Anything That Makes Your Resume More Than Two Pages
Unless you have a Ph.D. and are writing an academic CV or unless youve been working for 10-15+ years your resume should not be more than two pages.
For 60-70% of people, your resume should only be one page.
So focus on whats most important and keep the length short.
As a recruiter, Id rather see 8 specific skills that are relevant to the job Im hiring for, rather than a list of 30 general skills that youve used throughout your career but might not be relevant to the job. So make your resume laser-focused and target their needs!
List Of Relevant Skills Tools And Certifications
Your skills section should include relevant technical or hard skills and soft skills. You can include any tools youve mastered or certifications youve obtained as well.
The skills you include should be relevant to the job that interests you. For example, you may have excellent hard skills in different areas, but all of those skills may not be applicable to the job. If you are a skilled violinist, that may not be a good skill to put on your resume when applying for a job in construction.
You can learn what skills potential employers are looking for by reading the job description. As you read through job posts, write down keywords that match your skills and include them in your skills section as appropriate.
Your skills section might look something like this:
*Technical skills: Welding Electrical Systems Modern safety equipment Knowledge of major OSHA safety regulations OSHA Certification SMAW Welding Tools*
*Additional skills: Willingness to learn Attentive Organized Effective communicator Safety-conscious*
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Spell Your Name Correctly
Misspelled names are actually one of the top five mistakes hiring managers see. If your name isnt common, spell check wont pick it up.
Dont spend hours meticulously crafting the perfect document and then squander your hard work by accidentally misspelling your own name:
- Stephen Steven
- Shawn Sean
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What Is A Business Development Manager Position And How Phds Can Get Hired Into It
PhDs think that they are not cut out for business, that academia didnt teach them any business acumen, and that they can only access business-related positions once they have gained industry experience. This misconception comes from the academic idea that our most valuable assets are our technical or speciality skills. In reality, our tranferable skills are our biggest assets, and if you think about it in industry terms, you will notice that as PhDs, we have a lot of business skills. So, you shouldnt limit yourself to positions that value your technical skills when planning your transition. PhDs can get
List Your Experiences Or Skills
For Chronological/Combination Résumés, List Your Experiences
Starting with your most recent or current job, list your previous work experiences.
- This section shows where you have worked and when. It also states specific accomplishments for each position or job.
- This is where content can make your résumé run over a page, so be selective about what you include.
- Pick experiences that seem most relevant to the position you seek. For inspiration, think of your full-time or part-time work, summer jobs, occasional jobs, internships, fieldwork and special projects.
- Don’t worry whether your experiences are “good enough.” Employers admire people who have worked hard in a variety of positions.
- Always start each achievement with an accomplishment verb, like accelerated, achieved, expanded, influenced, solved, maintained, generated, effected, advised, controlled, trained or utilized.
- Don’t worry if there are gaps in the timeline, but keep everything in chronological order, with most recent jobs at the top.
Examples:
Southwestern Writing Center, Peer Writing Tutor, Yuma, AZ
Camp Granite Falls, Area Director, Mountainville, TNJune 2013September 2017- Directed staff of four while supervising 20 campers.- Taught crafts, sports and cooking.
For Functional/Combination Résumés, List Your Skills
Examples:
Self-Motivated: Proactively organized volunteers to assist with distribution at the community food bank.
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Name And Contact Information
At a minimum, your contact information section should include your name, phone number and email address. Depending on the type of job youre applying for, you might also include a link to an online portfolio or professional website.
An example contact information section might look like this:
A common practice is to use your name as the title of the page, formatted so that employers can easily identify your name and contact information first.
Related:
Guidelines For What To Include In A Resume
When you are writing a resume, there are a number of resume formats you can choose, including chronological, functional, and targeted resumes. However, regardless of the format you select, there are certain guidelines that most resumes should follow.
Here’s information on what to include in your resume, as well as what shouldn’t be listed on your resume. There are also guidelines for resume length, font, and page margins.
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Order Resume Sections By Strength
If you have plenty of professional experience and its your best selling point, place that above your education. On the other hand, if youre a recent graduate with only an internship as experience, put your education at the top.
If youre having trouble figuring out how to arrange all your information on the page, try using a resume outline to help you organize the sections of your resume.
Additionally, using a resume template with two columns can help you arrange your skills and education sections to best catch the hiring managers eye.
How To Choose A Resume Format
Choosing the right resume format for you is very important. Different resume formats allow you to choose which professional attributes to highlight. This influences how a recruiter or hiring manager will judge your qualifications. To choose your resume format, start by evaluating your career history and future goals.
The chronological format works for most people on a traditional career path. If you have been in the same industry for most of your career and are applying for another job within that space, this is a safe option. This format works best if you have no major gaps in employment and your work history speaks for itself in terms of growth and promotions.
The hybrid resume format offers similar benefits but more flexibility than the chronological format. As such, its a great resume format for most job seekers. Its a perfect option if you have skills that were developed outside of your professional experience, have minor gaps in your experience, or are changing careers.
The functional resume format is worth a try if you havent found success with the chronological or hybrid resume formats. It can also be a good option for new graduates with no work experience or someone reentering the workforce after taking time off.
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Words To Avoid Putting On Your Resume
You have a very short span of time to give the right impression to the potential employer: adding the right words is fundamental. Using these words reduces the opportunity to interview by 51% and of job candidates receive an interview invite. We may often feel that we have described ourselves in the resume with verbs as go-getter, enthusiastic, teamplayer etc.. but verbs imply action and these are truly just adjectives. Strong verbs as, mentored, engaged, achieved, developed with the result that has been achieved using these verbs are preferable. These 3 words are often misinterpreted as verbs.
Why You Need A Resume
In todays job market, the resume has become the number one requirement potential employers request. Before an employer will take valuable time to interview you, he or she wants to meet you on paper. How you impress that employer with your resume can, and will, make all the difference.
Without a resume, you cant even begin to compete, and an inferior resume will quickly eliminate you before you even have a fighting chance. That is why it is imperative to have a superior resume, one that effectively lets employers know what you can do for them.
A Resume is a Summary of Your Qualifications
The term resume comes from the French and means a “summary.” Thats exactly what your resume is: A summary of your qualifications, skills, and achievements. It shows a future employer what you have done in the past. It details your skills and training, work experience, and education, and, most importantly, the accomplishments you have made with past employers.
It should also inform the employer of your career objective and communicate in a concise manner the benefits you will bring to the job if hired.
Skills Versus Employer Benefits
The Purpose of the Resume is to Get You an Interview
How often have you thought, “If only I had met with the employer in person, I could have convinced him that I was the right person for the job!” Your only chance is to compose an impressive resume, one that will get noticed and get you in the door so you can meet the employer in person and get the job.
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Common Sense Is The Best Judge Of What Belongs In Your Resumeusing It Will Help You Keep Your Resume To The Point
What should a resume include?
If you’re in the middle of updating or writing your resume, you may be asking yourself any of these questions: How long should my resume be? How can I fit all my experience on one page? What should a resume include?
If you are, you’re not alone. As millions of workers update their resumes, one of the top concerns is resume length. Not long ago, job seekers followed the resume golden rule: No resume should exceed one page. However, today’s job seekers are finding that rule no longer applies.
In this time of confusion, the solution is simple: common sense. If you are just graduating, have fewer than five years of work experience or are contemplating a complete career change, a one-page resume will probably suffice.
Some technical and executive candidates require multiple-page resumes. If you have more than five years of experience and a track record of accomplishments, you will need at least two pages to tell your story.
How To Format Your Resume
The rise of online job applications has caused employers to receive more applicants than they can handle. This has resulted in most companies using applicant tracking systems , a tool that can rank, filter, and sort applicants.
Most ATS work by parsing resumes and allowing the recruiter to search by keyword to see a list of top-ranking candidates. This means that without the right skills and keywords, your resume could slip through the cracks. Choosing the correct keywords is essential to making it through ATS.
Resume formatting plays a role in how searchable your resume is within an ATS.
Here are some resume formatting tips.
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Add Your Education Certifications And Any Other Relevant Information
There are other resume sections that may be worth adding, depending on both the job and your unique experience. These sections include things like education, awards and accolades, volunteer experience, and certifications. Keep in mind that your resume should always be showcasing your skills for that particular job, so anything in your history that doesnt support the image of you being a perfect candidate for the role doesnt need to be included.
Education
Its common to include your education on your resume, especially if you are applying to a job that requires a degree. If youre a few years into your career, your resumes education section can be minimized at the bottom of your resume. Unless youre applying in a career that puts extra emphasis on education , most job seekers can get away with providing only the following information on their resume:
- Name of Institution
Awards, Accolades, & Certifications
All three of the aforementioned things can be embedded in the work experience and skills sections of your resume. However, if you would like to highlight them, they could warrant a section of their own. Either way, relevant certifications, and honors will increase your credibility.
Include Dates Hours Level Of Experience And Examples For Each Work Experience
For each work experience you list, make sure you include:
- Start and end dates .
- The number of hours you worked per week.
- The level and amount of experiencefor instance, whether you served as a project manager or a team member helps to illustrate your level of experience.
- Examples of relevant experiences and accomplishments that prove you can perform the tasks at the level required for the job as stated in the job announcement. Your experience needs to address every required qualification.
Example
- Experience/Accomplishment
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Conquer Applicant Tracking Systems
Many large corporations now use ATS software to sort through the thousands of applications they receive on a regular basis. These systems search for keywords and key phrases relevant to the position theyre hiring for and filter out applicants who did not use the correct vocabulary.
If you need some proven ways to build an ATS friendly resume, there are a variety of tactics most candidates arent familiar with.
Should I Include Soft Skills In My Skills Section
Hiring managers often consider soft skills to be just as important as hard skills, if not more so. That said, these skills are not often included in a separate skills section since they are usually intangible and harder to evaluate. While your soft skills are incredibly important, theyre better portrayed if you give them some context. In other words, tell a story.
To include soft skills in your resume, tuck them into your bullets. Making the first word relate to your soft skills is particularly effective. For example, instead of, Assisted with annual corporate retreat, you could write, Collaborated in a group of four to plan and facilitate annual corporate retreat for 200 employees. While both bullets describe the same task, only the second one shows that youre a team player. Instead of, Attended monthly sales meetings, you could write, Presented product insights to 12 clients in monthly sales meetings, to demonstrate strong communication skills.
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How To List Education On A Resume
Another essential part of your resume is the Education section. Here, you describe your academic career with any relevant achievements.
Heres how youd format your education section:
And heres how this would look on a resume:
Keep in mind that you should mention your education in reverse-chronological order. So, the most recent thing goes on top.
When writing your education section, heres a couple of things you should keep in mind:
You Don’t Always Need To Leave It Off Entirely You Can Keep Things Short On Your Resume Instead
If one of your jobs was 10+ years ago, and has some relevant skills, include it but keep your experience short. For example, just include the job titles, with a maximum of 1-2 bullet points under it.
Here’s an example from an older worker’s resume these are roles they did 20-25 years ago, and we just include the job titles.
Leave off the accomplishments when listing older experience on your resume.
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Which Jobs Should You Leave Off Of Your Resume
Heres a checklist of things to consider when deciding whether or not you should include a job on your resume. Here are jobs you should consider leaving off your resume:
Keep Your Resume To One Or Two Pages
While some people find it difficult to find enough positive things about themselves to fill one page, others have the opposite problem.
For entry- and mid-level professionals, a one-page resume is the most common resume length. A two-page resume is fine if you have extensive experience or skills and really cant cut things down further.
Three or four-page resumes are almost exclusively used by senior executives or academics with publications.
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Detail Your Work Experience
The work experience section is the heart of your resume. Employers look at this section closely to determine whether your job history and prior accomplishments make you a promising candidate.
Thats why its important to detail not only your job responsibilities but also your competence in prior roles. The work experience section is your chance to show recruiters and hiring managers how you have added unique value to other companies.
The first things a recruiter looks for on your resume are the job titles youve held and the caliber of companies youve worked with. Make this information easy to find by sticking to a familiar format.
List each job in reverse-chronological order. Each job should have its own subheading that includes the following information:
- Company