Hello, readers, are you really excited to learn how to make an impressive RESUME?
So here we have shared some important tips related to How to make an impressive resume. By the end of this article you will have a clear understanding of how to make an impressive resume?
The resume should be visually enticing (attractive) works of art. It should have
- Simple clean structure
- Very easy to read
- Symmetrical
- Balanced
- Uncrowded
As much white space between sections of writing as possible; sections of writing that are no longer than six lines, and shorter if possible. There should have uniformity and consistency in the use of italics, capital letters, bullets, boldface, and underlining. Absolute parallelism in design decisions. For example, if a period is at the end of one job’s dates, a period should be at the end of all job dates; if one degree is in boldface, all degrees should be in boldface.
As mentioned above, the resume’s first impression is the most important. It should exceptionally visually be appealing, to be inviting to the reader. Remember to think of the resume as an advertisement.
Remember, resumes should be absolutely error-free.
- No typographical errors.
- No spelling errors.
- No grammar, syntax, or punctuation errors.
No errors of fact.
Should include all the basic information.
A resume must have the following key information:
- Name, address, phone number, and your email address at the top of the first page,
- A listing of jobs held, in reverse chronological order,
- Educational degrees including the highest degree received, in reverse chronological order.
- Additional, targeted information will of course accompany this.
Much of the information people commonly put on a resume can be omitted, but these basics are mandatory. Jobs listed include a title, the name of the firm, the city and state of the firm, and the years. Jobs earlier in a career can be summarized, or omitted if prior to the highest degree, and extra part-time jobs can be omitted. If no educational degrees have been completed, it is still expected to include some mention of education (professional study or training, partial study toward a degree, etc.) acquired after high school.
Resume should reflect your skill.
A resume should be targeted to your goal, to the ideal next step in your career. First you should get clear what skills you have and what is your job goal, what the ideal position or positions would be. Then you should figure out what key skills, areas of expertise or body of experience the employer will be looking for in the candidate. Gear the resume structure and content around this target, proving these key qualifications. If you don’t have clear goal, take the skills (or knowledge) you most enjoy or would like to use or develop in your next career step and build the resume around those.
Strengths should be highlighted / weaknesses de-emphasized.
Focus on whatever is strongest and most impressive. Make careful and strategic choices as to how to organize, order, and convey your skills and background. Consider: whether to include the information at all, placement in overall structure of the resume, location on the page itself or within a section, ordering of information, more impressive ways of phrasing the information, use of design elements (such as boldface to highlight, italics to minimize, ample surrounding space to draw the eye to certain things).
It should be focused.
A resume needs an initial focus to help the reader understand immediately. Don’t make the reader go through through the whole resume to figure out what your profession is and what you can do. Think of the resume as an essay with a title and a summative opening sentence. An initial focus may be as simple as the name of your profession (“Commercial Real Estate Agent,” “Resume Writer”) centered under the name and address; it may be in the form of an Objective; it may be in the form of a Summary Statement or, better, a Summary Statement beginning with a phrase identifying your profession.
Use powerful words for every skills, accomplishment, or job described. Use the most active impressive verb you can think of (which is also accurate). Begin the sentence with verb, except when you vary the sentence structure to avoid repetitious writing.
Impressive resume is one which reflect you will be an asset :
Wherever possible, prove that you have the desired qualifications through clear strong statement of accomplishments, rather than a statement of potentials, talents, or responsibilities. Indicate results of work done, and quantify this accomplishment whenever appropriate. For example: “Initiated and directed complete automation of the Personnel Department, resulting in time-cost savings of over 25%.” Additionally, preface skill and experience statements with the adjectives “proven” and “demonstrated” to create this results-orientation.
Content of impressive resume is concise and to the point.
Keep sentences as short and direct as possible. Eliminate any extraneous information and any repetitions. Don’t use three examples when one will suffice. Say what you want to say in the most direct way as possible, rather than trying to impress with bigger words or more complex sentences. For example: “coordinated eight city-wide fund-raising events, raising 250% more than expected goal” rather than “was involved in the coordination of six fund-raising dinners and two fund-raising walkathons which attracted participants throughout St. Louis and were so extremely successful that they raised $5,000 (well beyond the $2,000 goal).”
Vary long sentences (if these are really necessary) with short punchy sentences. Use phrases rather than full sentences where possible, and start sentences with verbs, eliminating pronouns (“I”, “he” or “she”). Vary words: Don’t repeat a verb or adjective in the same paragraph. Use commas to clarify meaning and make reading easier. Remain consistent in writing decisions such as use of abbreviations and capitalizations, Makes it look great.
Impressive resume also impact by quality of printer:
Use a laser printer or an ink jet printer that produces high- quality results. A laser is best because the ink won’t run if it gets wet. It should look typeset. Do not compromise. If you do, your resume will look pathetic next to ones that have a perfect appearance. Use a standard conservative typeface (font) in 11 or 12 point. Don’t make them squint to read it. Use off-white, nivory or bright white 8 1/2 x 11-inch paper, in the highest quality affordable. If you are applying for a senior-level position, use Crane’s 100% rag paper and make sure the water-mark is facing the right way. Use absolutely clean paper without smudges, without staples and with a generous border. Don’t have your resume look like you squeezed too much on the page.
Shorter in length is usually better.
Everyone freely gives an advice on resume length. Most of these self-declared experts say a resume should always be one page. That makes no more sense than it does to say an ad or a poem should automatically be one page. Your resume can be 500 pages long if you can keep the reader’s undivided attention and interest that long, and at the same time create a psychological excitement that leads prospective employers to pick up the phone and call you when they finish your weighty tome. Don’t blindly follow rules! Do what works. Sometimes it is appropriate to have a three pager. But unless your life has been filled with a wide assortment of extraordinary achievements, make it shorter. One page is best if you can cram it all into one page. Most Fortune 500 C.E.O.s have a one-or two-page resume. It could be said that, the larger your accomplishments, the easier to communicate them in few words. Look to others in your profession to see if there is an established agreement about resume length in your field. The only useful rule is to not write one more word than you need to get them to pick up the phone and call you. Don’t bore them with the details. Leave them wanting more. Remember, this is an ad to market you, not your life history.
Length of consulting resumes.
In a consulting resume, you are expected to shovel it as deep as you possibly can. If you are selling your own consulting services, make it sizzle, just like any other resumes, but include a little more detail, such as a list of well-known clients, powerful quotes from former clients about how fantastic you are, etc. If you are seeking a job with a consulting firm that will be packaging you along with others as part of a proposal, get out your biggest shovel and go to town. Include everything except the name of your goldfish: A full list of publications, skills, assignments, other experience, and every bit of educational crapola that you can manage to make sound related to your work. The philosophy here is: more is better.
Watch your verb tense.
Use either the first person (“I”) or the third person (”he,” “she”) point of view, but use whichever you choose consistently. Verb tenses are based on accurate reporting: If the accomplishment is completed, it should be past tense. If the task is still underway, it should be present tense. If the skill has been used in the past and will continue to be used, use present tense (“conduct presentations on member recruitment to professional and trade associations”). A way of “smoothing out” transitions is to use the past continuous (“have conducted more than 20 presentations…”).
Break it up.
A good rule is to have no more than six lines of writing in any one writing “block” or paragraph (summary, skill section, accomplishment statement, job description, etc.). If any more than this is necessary, start a new section or a new paragraph.
Experience should be before education qualification.
Experience sections should come first, before education, in most every case. This is because you have more qualifications developed from your experience than from your education. The exceptions would be 1) if you have just received or are completing a degree in a new professional field, if this new degree study proves stronger qualifications than does your work experience, 2) if you are a lawyer, with the peculiar professional tradition of listing your law degrees first, 3) if you are an undergraduate student, or 4) if you have just completed a particularly impressive degree from a particularly impressive school, even if you are staying in the same field, for example, an MBA from Harvard.
Telephone number that will be answered. Be sure the phone number on the resume will, without exception, be answered by a person or an answering machine Monday through Friday 8-5pm. You do not want to lose the prize interview merely because there was no answer to your phone, and the caller gave up. Include the area code of the telephone number. If you don’t have an answering machine, get one. Include e-mail and fax numbers, if you have them.
