How to Improve Your Resume
Objectives section., Keep the Skills section clear, brief and concise, especially on a technical resume., For some positions, experienced employees may wish to place their Education section at the end of their resumes, where some hiring managers...
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Objectives section.
Some potential employers will tell you that a clearly written objectives section which shows how your skills and experiences map to the employers needs is 'critical' to gaining an interview.
Other individuals, such as the original writers of this article will tell you If you have an Objective section, delete it.
It rarely helps and can easily hurt you by needlessly pigeonholing you.
Thus, you, the job applicant need to decide if you should have an objectives section.
If you do have such a section, please be 100% sure that the section clearly maps your skills and experiences to the employers needs.
A section simply stating:
Seeking entry level position where I can learn... will not help you. , Hiring managers will usually skip it because they're more interested in seeing your skills in context, which is in the bullet points of your Experience section. , If you're a recent graduate without extensive work experience, you should plan to put it at the top.
If you have had more than one career relevant professional position, you need to consider the relative importance of your job experience vs. your academic experience in deciding where to place the Education section.
If applying for an academic job, the Education section should, most likely, always remain at the top of your resume. , Extraneous information will divert attention from the heart of your resume.
Be objective when deciding what information is truly relevant to the hiring manager. 1-2 pages is a great target for many non-academic resumes. , Bullet descriptions for your current job should be in the present tense (unless it's describing a completed project) and descriptions for past jobs should be in the past tense. , Do not bold one job title and italicize another.
Do not italicize one former employer's name and underline it for another.
Pick a single style for each element and stick with it.
If you make changes, check to make sure the changes are done consistently across the board. , For example, Garamond is a crisper, more refined font than Times New Roman.
Also, make certain to choose a font that most PCs and Macs will have installed.
See this list of fonts common to most PCs and Macs .
TIP:
If you choose an uncommon font, you can save your file as a PDF and embed that font in the PDF document.
You should also choose your font based on how your resume will be presented; sans serif fonts like Arial are best for viewing a resume on a monitor, where serif fonts like Garamond look better when printed on paper. , Studies have shown that maximum reading comprehension is attained when spacing is set at around
1.15x of the font size.
For example, an 11 point font should have 13 point spacing.
TIP:
To automatically adjust line spacing in MS Word, select the text you want to adjust, then go to Format > Paragraph...
Then, in the Paragraph window, change 'Line Spacing:' to 'Multiple' and then set 'At:' to
1.15 (you can tweak this number a bit if you are having trouble fitting a resume onto 1 or 2 pages).
This method will give you perfect spacing regardless of what font size you choose. , Many potential employers require that your resume and cover letter be emailed or uploaded in PDF format.
PDF stands for Portable Document Format; this type of document is widely requested because it maintains its appearance both on-screen (of nearly any computer) and in print.
Documents may be saved in PDF format from many editors including Microsoft word.
One might also buy Adobe Acrobat software or other conversion software such as Tweak Word To PDF
3.0.
To start the conversion, you can either from the converter or from the file by the button. -
Step 2: Keep the Skills section clear
-
Step 3: brief and concise
-
Step 4: especially on a technical resume.
-
Step 5: For some positions
-
Step 6: experienced employees may wish to place their Education section at the end of their resumes
-
Step 7: where some hiring managers look for it.
-
Step 8: Use as few pages as possible (the actual length will depend on your profession).
-
Step 9: Do not mix future and past tenses.
-
Step 10: Be consistent in your formatting.
-
Step 11: Choose a clean
-
Step 12: subtle font that's easy to read and look at.
-
Step 13: To increase readability and comprehension fine-tune your spacing.
-
Step 14: Convert your resume to PDF format.
Detailed Guide
Some potential employers will tell you that a clearly written objectives section which shows how your skills and experiences map to the employers needs is 'critical' to gaining an interview.
Other individuals, such as the original writers of this article will tell you If you have an Objective section, delete it.
It rarely helps and can easily hurt you by needlessly pigeonholing you.
Thus, you, the job applicant need to decide if you should have an objectives section.
If you do have such a section, please be 100% sure that the section clearly maps your skills and experiences to the employers needs.
A section simply stating:
Seeking entry level position where I can learn... will not help you. , Hiring managers will usually skip it because they're more interested in seeing your skills in context, which is in the bullet points of your Experience section. , If you're a recent graduate without extensive work experience, you should plan to put it at the top.
If you have had more than one career relevant professional position, you need to consider the relative importance of your job experience vs. your academic experience in deciding where to place the Education section.
If applying for an academic job, the Education section should, most likely, always remain at the top of your resume. , Extraneous information will divert attention from the heart of your resume.
Be objective when deciding what information is truly relevant to the hiring manager. 1-2 pages is a great target for many non-academic resumes. , Bullet descriptions for your current job should be in the present tense (unless it's describing a completed project) and descriptions for past jobs should be in the past tense. , Do not bold one job title and italicize another.
Do not italicize one former employer's name and underline it for another.
Pick a single style for each element and stick with it.
If you make changes, check to make sure the changes are done consistently across the board. , For example, Garamond is a crisper, more refined font than Times New Roman.
Also, make certain to choose a font that most PCs and Macs will have installed.
See this list of fonts common to most PCs and Macs .
TIP:
If you choose an uncommon font, you can save your file as a PDF and embed that font in the PDF document.
You should also choose your font based on how your resume will be presented; sans serif fonts like Arial are best for viewing a resume on a monitor, where serif fonts like Garamond look better when printed on paper. , Studies have shown that maximum reading comprehension is attained when spacing is set at around
1.15x of the font size.
For example, an 11 point font should have 13 point spacing.
TIP:
To automatically adjust line spacing in MS Word, select the text you want to adjust, then go to Format > Paragraph...
Then, in the Paragraph window, change 'Line Spacing:' to 'Multiple' and then set 'At:' to
1.15 (you can tweak this number a bit if you are having trouble fitting a resume onto 1 or 2 pages).
This method will give you perfect spacing regardless of what font size you choose. , Many potential employers require that your resume and cover letter be emailed or uploaded in PDF format.
PDF stands for Portable Document Format; this type of document is widely requested because it maintains its appearance both on-screen (of nearly any computer) and in print.
Documents may be saved in PDF format from many editors including Microsoft word.
One might also buy Adobe Acrobat software or other conversion software such as Tweak Word To PDF
3.0.
To start the conversion, you can either from the converter or from the file by the button.
About the Author
Jason Collins
Experienced content creator specializing in lifestyle guides and tutorials.
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