Making a Resume

Making a Resume Work

Research
It's not too early to research. Learn about the company and determine whether a match is possible before you send your résumé. Once you've determined the possibility of a good match, you can write a cover letter that explains your competitive edge and the benefits you can provide.

Be Professional
Use an appropriate black font. That means staying away from shadows, outlines and colors. A classic look with bold headings is the best bet. And be sure to use a consistent font and paper type for both your cover letter and résumé.

Make The Pitch
Résumés are skimmed, which means you need to sell your credentials as quickly as possible. Display your key selling points near the top of your résumé and use industry language to explain your experience and responsibilities. But remember, using "buzzwords" because they sound good or using them incorrectly is a great way to show that you're the wrong person for the job.

Keep It Simple
A résumé is not an autobiography. It's a brief sketch of your job skills, past employment and educational history. Keep it to one page if you can, but always use common sense when going beyond one page. If you've recently graduated from college, a three-page résumé is never necessary. And if you have years of experience, remember that your résumé doesn't need to contain every detail concerning your career.

Reflect Yourself
Your résumé reflects the type of associate you might be. If it's professional, you'll be considered a professional person, but if your résumé is second-rate, you'll likely be considered the same. Be sure your résumé casts an accurate reflection.

Edit It
Don't miss your shot at an interview and possible employment by misspelling a word, leaving out a word, or using an inconsistent typeface or heading. Remove irrelevant information and ensure that you're including only the most important details. Then read your résumé, reread it, read it aloud and have someone else read it.

Now that you're among thousands of other posted resumes, what are the ways to get your resume to stand out and be more effective? When done correctly your well written, well-prepared resume should contain all of the necessary keywords to attract attention.

Print version - have bulleted lists, italicized text, etc. that attracts the hiring managers eye to your list of accomplishments.

Scannable version - much the same as your print resume but with less design, no italics or bold highlights but written in a standard font such as Times Roman. This resume is also recognized as an electronic resume because of its format.

Plain text version - by saving your resume as a .txt or text document you will be able to cut and paste it onto Thingamajob. You will need to make sure that you have all the keywords that define your experience and accomplishments. Remember to replace bullets with an asterisk *. You will need to do a line-by-line review and rearrange text if necessary. In an application like Word, doing so is quite simple. Instead of saving your document as a .doc, select "save as" and using the drop-down menu for "save as type" you want to click on "text only with line breaks." Viola!

Don't be deterred by the format of a scannable or plain text version resume. This is, in fact easier to read than most formatted resumes, as different applications read documents differently. Remember, your bullets may look great when you send it, but like e-mail the format isn't always received that way and could be more distracting than helpful.