How To Make Your Resume Professional

Align Your Linkedin Profile

Your is just as important as your resume. You want to make sure youre presenting yourself in the same way. But dont just cut and paste from your resume. LinkedIn is a different beast altogether so you want to make the best use of the platforms features. You dont have to use bullet points you can be more narrative, and even more casual, says Heifetz. You also want to tweak the tone. Theres a greater expectation that youll demonstrate personality, she adds. For example, the summary section should be written in the first person. It gives you the opportunity to present yourself as a living, breathing human being. Heres my colleague, , after she got some help revamping it from a professional.

Add A Resume Summary Or Objective

After your contact information, you have the option to include either a resume summary or objective statement. An objective statement quickly explains your career goals and is a good choice for those with limited professional experience, such as recent college or high school graduates. A resume summary is a short statement that uses active language to describe your relevant work experience and skills.

What To Include In Your First Job Resume

Keep your resume simple and easy to read while still providing the most relevant information the employer will need.

Its advisable to keep it short and easy to understand. Since most employers receive many resumes in a day, they wont have time to read over pages and pages of contentin fact, hiring managers spend an average of only six to eight seconds looking at each resume.

Most first job resumes should include these sections:

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Consider The Following Questions As You Detail Your Job Experiences

Why and how is this job different than all other jobs?

What did you accomplish or achieve?

Qualify or quantify whatever you have accomplished. Did you work autonomously or did you just take direction? What distinguishes you from your colleagues? Have your ideas been put into practice? Have you been designated to train new employees? Do co-workers ask your advice? Have you spearheaded major projects?

What were your major responsibilities?

Think about how you might articulate this in an interview or in conversation with someone, it might flow onto paper easier if you talk about it first.

What new skills or knowledge did you acquire?

Many work experiences that may not have been in the traditional sense of formal work experience but have honed your transferable skills can supplement your professional positions. You can include full time, part time, seasonal volunteer work, internships, consulting and freelance work. The point is not whether you were paid, but what you accomplished.

Which information should you include?

Name of your employer, location, your job title, dates of employment and a description of what you achieved. You may want to include a brief description of the organization if relevant.

List Relevant Skills And Keywords

Resume keywords are important terms of interest that recruiters look for whether skimming a resume or searching within an applicant tracking system . The more role-specific keywordsoften hard skillsyour resume contains, the better optimized your resume is.

99 percent of Fortune 500 companies use applicant tracking systems to sort, filter, and search applicants. Some ATS, like Taleo, can automatically rank your resumes content against the job description, allowing recruiters to focus only on the best applicants. Recruiters often also search their applicant pool for important resume keywords, like customer service, accounts receivable, or Adobe Photoshop.

Where on your resume should you include important skills?

Its crucial to incorporate important skills throughout your entire resume, beginning with your headline which should, when possible, include the most relevant keyword: the job title. You can also list skills in a dedicated skills section of your resume if using the hybrid resume format.

How do you find keywords to include in your resume?

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Pair It With A Winning Cover Letter

No CV is complete without a compelling cover letter. A cover letter is often the first thing an employer or recruiter will see. Therefore, it is extremely important that you craft a cover letter that not only grabs-and-holds their attention, but that also gives a brief and strong introduction of who you are and what you bring to the table. Writing a cover letter can be overwhelming, but do not worry, we got you covered. We have various cover letter templates and examples for you to use. Our cover letter builder will help ease some of the heavy lifting and help you get hired.

Engineering And Design Professional Profiles

This industry can often overlap with construction and includes jobs like drafting and CAD operations, machinists, civil engineers, aerospace engineers and technical engineers. Technological skills are almost always required for engineering and design roles. Other requirements typically include spatial skills, critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

Example:’Mechanical engineer with 10 years of experience in materials innovation, maintenance, production and design. Strong attention to detail with considerable leadership abilities.’

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Review A Resume Example

This is a professional resume example. or read the example below.

Production TechnicianStrong and able-bodied Production Assistant with 8 years experience in assembly of components and sub-components for automotive and aviation parts manufacturers.

• Process-oriented, ensuring safe and quality assembly line production within hazardous factory settings.
• Skilled in use of weld guns, air-actuated tools, forklifts, manual tools, and automated machinery.
• Diligent in completing daily production reports and timesheets.
• Outstanding work ethic and team building skills willing to work overtime and flexible shifts.

Professional Experience

Hughes Automotive Company, Canton, MSProduction Technician, July 2017-PresentWeld automotive components as technician on fast-paced assembly line. Operate welding tools and automated machinery perform quality control and pack parts for shipping.

• Maintained perfect attendance record throughout tenure.

Pine Hills Avionics Manufacturing, Jackson, MSAssembly Technician, June 2014-June 2017Skillfully set up and operated assembly department test stands. Interpreted schematics utilized hand tools and testing instruments including micrometers and venire calipers.

• Earned Employee of the Month awards at least twice each year.
• Selected by supervisor to train summer workers in assembly line, packing, and cleaning tasks.

• Willingly worked overtime and weekend shifts as requested.
• Earned top scores on quarterly performance reports.

Education

What Is A Resume Builder

A resume builder is an online app or piece of software that provides users with interactive forms and templates that focus on resumes. The best applications of this type provide tips and suggestions to help you provide employers with the right kind of information. For example, the Zety resume builder features ready-made content tailored to the needs of specific job seekers. This makes wording each section easier in terms of communicating your value as an employee.

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How To Write A Resume In 7 Easy Steps

Looking for a new job can be a grind. With so many details to attend to researching prospective employers, lining up professional references, practicing interviewing skills and checking the salary range for your role its tempting to recycle an old resume and top it off with your newest work experience.

Resist the impulse. If youre hoping to score an interview for that dream job, you need a freshly polished, customized document thats going to grab readers attention from the start.

How To Structure Your Resume

No two resumes will look exactly alike , but generally, resumes should have the following sections.

Header & Contact Info: At the top of your resume, always include a header containing your name. Your contact info should be close by as well. After all, you donât want there to be any confusion over who the resume belongs to, or make it difficult for recruiters or hiring managers to reach out to you. However, you may want to avoid putting your contact info in the header or footer of the document itself â the headers and footers can sometimes be overlooked by the software that scans your resume.

Professional Summary: The professional summary is a brief, one- to three-sentence section featured prominently on your resume that succinctly describes who you are, what you do and why youâre perfect for the job. In contrast with the largely out-of-date objective statement â a line that describes the type of career opportunity youâre looking for â professional summaries arenât about what you want. Instead, theyâre focused on the value you could bring to a potential employer. Itâs worth noting that a professional summary isnât an absolute must-have â if your resume is missing one, it probably wonât be a dealbreaker â but it can be a nice way to give time-pressed recruiters and hiring managers a quick, high-level overview of why youâre the right person for the job.

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The Last Word On Building A Resume

Every job, every industry and every candidate will require some adjustments of these resume writing tips. Creative professionals, for example, will want to include links to their portfolios. New college grads wont have much work experience to highlight, but they can still draw from class projects, labs and seminars to talk up their hard and soft skills.

When you consider how to write a resume that leads to a good outcome, the takeaway is this: Employers want to hire people who canmake an impact. Write a tailored resume that shows a distinctive, results-driven professional, and before long you may find yourself preparing for the job interview.

Hard Vs Soft Skills: Whats The Difference

Heres the difference between hard skills and soft skills:

Hard skills

Hard skills are quantifiable, job-specific abilities learned through education, training, or on-the-job experience. Language skills, computer skills, and being able to operate heavy machinery all count as types of hard skills.

Heres a list of 24 popular hard skills to put on your resume:

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Develop A Strong Summary Statement

Your summary statement serves as your introduction, and as they often say, first impressions last. Thats why its imperative that you have a strong summary statement to begin your resume.

Regarding how to make your resume stand out with an effective summary, begin with a brief description of yourself, then follow this up with a statement showcasing your key skills and experiences that most relate to the position. And dont forget to mention at least one significant achievement at your previous job. Heres an example of a smart summary for your inspiration this 2022.

Detail-oriented Sales Associate with 3 years of sales and marketing experience combined with a knack for solving complex problems. Highly organized and self-motivated, I managed to help drive my companys profits by initiating a next-level strategy to pricing and inventory. I seek to apply my proven sales management skills to improve quality, cost and time metrics for your good company.

Pick The Ideal Resume Layout

The hard part is over. Youve written your resume, and are feeling confident about getting that interview. Now its time to take a moment and consider your resumes design.

Depending on the industry you work in or the job you want, you may need to adjust your resume layout to fit the expectations of the hiring manager.

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Write A Matching Cover Letter

Now that you know how to write your dream resume, you might be wondering: is a cover letter necessary? The answer is yes, always include a cover letter if you have the option.

Knowing how to write a good cover letter helps you round out every application you ever send out, and boosts your chances of landing an interview.

Cover letters are a valuable tool in your job-hunting arsenal because they give you an opportunity to provide context to your resume, show off your personality, and express enthusiasm for the job youre applying for.

Heres an example of what a resume paired with a matching cover letter might look like :

Make It Visually Appealing

While recruiters will appreciate a well-designed resume, make sure your creativity is professional. Here are a few things to consider when designing a modern resume:

• Font style: Make sure the font you use is legible. Use a professional font like Georgia, Times New Roman, Calibri or Helvetica.

• Font size: Choosing an appropriately-sized font will ensure a recruiters ability to read the content of your resume. Size 12 font should suffice.

• Template: Keep your designs minimal and aesthetically appealing. If youre using a template, make sure the visual elements dont distract from the content of your resume.

• Color choices: Use an attractive color scheme when designing your resume. Opt for black, white and a third color like blue or green. White is a great background color, black is best for text and your third color can highlight important details on your resume.

If youre applying for a creative job, your resume is the first sample of your design work that recruiters will see. Make sure you display your unique style. Having a clean and legible resume will ensure their ability to read it thoroughly without confusion or distraction.

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How Long Should My Resume Be

Your resume should be approximately two pages long. If it is substantially longer, eliminate information that isnt relevant to the role or industry. For instance, look back at the key skills and attributes required for the job in question and then review your resume are you using valuable space to describe skills, attributes and responsibilities from roles that dont match up to the job in question? If so, remove this content or, at the least, simplify your language. On your resume, you must get to the point, so dont use ten words to say something you could say in five.

On the other hand, one page may suffice in certain circumstances. The main thing to keep in mind when youre writing your resume is that you must be able to demonstrate and articulate your skills, experience, and future potential to the reader. If you can do that well in one page, thats great. However, the average length of a resume is usually around two pages.

What Are Some Examples Of A Good Resume

Heres the thing: Your resume wont ever look exactly like someone elses, nor should it. How you choose to format it, organize your information, and talk about specific experiences depends not just on your career path, but on your field, the job youre applying for, the company that job is at, and more.

So there isnt a universal way to do a resume. But there are common themes. To give you some context as to how yours might turn out, here are three examples of different kinds of resumes.

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Why Shouldnt I Use A Resume Template

Some job seekers believe that employers frown upon the use of templates, but its not true. Resume templates are just an easy way to give your application an attractive design and help you organize your information.

However, many people still prefer not to use a template. If, for example, you have a knack for graphic design and want to create your own one-of-a-kind resume, then using a template isnt for you.

If thats the case, you can make a resume in Microsoft Word or Google Docs without a template. But to help you do this, we suggest learning how to write a resume properly first, and using a resume outline to help guide you through the process just so you make sure to include all the essential information.

Choose The Most Suitable Format

Before you start writing anything, the first step is to decide on the right format for your resume. There are three basic resume formats used by job seekers today: reverse-chronological, functional, and combination. Each format has advantages and disadvantages based on how the resume sections are arranged:

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Why Do I Need Different Resumes For Every Job Application

No two jobs are exactly alike. Even if you apply for two positions with the exact same title, its likely that each company highlights different skills and traits in their job descriptions. Thats why we recommend that you tailor your resume to address the specific requirements in the job description before you send out your application. Usually this would be a headache for job seekers, but our resume creator allows you to build fully-customized resumes in just minutes.

How To List Skills In Your Resume

When mentioning skills in your resume, there are 3 essential steps to follow:

Step #1 – List Hard Skills with Experience Levels. For each hard skill you list, you want to mention your proficiency level:

As a rule of thumb, you can divide them by:

Beginner – You have some experience with the skill, whether its from some entry-level practice or classroom education.

Intermediate – Youve used the skill in a work environment with a good level of understanding.

Advanced – Youre the go-to person for the skill in your office. You can coach other employees, and understand the skill on a high level.

Expert – Youve applied this skill in more than a handful of different projects & organizations. Youre the go-to person for advice about the skill, not just in your office, but even amongst some of the best professionals in your field.

Make sure to NEVER lie about your skill levels. Otherwise, its going to be pretty awkward both for you and your employer.

Imagine your first task at work as an Illustrator – to create a graphic vector to go nicely with an article. If you end up delivering a hastily drawn stick figure colored with a paint bucket tool in Microsoft Paint, youll be out of the job before your probation period ends.

Step #2 – Tailor Your Skills to the Job. You might have some super rare, awesome skills, but theyre not always going to be useful. For example, its awesome that you know accounting, but would you really need it at your new job as a line cook? Exactly!

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