Four Great Resume Writing Tips

The time has come for you to jump into a new job or maybe even an entirely new career. In a thick pile of resumes, how do you rise from “just a number” to being “the star candidate” who sticks the landing? You know you’ve got that special something employers want, but how do you relay that message? Resume writing is certainly a daunting challenge, but there are some relatively simple ways to make yourself stand above the crowd. Be forewarned it will require an objective eye and emotionless editing, so you may want to recruit a forthright friend to help you out.

The point of a resume is not to answer every single question an employer could possibly ask. It is also not intended to provide information on every job you’ve ever had, dating back to high school. The resume is meant to provide a hook for the employer to obtain an overview of your skills and, ideally, invite you in for an interview. Your resume should be two pages or less; its design and layout should be simple, professional, clean and pleasing to the eye. Your work experience should list only major jobs held for substantial amounts of time within the last five years or so. Consider placing education higher in the resume if you are a recent college graduate without extensive work experience. However, longtime professionals with ample experience should move education details further down the list.

There are subtle ways to personalize your resume without sacrificing professionalism. Two areas where you can demonstrate your uniqueness is within the objective statement and also within your Awards and Activities section. In your objective statement, use buzz-words like “goal-oriented” alongside more unique descriptive phrases like “award-winning reporter.” In your “Awards and Activities” section, highlight any work-related honors you’ve achieved, and also any volunteer work you’ve done, committees and boards on which you’ve served, or career-related conferences you’ve attended. Briefly demonstrate that you have an interest in bettering your community and bettering yourself, personally and professionally. Most employers know these qualities usually indicate a high-caliber candidate and can be worth far more than an Ivy League degree. “I’ve had lawyers who went to Harvard Law School who couldn’t do the work here,” said Alan Sklover, Manhattan-based executive lawyer and author of Fired, Downsized or Laid Off. “So I always look at resumes and then I go, ‘Tell me a little more about you as a person.’ Things like where you went to school and what your GPA was tend to become a blur.”

Though it may be considerably easier to hire a professional resume writing service, it is very important to take the task upon yourself. If you do have difficulty conveying your skills onto a piece of paper, a friend or colleague can better serve you than someone who doesn’t have a complete picture of your skills and the value you can offer. When interview time comes, the decision to hire that ghostwriter can truly come back to haunt you. Nobody knows your life and experiences as well as you, and you alone understand best what is resume-worthy. Before the interview, study the resume like a script and be prepared to talk about any aspect of it. This prep work will help you feel comfortable, prepared and at ease in the interview, so you can act like yourself as well. “Make sure you have a story, background, details for every sentence on the resume, and make it relevant to the employer,” said Randall Craig, career expert and author of Personal Balance Sheet career planning guide.

Tailor your resume to the needs of each and every prospective employer. Yes, resume writing is hard but the importance of tweaking your resume with each prospective employer in mind – from your objective statement down to your references – cannot be stressed enough. From the job ad description, identify what that employer is looking for and structure your entire resume to leave little doubt that your unique qualifications and experience fit those needs. Make it an interesting read, which requires that you speak directly to the employer’s staffing needs. If you struggle to identify your skills with the job requirements or even border on embellishing your resume to cater to the employer, this should indicate that this is not the right job for you. You don’t want to end up with a job you will later regret accepting. Ultimately, many employers are most interested in how you can help them and what benefits you bring to their organization. So playing up your strengths and keeping it relevant to the employer can be the most important step of all in getting the interview and sticking the landing.