Resume Tip: The 5 Most Basic to Remember
Creative Commons photo by alannaface
It’s not possible to just give one resume tip. When it comes to resumes, there’s a top five of Do’s and Don’ts.
1. Resume Honesty is Essential.
The first and perhaps most important resume tip is to not lie or exaggerate on your resume!
Exaggeration and outright lying used to be standard procedure.
People who supervised three people would will put down on their resumes that they had ten people under them.
That’s relatively benign, but those who claim an education at a certain institution, only for it to be discovered that they never stepped onto the campus, let alone attended the school, are bound to lose their jobs — if they even get hired.
Employers verify these things. Truth in a resume is essential.
2. Looks Matter
The second resume tip is to use good paper and print.
You don’t want to send out copies of a resume that are grey and hard to read because of a used-up ink cartridge or specked with marks from a dirty or scratched printer drum.
The paper should be light-colored, and of a heavy weight. Envelope design should match the paper.
3. Layout Is Worth Fussing Over
The third resume tip is to have a nicely designed resume.
Resumes with large, dense, and uninterrupted blocks of text at the top of the page and squished to one side are unattractive.
There are dozens of different ways to arrange the information on a page — choose one that looks elegant but allows you to highlight all of your achievements.
Maintain consistency in how you provide the information for education and work history and so on.
And always remember that one of your goals is to make it a breeze for the reader of your resume to scan it and catch all the key points. Bullets, bold text, and short sentences and paragraphs all help achieve this.
4. Keep It Relevant.
The fourth resume tip is to put all the relevant information on your resume that you can — but avoid the irrelevant.
Spend time listing all the possibly relevant information. Then sort through it carefully, choosing the strongest facts for the particular job or job type involved, and giving careful thought and attention to how you state them.
Avoid the irrelevant items that can weaken the overall impression.
For example, if you’ve got a college degree, putting down your high school achievements usually isn’t relevant, even if you’re inordinately fond of having been a chess champ, prom queen, or football hero.
5. Get Help.
The fifth and final resume tip is to let someone else — preferably a professional person — look over your resume after you’ve finished it.
A second pair of eyes can see mistakes or omissions that you can’t.
If you don’t get professional help, see if you can find an acquaintance who is a good writer and who will not be afraid to offer constructive criticism. (As an experienced writer who has worked with many people as both giver and receiver of editing criticism, I assure you that extensive criticism beats the nagging feeling you get when someone has no criticism or suggestions whatsoever — you wonder whether they’re just being polite, whether they lack sufficient skill and insight to be helpful, or whether in fact your writing is perfection itself!)
