Updating and editing your resume can be very difficult. In fact, you can argue that no document in your life is more important than your resume. You need your resume to get a job or a better job. Without a resume, you can’t do anything in the world. Most people, in fact, don’t even know how to write a proper resume. However, this article is not how to explain how to write a resume for beginners. This article is for intermediate resume writers to teach them how to improve upon their resume which they already have.
Add Your Latest Info
The first step that you will need to do is print out a copy of your resume and get a blue or red colored pen. You will be marking up your entire resume so make sure you are open to change. Change is usually a good thing. Now ask yourself, when was the last time you updated your resume?
If you haven’t updated your resume within the last 3 months, then you need to definitely do that first. Within the last 3 months, you may have gotten a new job or developed new interests or skills. Maybe you learned how to use a new computer software program. That is definitely something you should list on your resume. Employers like knowing what skills prospective employees have, especially when it comes to computer proficiency. By knowing a certain computer program, it can decrease the amount of time an employer would need to train you.
For college students, your resume should be updated very frequently since college students are always picking up new jobs or internships. For college students, you also need to update your Grade Point Average and you should also include what semesters you made the Dean’s List. A good bit of advice for college students is to list any classes which you were a teacher assistant for during the semester. If you gained a leadership role in a student club, organization or team you should also list that on your resume.
Keep It Professional
The next step is to make sure that the alignment looks correct on your resume. It is the little details that make a world of difference between you getting the job or someone else getting that job opening. Make sure that your dates are lined up on the page. If you have certain words in bold or italicized, make sure you stay consistent when doing so. If you have spacing on your page like lines skipped between jobs or internships, make sure you do that after every job you have had. The key is to stay consistent.
Another great bit of advice: make sure that your resume fits onto 1 page. Unless you have had a long job history of successful and prominent jobs, you should keep your resume on one page. Future employers won’t care what awards you won in high school or college unless they were extremely important. They won’t care that you won a tennis tournament either. You should only put this information if you have excess room on your resume so that it fits onto the first page.
You should also limit the number of bullet points you have for each job or internship. If you have more than 3 bullet points for any given job or internship, it’s too many. Condense your job descriptions into 2 lines or 2 bullet points. Only write down the most important and significant job tasks. Copying and filing documents really aren’t that important and can be easily conveyed into “office work.” This also brings me to my other point; make sentences clear and simple so that the employer reading your resume can understand everything. Condense sentences to make them smaller and the meaning easier to comprehend.
Tune Every Single Detail
Margins are also very important. You can play around with the margins so that you can squeeze more information onto a page. However, as a word of caution, make sure that all of the information looks clear and clean and not all jumbled together. You want to make sure that you’re most important information on your resume sticks out. You want to show your future employer why you should be selected for the job opening instead of someone else.
Finally, make sure that your resume is on resume paper. This is such a simple detail but you wouldn’t believe how many people forget to do this. Also, make sure you look over your resume print out before giving it to an employer because you want to make sure that your printer didn’t leave any stray marks on the resume sheet.
