How to Improve Your Resume

Yes I know, you want that job so bad it hurts. Your dream job seems unreachable, but it may be within your grasp if you do the work before you apply.

I suggest that you work on improving your resume first. Don't let HR do all the work in deciphering your poorly worded and poorly constructed resume.

Make it so easy to scan and read that HR will find it a joy to scan your achievements and job experiences.

The first thing you need to learn is that your resume is not all about you. Well, it is, but you need to highlight your skills and strengths.

In addition, you also need to highlight your achievements and job experiences that are inline with the position you want to get.

See, it's not all about colorful and artistic resumes (well unless you want to apply as a graphic designer or artist).

It's all about what YOU can offer the company. How can you make the company more profitable with your skills.

Say you want to be a writer for Awesome Company Inc. and you are required to submit your resume right away. What are you going to do?

The best thing to do is to highlight skills and strengths that are related to writing.

Position: Writer | Skills - Email composition from customer service, article writing, SEO writing, technical writing, journalism.

Put your achievements on top of the resume where you think HR will look at right away.

"Was commended and given a raise for writing awesome ad copy for the company."

Then highlight your skills and strengths in bullet points.

Why do you need top have a text resume when you already have a PDF or Docx resume?

The reason is that some employers don't want to open attachments for one reason or another.

With a text resume all you need to do is copy and paste the text of your resume in your email body and that's it.

In a text resume, you are limited with formatting.

All you really need if you are using plain text is to use simple mark ups like

- asterisks
- number signs
- dashes

Use these simple mark ups to distinguish one segment from another. For example, separate segments like former employment from present employment, etc...

Here are tidbits that you can use to improve your resume further in 5 minutes or less.

If you are using a Docx or PDF resume, you need to make effective use of bolded and italicized words or phrases.

• Bolded and italicized words will draw the reader's attention top those words. - Thus, only bold important action words and achievements.
• Don't overuse bold and italics.

Use the underline sparingly and only underline very important words that is relevant to your desired position.

Again, this one will draw the attention of the reader so use this carefully and sparingly.

This is the KISS principle. When it comes to your resume and cover letter, keeping it short and simple is the only way to go.

When texts are short you are helping HR expedite the review of your cover letter and resume.

Believe me, HR or any hiring manager can tell if you are sending a cookie cutter resume or cover letter.

Just do a little bit of work and customize your resume and cover letter for the specific position you desire.

Inline with the KISS principle, don't worry about the layout and formatting of your resume or cover letter.

If you see a clean template in Google Docs or Microsoft Word, then use that by all means. As long as your resume is clean and readable, it's all good.

Before you can land your dream job you better do the work first. Presenting your resume in a concise and readable manner will help get one foot inside the door.