What are your career goals? A resume is one of the best ways to help it become a reality. The reality of social media career sites showcasing our experience is not enough in itself. Recruiters and hiring managers continue to depend on a powerful resume to find top talent.
If writing is not your best skill, there are list of resume services online that can help.
It is time to use colored font, add media, side gigs, and work-related projects. Here are helpful tips to freshen up your resume.
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Business or Educational Projects
Most of us forget to include a bullet list or a professional table of projects achieved projects. Hiring managers appreciate employees that can bring new skills to their role outside of working for a company. Here is a list of examples of projects to include:
Freelance work
College or University projects
Small business activities
Committee assignments
In addition to including a list of projects, add results through statistics and real data. For example, “Completed a small business opportunity that helped save XYZ company $30,000 in the first half of 2015” is an effective statement to include on a resume.
Location of Education and Certifications
If you are an expert in a particular industry, moving education to the last page of a resume is ideal. The depth of experience will help make a resume shine. New graduates or individuals with a minimum of 2 years in a role should place education and certifications at the top. As for certifications, if completed recently over an outdated college or university graduation, it is best to add them right at the top.
The top area of a resume is the first section recruiters scan to shortlist potential candidates to invite for an interview.
Multiple Skill Sets
Certain professionals have a long list of skills outside of their role because of a decade of experience. For example, a writer with journalism, marketing, communications, and technical writing experience should professionally include this right before work experience. Here is an example of skills that hiring managers want in top talent:
Facilitating presentations
Training
Negotiating
Continuous improvement
If these skills cannot be strengthened on your team, find out if there are departments open to using your help. It can be an effective way to add additional experience in the project section of a resume.
SEO and Keyword Friendly
After reading a job posting, include sentences with examples of strong keywords and add them to your resume. For example, a supervisor job role might include Search Engine Optimization words that include team building, maintain budgets, or conducts meetings. It will help ATS software to track your resume to desired skills based on the job posting for increased visibility of hiring managers.
Conclusion
It is important to create a refresh of a resume every 6 to 12 months. Whether you need to update new keywords based on industry, move education to the top or bottom of a resume, or share achievements off non-work-related projects, resumes are your business card. Let your resume share the story of your career with data, statistics, and numerical facts to help you stand out from the competition. Good luck!
Do you need help with writing? Contact me today.