Resume Best Practices

I just wanted to outline a few best practices that I usually looked for and have picked up over the years with building a resume. Most of them still seem to be unknown to the majority.

Keep it to One Page
Unless you have a multitude of experience that is relevant to a position there is not much of a reason to have multiple pages for a resume.  That includes the cover letter that still most people believe goes in hand with a resume.  Most of the time 2 page resumes are because you want to outline every task you have ever done.  You are missing the point of a resume.  You should outline accomplishments not tasks - ie, Set plan in place for faster production that gained the company $0.25 an hour.

It is bittersweet, but anyone can learn to do a job.  Your unique knowledge and skill set will set you apart from the other resumes.

Give Yourself Some Style
This is a grey area that takes a moment of thought.  Your traditional resumes can all bleed together for a hiring manager or recruiter, it becomes like the rest and quickly skimmed.  Adding in style, formatting, color can help set your resume apart from the rest.  That doesn't mean put your name in fancy curly fonts or the entire text in bright green because it your favorite color.

Simply take the time to add your style to it that way when it is reviewed, it gets an extra moment because it is unique.  In my previous post I gave a link to Primer Mag that has some great examples of style in a resume.

One final thing to note, if you are applying to a straight laced corporation or traditional company, you may be better off going with a professional layout and making it clean and organized.

Summarize Do Not Objectify
I am pretty sure everyone that has seen resumes or taken a class has heard about doing a cover letter with an objective or adding an objective to their resume.  Point blank, it is a waste of time and can even come across as a bullshitter. The vast majority of objection statements I have read start with "I want to work for [blank] because [fill in experience with the position or went to school for or hopes and dreams of advancement.]

Stick to summaries to start off your resume.  Summarize your accomplishments, what skills you have that set you apart from the rest.  This is basically your elevator pitch (sell yourself in 20 seconds.)  No where should it say that you are good for the position because.... etc.  It should be focused on your skills and professional accomplishments.

One Resume Does Not Fit All
Typically any positions you hold will cover a wide range of skills that you learn.  Just because you are in a greeter position does not mean you may not have been given the task to maintain merchandising, store organization, or even accountability to assist customers when other associates are busy.  If you do not express the skills you learned during your position and just tell me the tasks you did then I would never know that you are capable for a customer service position you applied to.

In a nutshell, make sure to pick and sell the skills applicable to the position you applied to in your resume.  The actual job post will have the requirements listed out for you like a cliff notes.  No one cares that you can drive a forklift if you applied for a sales position.

So you need to do a resume

As a hiring manager, I found the average individual feels a resume is not very important until a specific position level.  While it is true a resume may not be needed for an entry level part-time position, it says something to not put the effort into the process.

Keep in mind that our day an age requires almost all application processing online now.  So you sell yourself short to not present a resume to the hiring manager that is just looking at your profile and test results.  Your resume is a window into WHY you should be hired based on your credentials.

My personal exceptions for 'No Resume'

• No prior work experience - However, I feel even a student can give their experience in school, volunteer work, sports, etc.
• Seasonal/Temporary Work - another grey area but typically you just interview to fill

On the flip side, as with anything, I have a hard time accepting my own advice for what to do when looking for a job.  I do have a resume, multiple resumes, in fact.  However, I deal with second guessing myself and my decisions.  I wonder if I over-sold my experience and passion, I wonder if it came across how I meant it to be..  The list goes on.

I always have friends, family, peers, prior colleagues give a quick review of a resume before I decide to use it.  Alterations are made simply to meet more in line with what each position I apply for requires.

As an example,

I wouldn't leave on my resume that I spent time creating an action plan to reduce customer wait times in a store if I was applying for a desk job.

It still may have relevance, but for the brief 2-3 minutes that my resume might have. I want what will make them want to sit and talk to me upfront and easy to read.

I have recently read some decent article on some free resume templates.  One over on Primer Mag and the other at The Muse.  The Primer article offers advice for some best practices on how to setup your resume.  

Something that I have had questions on before was how to handle promotions in the same company on a resume.  The obvious is to list all the positions you have had with what you did in those positions.  I consider a more relevant way to approach it is to list all the positions in order from newest to oldest with their date ranges.  Then to give your summary of what you accomplished while at the company.  This approach is more for a linear promotion chain though.  If you had a promotion from retail to a call center then to marketing, you may want to break down those positions to show what you contributed/learned.