Seven Resume Writing Tips that will transform your Resume
USE DOT POINTS
Dot points are your friend! Use dot points as much as possible all through your Resume/CV. Ideally each dot point fit on a single line. When used for job duties, two lines acceptable. The only section of your Resume that does not require dot points is the Objective statement. This should be one to two short paragraphs and try to use short sentence lengths!
USE A RESUME TEMPLATE
Use a Resume template and save yourself time and effort figuring out what headings to use, what fonts to use and how to make sure it looks professional. A template will have figured all of that out for you.Even better if you can source a Resume template that contains sample content. This is exactly what we provide at a very low cost at Resume Templates Australia. Our pre-written Resumes have previously been used by a professional resume writing business as the basis for their templates. Custom written Resumes prepared by a professional Resume Writer can set you back upwards of $200. We are providing templates for just 10% or less of this cost! Make the smart choice.
BE SMART WITH KEYWORDS
Make sure you are using the right keywords in your Resume/CV. Look at typical job advertisements for your industry and make sure you are using the same keywords that employers are using all throughout your Resume. This will help you get past resume scanning software too! Even if a ‘human’ is reading your Resume, chances are they are the person who wrote the job ad. When they see your Resume full of the keywords that they are looking for, guess what happens. They are going – tick, tick, tick. Get enough ticks and you will get short-listed for the job. Yes it really is that easy!
KISS – KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID
Keep your formatting simple. Use the same font throughout and have all text lined up on the left hand margin. Forget about centering text and forget about cluttering the Resume with fancy fonts, italics or underlining. I have seen so many Resumes in my lifetime and very few good ones! The number one reason most reasons are crap is because they are messy. The layout is a mess. The fonts are all over the place. This makes you look disorganized and a poor communicator. This is not what you what your employer to see! If you can’t format it yourself, get a friend to help or get a template.
TABS ARE TABOO
NEVER. USE. TABS. Using tabs or other indenting functions can absolutely wreck your Resume. When you email it thru to an employer, tabs will screw up your layout and potentially make your Resume unreadable. Simply avoid using TABS at all costs.
ALWAYS DO THIS
ALWAYS send your Resume as a pdf. This ensures that any formatting and fonts will stay where they are meant to. It will also avoid the situation where your Resume paging gets thrown out and a blank page appears in the middle!
READ IT OUT LOUD
Proof-read and make sure there are no spelling errors. Even if it passes a spell-check, errors can very easy creep in. Common errors include ‘they’ instead of ‘the’ and ‘if’ or ‘is’ instead of ‘of’ and ‘it’. These will not get picked up by an automated spell checker. If you do not have anyone that can read it for you, read your Resume out loud and you will find that you can often spot these type of errors.
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