Make Your Resume Shine

Photo Courtesy: Rodnei Reis

When wanting to get your resume noticed, it is imperative that you put the right stuff in it to make it stand out against the rest. You are not submitting your resume so that it can be put in the pile with all the rest – you want it on the desk of the person making the hiring decisions.

In order to accomplish this feat, there are a few things that you should do. Let’s have a look at these important things below that will make your resume shine and get it noticed by the employer.

Layout

You do not want your resume to be full of too much information in a format that is difficult to read. A resume should be something that a prospective employer should be able to glance at and know whether or not they want more information. Also, make sure that the resume has a professional appearance with muted colors that are only used to enhance the look of the resume. When printing your resume, make sure to use good quality resume paper to show your professionalism.

Content

There needs to be enough information to make someone want to know more, but not so much that you tell everything. Proper grammar and punctuation is a must in your resume. Nothing will kill your validity faster than a misspelled word, improper use of a word or poor punctuation, so don’t do it. Have someone proofread your resume to make sure that this doesn’t happen. What sounds and looks good to you may not make sense to someone else.

Parts of the Resume

There are some basic parts of the resume that you must include in order to get your resume noticed.

1. Contact Information:

Your name should always be at the top of your resume. Your email and phone number can either be placed under your name on the top or put into the footer. There is no need to include your address unless you want to. Make sure that your name, email, and phone number are located on all pages.

2. Objective:

This will follow your name. It should be at least one sentence and not more than an additional sentence or two after that. An objective should be a statement of what you are looking for in an employment position as well as what you can offer.

3. Education:

Whether or not you have education outside of a high school diploma, you will need to list what you have. Here you should list what school you attended, what you studied, what year you received your diploma and your grade point average if it was acceptable. If you do not have extended education, now may be the right time to go back to school in order to enhance your resume as well as yourself.

4. Work History:

Here, you will list any and all employment with a brief description of what you did. Use key action words like implemented, managed, transitioned, organized, and the like when describing your work experience. If you have a gap in employment, make sure that you account for it by listing what you did. If you were simply unemployed, describe it as a sabbatical and list the things you did during that time like volunteer work, helping family members, or any other productive activity you were involved in.

5. Skills:

Take the opportunity to list out everything that you are skilled at, regardless of if it is applicable to the position you are applying for. This list of skills will tell the prospective employer that you are capable of becoming proficient at things.

6. Volunteer Work:

List out all volunteer work you have done, regardless of how menial the task may seem to you. This will show that you are able to put others before yourself.

7. References:

You can choose to provide these with your resume or simply state that they are available upon request. The choice is yours. Regardless of when you provide them, make sure that you include professional as well as personal references. Designate which are professional and which are personal and provide the references’ contact information as well as what their professional title is (even for personal) and how long you have known them.

Cover Letter

The cover letter is part of the resume and just as important. Make sure that it has a professional appearance, includes the name of the person making the hiring decisions, lists the position you are applying for and where you found out about the position. Give just enough information in the cover letter to make the person reading it want to read the resume as well.

Going above and beyond with your resume will surely get it from the “maybe” pile to the “must schedule an interview” pile. Pay attention to detail so that your resume will stand out from the rest. Remember that the goal to a resume is to get yourself an interview so that you can talk more about what your resume describes. Making your resume shine will surly get you that interview you desire.

Kelly Prachett is a career counselor and in her spare time she blogs for superscholar.org a site she often recommends to those who are trying to figure out which online colleges have the best online nursing programs. They have information on everything from the top online computer science programs to the best online MBA programs.