Learn How to Evaluate Resume Writing Examples Like A Pro
Magazine, books and online you can find a lot of examples of resumes. Some are decent, some are outright excellent. The trick is to find the execellent ones and to be able to tell a fine resume from one that is not so good oe even terrible. Due to their experience in this matter most employers can tell the best resumes just by taking a quick look at it. It is vital for your success thatyou can evaluate your own resume, find the weak spots and improve on them. As in any part of life there are do's and donts:
A list of the top 10 things we recommend you NOT to do on your resume.
- Don't Lie. Most people think that a little lying on their resume won't hurt them and can make them look better. Don't fall for that. Maybe the lie may make you look better on paper, but even that remains to be seen. What is certain is that if the person responsible for screening the resumes finds you out, you could be banned from ever making a job application to the company again. And if you do get away with the lie at first, chances are that later on someone will find out and you could be fired.
- Don't use paragraphs to write in. Paragraphs are used in books and essays . Make sure instead that your resume reads easy, use bullet points ( see how this article reads easy with the bullet points?) They highlight your information and make it stand out.
- Don't copy the job responsibilities from a previous job if you don’t want to do them anymore. There are maybe some responsibilities from your former job that you were good at, but hated doing. Don’t list them in your resume or chances are you’ll end up doing the same things you hated in your former job.
- Don't go crazy with a lot of different fonts and headings in your resume . Choose your style and stick with it for the entire outlay of the resume. If you choose a style make sure it is easily readable. Your best bet is to go with Times New Roman or Arial. Both of these resemble the typewriter font and read very well.
- Don't have any spelling mistakes, typo’s or grammatical errors on your resume. Check it once, double check it, then check it another time and finally have someone else read over it and have them check it again. One spelling error could well make your resume disappear in the "trash" pile.
- Don't keep unrelated or superfluous information on your resume. All it does is hide the information that is in fact relevant from the reader . Make it as easy as possible for the reader to pinpoint the info that you want to get across. Other than that the fluffy stuff takes up valuable space on your resume (see the next point).
- Don't use more than one page. Taking into account the previous point, you must strive to get all your resume info on one single page. Leave off any of the fluffy and irrelevant stuff. And make sure that one page looks as good as it can be. Make it short and to the point. But – don't go overboard and force it into one page using the smallest font on the planet. If you really need to have that much information and you know that it is vital and relevant info, by all means, use two pages.
- On the other hand: don't put a too large amount of information in your resume. If you happen to have a very long job history, going back a number of years, my advice would be not to go back more than about ten years or so. Anything past those ten years is really just dead weight on your resume anyway.
- Don't emphasize any shortcomings you may have. Whereas you are not supposed to lie, you are not supposed to make your resume a tell-all book either. Be as positive about yourself as possible . This is a golden tip: negative does not work, positive does. If you've had previous difficulties in some areas before it's best not to mention this at all.
- Don’t use the same resume for each and every job opening you apply for. Better is to custom tailor it and make it so it will appeal to that specific employer you are aiming at.
