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Resume Writing 101

Resume Posting On ALL The Top 80 Job Sites

Writing a resume can be a daunting task but. You gather the necessary documents and important data to enclose and voila, a fully functioning resume, or so you think.  You begin to send them out in droves to all the businesses you are interested in, hoping that by sheer volume one of the companies is sure to call you.  But then you wait, and wait and then wait some more and still no phone call.  Why?  Chances are your resume was tossed out because it was not what the employer was looking for. 

Although competition is stiff these days your resume can get noticed if you write it correctly.  You at least want the chance to get called for an interview. Some individuals are quite capable of writing their own resume and those are the ones who are most likely to get noticed.  But then there are others who choose to write it themselves without any real experience, knowledge or know how. 

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Listed below are some of the do’s and don’ts of resume writing:

Poor Grammar- Check your resume for grammatical errors.  Nothing can turn a potential employer off more than poor grammar.  So make sure you have the correct tenses, past, present and future in a proper way. Also make sure that you know how to use “has” and “have” and your and you’re.  Although subtle you have to pay close attention to these things because that can separate you from someone who uses correct grammar.

Incorrect Spelling- The beauty about this is that spell check is readily available on most word processing platforms.  No one hand writes their resume (at least I hope not), so there should be no reason what so ever to have a misspelled word on your resume.  If that is the case the writer probably rushed through it without even looking it over to see if it was spelled right.  Take your time to look over your resume while on your computer so that the red underline doesn't appear under any words.

Irrelevant Information – So you are applying to a job that has nothing to do with what you've done in the past.  The skills required are not listed anywhere on your resume and you don’t know the first thing about accounting.  The employer will not be calling you, so you will be wasting their time and your own. Irrelevant information can also be listing things that are too personal or unimportant to the employer for example; adding religion, age, marital status, your personal hobbies or even a photograph of yourself.

It’s too long – Even if you've had extensive work experience there should be no reason why a resume should be longer than two pages.   The hiring manager or Human Resources personnel do not have the time to go through all of that.  Stick with the most relevant and important job experiences.  Also if you've held a job thirty years ago that has nothing to do with the job you are applying for leave it out.  Most future employers are looking for recent experiences anyway and should not date back so many years especially if it’s irrelevant.

It’s too short – Ok sure you have to start somewhere and if you have no job experience you should hire a professional to help you out there.  But if you do have experience try to come up with as many details as possible.  Try to avoid too many short sentences.  Changing the font size to 16 to make it look full wouldn't work either.  It will only be seen as an attempt to cover up a sparse resume.

Short term employment- You cannot avoid this but sometimes the employer wants to see that you have staying power so if you've had five jobs in six years says to them that you either get bored easily, cannot retain a job because of poor work performance or just don’t like it.  Either way they will see you as not someone reliable or has poor staying power.  Highlight the strong areas in your resume so that those gaps wouldn't look so blatantly obvious. 

These points can help you with your job search.  If you do not feel comfortable writing your own resume it will be good to consult someone who can, it will make a big difference in getting noticed.


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