How To Put Together A Job Resume

Is There Such A Thing As A Correct Resume

Not necessarily. There is no right and wrong when it comes to resume content and format. Each resume is as unique as the individual it represents. It is up to you to select the appropriate content that best highlights your skills for the employment you hope to acquire, and then effectively communicate your qualifications in a format that is clear and easy to read.

But What Happens In Real Life

Olga Barlet, Recruiter / HR Generalist at TinyBuild

The first thing we look for in a resume is relevant experience. We appreciate when a candidate doesnt just write the name of the company they worked for, but also the tasks they performed. Indicating projects in your resume helps us to understand the genres and platforms that youve worked on, and thats important. Other big pluses are work on your own projects and participation in game jams.

For us, alarm bells in a candidates resume are frequent changes of workplace and grammar mistakes.

Its great when candidates write a cover letter. There have been cases when a candidates experience wasnt entirely suitable, but they managed to convince us in their cover letter that they were exactly the person we were looking for.

Alyona Mironova, Recruitment Specialist at Ubisoft Ukraine

We pay attention to the technology the candidate has worked with, and to their experience in terms of quality, not quantity.

Whatever level the position may be, for us the candidates level of English is important, as its the main language for communication. Thats true both for professional and informal communication, as Ubisoft is a multinational company.

Sometimes a candidate doesnt put their contact details in the resume, and then the recruiter just cant contact them. Red flags for Ubisoft recruiters are frequent changes of workplace, as we are looking to build long-term partnerships.

, HR Recruiter at MYTONA

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.

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You Can Include Series 7 In Education/certification Section

For starters, we invite you to check out the example before reading the remaining part of this section. It will be easier to get an idea of how series 7 resume should look.

As you see, another option you have is to talk about series 7 in the education/certificate section. One option that you have is to put this before the experience section. That especially counts if a series 7 license is crucial for your career. Remember what we said in those cases, series 7 needs to be in an extremely visible place.

Yet, there is one thing that if need to highlight here. If you plan to name this section certificate, then you need to add one more H3 to that part. Keep in mind that series 7 is a license . Apply the structure you see in the example above.

Finally, how to put series 7 on resume if you have more than one license? The more licenses you have, the chances of getting a job will be bigger. However, series 7 should be in the first place . In that way, you will ensure that the hiring manager wont miss that information.

Create A Clear Education Section

Having a clear education section is essential for your resume, especially if youre a recent college graduate or have minimal work experience.

If you lack professional experience but have a good track record in school , your education section should be highly detailed to highlight all of your education-related accomplishments.

On the other hand, if you possess more than a few years of professional experience, then its appropriate to keep your education section short and sweet.

Additionally, if youre a student or recent graduate, list your education section above the experience section of your resume. This way, you emphasize your most marketable qualifications at the top of the page.

Here are the main points to include in a standard education section:

• The names of your university, community college, or technical school
• Location of the schools
• Date of graduation
• Degree
• GPA

Additionally, include relevant coursework on your resume if youre a recent graduate and dont have much work experience yet.

Here are two examples demonstrating how to format your education section:

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Make Sure Your Resume Is Easy To Read

Dont go crazy with that formatting we talked about. If an employer cant easily skim your resume they wont waste their time on it. Dont choose an unreadable font, one thats too small, or shrink your line spacing too far. Bullets are your friends here. They help communicate information easily and make a page look much less crowded.

Types Of Skills To Add To Your Resume

Skill sets can be divided into hard skills and soft skills. Hard skills are ones that can be quantified and often proven with a degree or certificate. These are generally teachable, technical skills, like coding, foreign language proficiency, or software usage.

Soft skills, on the other hand, are more subjective and harder to prove or quantify. Theyre often referred to as people skills or interpersonal skills, as they usually relate to how you interact with others.

Soft skills can include emotional intelligence, problem-solving, work ethic, or similar skills. While these are important, simply noting these skills doesnt say much. In your cover letter and interview, its best to share specific examples of when you demonstrated these skills.

Certain hard skills are definitely necessary to succeed in a position. However, many employers are starting to look for candidates who are strong in soft skills as well. This is because its generally easier for someone to be trained in a hard skill as opposed to a soft skill .

Another means of classifying skills for resumes is whether they are job-specific or transferable. Similar to hard skills, job-specific skills allow an individual to excel in a specific position. They are usually attained through some form of education, a training program, or on-the-job experience.

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Consider Adding Optional Sections

If you have significant white space on your resume, consider adding an achievements or interests section. This can help supplement a shorter resume, especially for those with limited work and educational experience. Makes sure that the achievements and interests you list support your career goals and are relevant to potential employers.

When You Must Combine Cover Letter And Resume: Job Boards

But what about those instances where you have no choice other than to combine your cover letter and resume?

While this is a rare requirement, there is one place where it may be mandatory: when uploading to a job board.

While many job boards provide a way to upload multiple documents, you may encounter some that lack that option.

If thatâs the case, then you will need to submit your cover letter and resume as a single document.

While some experts recommend placing the cover letter first in a combined document, itâs safer to start with the resume. The reason for that is that you want hiring managers to see the resume right away. Some may assume that itâs just a cover letter if thatâs the first thing they see.

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Which Resume Format Is Best

First things first. Make sure you search the job posting for any instructions about the format. Most job postings mention which format to use for your resume.

If youre sure nothing is there, search in the Career section on the company website for information.

Still no answer? Now its the time to pick favorites!

Here are the pros and cons of both PDF and Word, with our take on which one is best.

Tips For Writing Your First Resume

If you are worried about writing your first resume or are struggling with the task, youre not alone! However, it does not have to be intimidating.

Many students and recent graduates worry that they dont have enough experience to create a compelling resume. However, dont worry.

There are many ways to emphasize your skills and experiences, even if this is your first job.

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How To List Education On Your Resume

The next section were going to cover is your Education. Lets start with the basics – how to format the education section & what to mention there. Then, well move on to tips & tricks thatll help you stand out

• Program Name. E.g.: B.A. in Business Administration
• University Name. E.g.: New York State University
• Years Attended. E.g.: 08/2008 – 06/2012
• GPA. E.g.: 3.9 GPA
• Honors. E.g.:Cum Laude, Magna Cum Laude, Summa Cum Laude.
• Academic achievements. Any interesting papers youve written, courses youve excelled in, etc.
• Minor. Minor in Psychology

Here’s an example:

Tips on perfecting your education section:

• If you dont have any work experience, mention your education section first.
• Mention your latest educational entry on top.
• If you have a university degree, dont mention your high school at all.
• ONLY mention GPA if you had a very impressive academic career .

Focus On Your Education And Skills

In lieu of a work experience section, it’s best to expand and focus on an education section to highlight the skills you’ve developed on your resume. What can you do well that this job requires? What will be useful to the hiring company? What have you done in school and what have you studied that has prepared you for assuming this job? This is generally a little easier if you’re a college graduate with specialized education, but even a high school graduate can talk about their electives and relevant coursework, why they wanted to take them, and what they learned from the class.

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Proofread And Print The Final Version

Before your resume is finalized, its important to carefully proofread it. Then print a copy to make sure whats on the printed page lines up with whats on your computer.

Once its set, print extra copies to bring to interviews with you. If you dont have a printer you can use, check with your local library or an office supply store to see if you can access a printer there.

Add Your Professional Resume Summary Statement

A resume summary statement is a short paragraph or section of bullet points at the beginning of a resume that highlights your professional skills and experience. Your summary should expand on your headline and communicate to recruiters and hiring managers why you are a good fit for the job.

Summary statements are not ideal for all job seekers. If you dont have much job experience or are changing careers, you might use the space to expand on your work history section, skills section, or write a strong resume objective statement instead.

Note: Career experts rarely recommend including a resume objective statement, but these summary alternatives can work in special circumstances such as in the case of career changes.

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What To Put In A Cover Letter

What to put in a cover letter. Learn what bosses and hiring managers think about the paper they get from you. This site contains affiliate links from which we receive a compensation . This is the perfect way to express how your specific skills are relevant to the open position. By sharon florentine senior writer, cio | recruiters, hiring managers and other hiring decision makers, not. Cover letter tips & tricks. Writing a cover letter is essential when applying for jobs. A cover letter is at least as important as a resume in helping you land an interview for the job you want. A cover letter provides a formal, written introduction to a company, a resume or a cv submission. Don’t include these things in your cover letter. Your cover letter is an important component of your application package. But they do not affect the opinions and recommendations of the authors. You want to land that job, so look good on paper

A cover letter provides a formal, written introduction to a company, a resume or a cv submission. How to include a cover letter. This is the perfect way to express how your specific skills are relevant to the open position.

You’ve got two to four seconds to grab a potential employer’s interest with your cover letter, according to romona camarata, regional director for r.l. How to start a cover letter. The problem could be the first im.

This is the perfect way to express how your specific skills are relevant to the open position.

Use A Functional Resume Format

This format is usually recommended for those who are changing fields or have minimal work experience. A functional resume highlights a more robust skills section at the top of your resume , and places professional experience in the section below. Heres an example of how to include your skills in this format:

Conceptualized and conducted marketing campaigns for an international market. Increased companys annual sales volume by 25%. Organized the successful launch of major consumer-focused product lines.

Customer Service Skills: Fulfilled over 25 customer technical inquiries per day on average. Grew overall customer satisfaction rating from 85% to 90% in a three-month span. Streamlined product manuals to help with customer onboarding

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Target Your Resume For Each Job You Apply For

Even though your resume is done, theres one more quick step that will help your resume get selected by the applicant tracking systems that companies use to screen resumes and the hiring managers who read the applications that are selected.

Incorporate the qualifications from the job listing into your resume job descriptions, skills, summary, and objective or profile. It only takes a few minutes, but using the same words and terms the employer uses will help ensure youre a strong match for the job.

Resume Design And Formatting

A resume should be easy to read, which means the document itself needs to be well formatted and limited to one or two pages. Many jobs in HR require attention to detail, so its especially important for an HR resume to use consistent formatting and design. For instance, be sure that:

• Your bullet points are consistent in size, style, and indentation
• Your fonts and formatting are consistentif job titles are going to be in bold and italics, make sure that all of your job titles are in bold and italics
• Your design is clean and readablefont size should be no smaller than 10 and keep at least a small amount of white space between sections and entries
• Your name and contact info are centered correctly on the page, if you choose to center them

Its also important that your resume is easily scannable by an ATS, which can have trouble with columns, overly fancy designs, text boxes, or graphics. So keep it simple and clean and only use formatting elements like bold, underline, italics, and color to emphasize different parts of the text.

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Never Include These Certain Elements

While there are many elements you should consider adding to your resume, there are a few things you should never include on your resume because they waste space, don’t tell the employer anything relevant, or could damage your personal brand. This list includes, but is not limited, to references, writing samples, and photos of yourself. Do not add this information to your resume unless an employer or recruiter asks you to provide them. In addition, make sure you’re not using an unprofessional email address. Kegmaster2017@email.com may have sounded great when you were younger, but it’s not the right message to send to prospective employers. It’s easy to create a free, professional-looking email address for your job-search activities with platforms like Gmail.

Next Steps After Your Resume

Now that weve covered everything you need to know about how to create a resume, lets talk cover letters & interviews.

After all, your resume is only the first step in your job search. To really land that job you deserve, you also need to craft a killer cover letter, and ace that upcoming interview.

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What Are Employers Looking For In A Resume

Hiring managers look for three things on your resume, What did you do? Why did you do it? And what was the result? says Muse career coach , owner of Career Therapy. If you can answer all three of these questions in…your resume bullet points, youre going to be on the right track.

Clear, easy-to-understand language is key. The truth is that most resumes make no sense. They are stuffed with jargon, they are too technical, and they are filled with redundancies. Try to read a resume that isnt yours and you will quickly realize that it feels like an alien wrote it, McGovern adds. Put yourself in the shoes of a recruiter who has no idea how your role workshow can you make your resume accessible to them?

The hiring manager also cares about more than just you and you alonethey care about you in relation to them. Hiring managers want to see if a candidate matches the requirements of the role theyre hiring for, Yurovsky explains. Your resume should paint this picture so the hiring manager not only knows what day-to-day responsibilities you can handle, but why you, above other, bring value to their organization.