Resume Tips and Tricks

When looking for a job, your resume is the most important element in marketing yourself. Studies show that on average a resume is only glanced over for approximately 10 to 30 seconds. Your resume must catch the eye of the viewer if you want to stand out from the other hundreds of applicants.

To help you, we have provided a few Tips you can use to improve your resume:

Determine your objective. Your resume should be specific to the position you are applying for. It is best to keep in mind what the company is looking for in an applicant and highlight these skills and qualifications in your resume.

Make your point. Though you do not want to leave out any important information, you also don’t want your resume to be too lengthy, especially since it will only be viewed for such a short period of time.

Begin sentences with action verbs. You want to be portrayed as an active individual who gets the job done. Use the past tense so as not to confuse the reader.

Focus on your achievements. It is a common mistake to simply state the duties you had in previous jobs. Your resume should be used to state the overall accomplishments you had while you were in any given position. When appropriate, try to use percentages, dollar totals, and numbers because they stand out in the body of the resume.

For example: Successfully managed a large pipeline project with a $2 million budget. Completed project 2 weeks ahead of schedule saving $24,000 in labor costs.

Organize your information. There is nothing worse than a resume that is confusing or unpleasing to the eye. One of the simplest and most overlooked things you can do to improve your resume is to just change the formatting and fonts (See the resume examples below). You can either put things in chronological order or by type (experience, education, skills, etc.). Using bullets is also another way to make your information look neatly arranged.

Proofread. Studies show that spelling errors and typos leave the highest negative impression with employers. Get a friend or a professional to look over your final copy. Sometimes all you need is a second opinion, because they are more likely to catch something you didn’t.

We hope that these tips have helped you to improve your resume. However if you need more assistance, due to the requests from our candidates, SiliconCantera recently started a new resume service. It is an easy way to get a new and improved resume with the help of a recruiting professional. Our resume specialists knows all there is to know about resumes because they look at them all day long for a living! Click here or e-mail Courtney at cmartwick@siliconcantera.com for more information about our resume service which starts as low as $35.

Below is an example of a resume SiliconCantera revised for one of our clients, as you can see many of the tips mentioned above helped to improve the overall appearance of the document.