One Page (Again), But Use the Margins
Joy said that even if you have 10 years of experience, there is no reason for your resume to be more then a page. Nonetheless, for the one page you do get, Joy suggesges using the "WHOLE" page. Simply decrease your margins. If your margins are small, you'll have the additional space to mention more about you your experience, education, etc.
No No's
Joy has a list of resume no-no's, and they are really relevant. SO DON'T DO THEM, UNLESS YOU WANT TO RISK YOUR RESUME BEING THROWN OUT IMMEDIATELY!
First- and this one seems like common sense but I am writing it anyway- list ONLY ONE telephone number and email address. You do not want the HR people trying to guess what number or address to reach you at. You want to make it as easy as possible for them to hire you.
Second, if you have an interest section on your resume, remove it now! This is a resume, not online dating. Your interests should shine through in your experience. If it doesn't, include some of them in your cover letter.
Third- and I personally think this one is genius- avoid 12pt Times New Roman. It is beautiful for your english paper, but it isnt great for your resume. Everyone does their resume in that font and you want it to stand out from everyone elses. Changing your resume font slightly is an easy and quick way to do that. However, do not get cute with your fonts. Choose a nice serif (font with the feet- think Cambria) or sans-serif (font without the feet- think Arial). You do not want to be the person applying with Curlz or Comic Sans!
Fourth, and most important, READ and EDIT your resume before you submit it. Also get other people to read it. If there are any grammatical or typographic errors, your resume will be thrown out. Always double check when you are applying for multiple jobs to make sure the name on your resume matches the company you are applying to. Resumes that mistakenly have another organization's name on them are automatically thrown out.
Order Your Resume Chronologically
In my 'Resume Basics' post, I discussed ordering your experience chronologically or by relevance. Joy says that your resume should be in chronological order. Ideally, each experience should build off of the previous ones. If your experience is all over the place (like changing your career or major), organize it by category. Make a "relevant experience" section and then an "other experience" section.Awards
To back up my stance on awards, Joy says that experience resonates more with a recruiter or potential employer than awards. If you have academic awards, put the most important in the 'Education' section. Do not put down any awards you received before you started college.So Remember...
To make your resume stand out show that you have dedicated a lot of time to what you are passionate about, whether it be the on campus radio station or entrepreneurship. Author: Shannon is a senior at Boston University majoring in Advertising in the College of Communication. She has experience working for NBC Universal in New York City as well as PJA Advertising and Marketing in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She loves clean functional digital design. Digital is the future of advertising and marketing and Shannon likes to stay involved and on trend. Visit her website or follow her on Twitter.Related posts:
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As a former deli owner and restaurant manager and now manager of a healthcare dept i have to say what you are doing with Student branding is really great….and I hope your insights grow virally …thanks
Good post Shannon. As a hiring manager, the biggest no no is typo’s on a resume. What this shows me is a candidate not attentive to detail in something so important as their resume.
Great post – I wholly agree about 12pt Times… I use Georgia. It is very classy and easy to read, but has a little more personality than Times. And in a stack of black and white Times New Roman resumes, a little personality can go a long way.
Hi everyone! Thanks so much for the comments. I agree on Georgia or margin changes. Anything you can do to make your resume stand out in a positive way will increase your chances of getting an interview.