed.
Other Tips To Check Out:
