Tips for Writing Good Resumes: Do’s and Don’t’s
The job market in the Phoenix metropolitan area and other major cities is getting very competitive. People are looking for professional jobs for months. They go through several interviews and still no answer L Hiring process has now become a waiting game especially for the new graduates from college. It is also really hard to switch jobs for those who are in their 40’s who once could get jobs right away but now suffer the downturn of economy along with other technological challenges. Here are some tips that can help you with this process.
Do’s
- Please put your name and contact information on top of your resume. Maybe in the center, right or left corner. Make sure your contact information is accurate including email address, phone number and physical address. Also, please check your email address a few times daily. If they can’t reach you are not going to get hired especially after the interview.
- Have a summary section on the top that highlights what you do such as “I am an interior designer and love to help people decorate their homes”. You can also say “I am interested in working at your Blah blah company in the customer service department because …..” Always include a why you want to do this job.
- Lists your experience no more than 10 years ago. For example, your list of past jobs should not exceed 2004 (considering this is 2014). Unless you have nothing else to write.
- Line up your most recent job at the top and then the one before that. Same thing applies for your education. Most recent or highest degree for the desired position first. Make sure to include the time you were in school or at the job. For example, “Jan 2010 to Aug 2014”. This gives your employers a time frame of your whereabouts. If you were in school till now say so by the time frame.
- Make sure to include 3 references with phone numbers and email addresses at the end under references section. This helps if they want to know more about you at least you are leading them in the right direction. Only list those individuals that will say good things about you. A great way to make sure of this is by calling him and giving him a heads up that you have listed him as a professional reference.
- Be sure to have someone proofread your resume before you start uploading it everywhere. Typos and misspellings make you look unprofessional. If you have no one that you trust with proofreading your resume please call us at Phoenix Tutoring & Test Prep. We charge $30 per hour for proofreading your resume. The longer your resume, the more time it will take. We edit or proofread most resumes in 1 to 2 hours. Make sure to give us a call or text at 773-386-3184 before sending it for an accurate estimate.
Don’t
- Don’t over sell yourself on your resume. Do not say you can do anything. This is unrealistic and most people won’t believe you. List specific skills not just the entire list of million things.
- Don’t make your resume look like those online formats. They get several of these. Make yourself stand out. Do something different. Maybe it’s creative writing, new format, colors, or just interesting personality. The resumes that get selected the most are of those individuals that put their personality in it.
- Don’t have your resume more than 2 pages long. If you have a resume more than 2 pages long say 6 or 7 pages no one has the time to read it. You are already boring them with lots of information. List only your best skills, experiences, activities, education etc. Those who write very long resumes bore their readers and by the time they are done reading your resume they forgot the major parts that they read on the first page.
- Don’t use the same font all across the resume. Make sure some parts stand out more than others. Bold your past work experiences. Use italics for listing your position or dates you worked. Use higher font for names and lower font for job duties. Try to separate information into chunks.
- Don’t use words such as “passionate”, “hardworking”, “innovative”, “motivated”, “team player”, and “out-spoken”. These are old come up with new ways to describe yourself.
- Don’t brag too much keep things realistic. Simple, courteous, and to the point are good tones for the resume. Too many details in your resume is not good either. It’s ok to use “I” in your resume. It is written first person so it’s fine.
- Don’t forget to write a short cover letter. Some people skip these but they are very important especially if you are submitting your resume in an email. When they open the email, instead of 2 attachments you can have resume attached but a paragraph of the cover letter in the body of the email. Cover letter is your first impression.
- Don’t forget to write a thank you note if you were interviewed regardless of the fact that you got the job or not. It makes a good impression maybe if they are hiring in the future they might contact you first.
If this was helpful to you please share it with your friends and family.
Thank you,
Phoenix Tutoring & Test Prep
www.phxtutoring.com
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