3 Ways to IMMEDIATELY Improve Your Resume
- Dajahi Wiley
- Jun 27, 2017
- 2 min read
Have you been sending out applications and aren't sure why you haven't been hearing back from employers? It's time to take another look at your resume.
Crafting an effective resume takes thought, time, and care. However, there is low-hanging fruit. If you have not yet done these three things, doing each of them after reading this post can make a world of difference for your outcomes.
1. Ensure that your grammar, spelling, and punctuation are all correct.
"Managed multiple project teams with pofit and loss responsibility..."
Wait... what "and loss responsibility"? What is "pofit"?
Of course, we can assume the candidate meant to write "profit," not "pofit." However, for a reader, such mistakes indicate a lack of care, attention, and even—for the most unforgiving readers—knowledge. As you can imagine, having a recruiter or hiring manager's first impression of you be that you do not care, do not pay attention, or are ignorant, would be quite damning to your chances of proceeding in the hiring process.
The easiest resume fix is ensuring that you do not have any grammatical, spelling, or punctuation errors in your resume. Out of everything, this factor is the one that is most in your control. Take advantage of that and make sure that it is perfect.
2. Make it visually clear and easy to read.
Too many resumes that job seekers write are difficult to read because of their formatting choices and lack of variation in the text. Don't be afraid to bold and italicize pieces of information like company names, dates of employment, and position titles to set them apart (be sure to keep their formatting consistent, though). It is also a good idea to vary the length of descriptions and bullet points. If every line of the resume is filled from margin to margin, the reader will be overwhelmed by the wall of text.
3. Prepare it for digital use.
Resumes are most often prepared in Microsoft Word or a similar word processing program. From version to version and program to program, formatting features can be lost or distorted, and you may overlook these mishaps if you do not specifically check to see that they are being preserved as intended. The best way to prevent the loss or distortion of formatting features is to send the resume as a PDF file. Unless a Word document is specifically requested or required by a job posting or a person you are sending your resume to, such as a networking contact or recruiter, I always recommend uploading/sending your resume in PDF format. An added bonus of using PDFs is that the recipient won't get a behind-the-scenes view of your margin, spacing, or other formatting manipulations in Word.
By addressing these three points, you will immediately improve your resume by making it more readable. If you find and correct one or more grammar, spelling, punctuation, and/or formatting errors, you may very well be saving your resume from being tossed aside in the future.
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