Did you know that you have roughly six seconds to capture the attention of your future boss? Studies show that’s the amount of time a hiring manager spends sifting through resumes, so it’s up to you to make yours standout.
To help, we’ve pulled together a few helpful tips to craft an eye-catching resume that showcases your unique experience, education and relevant skills. Forget that outdated project you worked on ten years ago, now is the time to let your expertise shine, so the one looking at your resume is convinced you’re the only one right for the job.
Start strong. Capture your reader’s attention from the very beginning with real insights into what you’ve learned, and what you want to do:
Example #1:
Committed, loyal and passionate sales leader, who uses creative ways to overcome challenges and advance business results. I am a highly motivated and enthusiastic teammate, who encourages engaging and successful performance-driven environments. Intuitive and attentive listener, I am naturally curious to discover customer needs in order to offer an overall exceptional experience.
Example #2:
Motivated brand associate with 5+ years’ experience. An extremely driven worker with high energy and great communication skills. Reliable and friendly professional able to work with little oversight and who loves to work in very collaborative team environments.
Make It Easy On The Eyes, which means highlighting relevant experiences and information, plus having a well formatted resume that looks aesthetically pleasing. Keep things short and sweet by following the below tips:
- Less is more, make it simple and easy to read knowing employers will have a minimal amount of time to review your resume.
- Readability is key, use a professional clean font and appropriate size to ensure your resume is clear:
- Font: Arial or Times New Roman
- Size: 10 and 12 points
- Use single spacing to reduce or eliminate any extraneous whitespace.
- Stick to the one-inch margin size rule on all sides of your resume.
That cool thing you did? Tell us about it. Focus on the impact you had, not on what was listed in your job description. We know the usual job responsibilities — so show us how you’re different from what we might expect. If you’re a sales associate, we’ll assume you ‘assisted customers.’ But we won’t know that you’ve supported with floor sets, or that you led peer training for new hires. What did you build, create, design or lead? That’s the experience that will make you shine..
Proofread and Edit. Always check for spelling and grammatical errors. If grammar isn’t your forte, or you just want a second opinion before you send your resume in, leverage trusted friends, colleagues and supervisors to objectively review your resume.
Last but not least: Make sure we know how to find you! Put your contact information in an obvious place … you wouldn’t believe how many people bury this critical info. Hyperlink your email address and your LinkedIn profile: Here’s how. Need help updating your LinkedIn? Use our trusted guide we give our employees to help them out.
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