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| Ken Lear's Resume Workshop |
Crafting a perfect resume is an essential skill that any job
seeker should continually be improving upon. Like you, your resume is a living
and breathing document that will evolve and follow you throughout your career.
As such it is important to revisit it and revise it to reflect your life’s
trajectory.
Here are a few tips and techniques designed to help you
along the way:
· Create Your Own Template: You can use the pre-made templates found in word processing programs or online to serve as a foundation for your formatting but it’s often best to develop your own template that is appropriate for the industry you are applying for.
· Don’t Include Irrelevant Information: Keep your list of hobbies and references out of the resume because they simply waste valuable space. You should locate your education history at the bottom of the page and only include the relevant details (organization, degree, and graduation year).
Check out Ken Lear's personal website for his latest updates and news.
· Experience Should Determine Page Length: Your resume should only contain professional experience that you are proud of. Generally speaking it should remain at one page for ease of use but if you’ve acquired more than 10 years of experience in your field, adding a second page is perfectly reasonable.
· Format the Page to Organize Your Data: By breaking up blocks of text with bolded and italicized words you can emphasize the inherent strengths found within your resume. Additionally, using bulleted lists to organize your key responsibilities and accomplishments will help improve the readability of the page.
· Have A Creative Objective or None At All: There is some debate over whether or not to include an Objective on your resume. If you include one it can pigeon hole you into a narrow focus, if you don’t it can leave your resume feeling directionless. Ideally your Objective should emulate your elevator pitch by remaining clear and concise.
· Highlight Your Name & Contact Info: Many resumes push the applicants contact info to the bottom or to the side. It should be front and center (so to speak) and aligned at the top of the page in bold.
· Quantify Your Accomplishments: Whenever possible, stay clear of subjective and abstract language – instead opt to include real and manageable numbers that give your experience grounding within the company.
· Tailor Your Resume for the Position: By molding your resume to reflect what the employer is looking for you maximize the potential of a single sheet of paper. Research the company to identify key words, phrases, and the company’s overarching philosophy. You should also research the position itself to determine which work experience you should include.
· White Space is Key: If you’re resume contains too much information it can quickly overwhelm the tired recruiter that is reading it alongside a hundred others. By using negative space to draw the eye you can highlight the key information on the page in an intuitive manner.
· Create Your Own Template: You can use the pre-made templates found in word processing programs or online to serve as a foundation for your formatting but it’s often best to develop your own template that is appropriate for the industry you are applying for.
· Don’t Include Irrelevant Information: Keep your list of hobbies and references out of the resume because they simply waste valuable space. You should locate your education history at the bottom of the page and only include the relevant details (organization, degree, and graduation year).
Check out Ken Lear's personal website for his latest updates and news.
· Experience Should Determine Page Length: Your resume should only contain professional experience that you are proud of. Generally speaking it should remain at one page for ease of use but if you’ve acquired more than 10 years of experience in your field, adding a second page is perfectly reasonable.
· Format the Page to Organize Your Data: By breaking up blocks of text with bolded and italicized words you can emphasize the inherent strengths found within your resume. Additionally, using bulleted lists to organize your key responsibilities and accomplishments will help improve the readability of the page.
· Have A Creative Objective or None At All: There is some debate over whether or not to include an Objective on your resume. If you include one it can pigeon hole you into a narrow focus, if you don’t it can leave your resume feeling directionless. Ideally your Objective should emulate your elevator pitch by remaining clear and concise.
· Highlight Your Name & Contact Info: Many resumes push the applicants contact info to the bottom or to the side. It should be front and center (so to speak) and aligned at the top of the page in bold.
· Quantify Your Accomplishments: Whenever possible, stay clear of subjective and abstract language – instead opt to include real and manageable numbers that give your experience grounding within the company.
· Tailor Your Resume for the Position: By molding your resume to reflect what the employer is looking for you maximize the potential of a single sheet of paper. Research the company to identify key words, phrases, and the company’s overarching philosophy. You should also research the position itself to determine which work experience you should include.
· White Space is Key: If you’re resume contains too much information it can quickly overwhelm the tired recruiter that is reading it alongside a hundred others. By using negative space to draw the eye you can highlight the key information on the page in an intuitive manner.
Remember that your resume should be designed to get you the
interview. It is there that you can elaborate on the information that you left
out. By having an up to date resume on file at all times you will be more
equipped to handle opportunity or hardship when it happens. In these moments it
will provide you with a sense of professionalism and also relief.
Good luck!
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