The Gentle Art of Making Resumes
Your Resume is one of the most important personal documents you’ll ever create (and quite possibly one of the most time consuming). Creating a high performing Resume (one that gets you interviewed) is somewhat of an art form and when the competition is high it’s an art form you’re best to conquer. Here are some key criteria you should consider when creating yours.
Format: It’s one of the hardest parts of the art form to master but as they say in Master Chef, “Keep it simple” and make it clean! Choose a professional font (Arial or Calibri Body are good choices and 10pt for Arial and 11pt for Calibri are just about right) and stick with it throughout. Keep your margins and bullets consistent. Use a basic footer and when it comes to listing your job roles; date, position title and company are essential.
Profile: This should be your elevator pitch (not your Cover Page!) and it should be no more than one paragraph. It’s not an easy thing to do but if you get it right it can be a powerful tool in capturing the recruiters’ interest.
Qualifications: Front page material and in bullet form. Make sure to include the name of the qualification/s, the year you received it/them and the name of the institution/s.
Key achievements: Again, front page material (for the most). Key achievements are another powerful tool towards gaining ongoing interest. What value have you added to past employers? What have you achieved that increased your employer/s bottom line; built goodwill; improved systems etc? And a word to the wise – try not to confuse key strengths with key achievements – key strengths should form part of your Profile paragraph.
Grammar and punctuation: As a professional document there should not be a single error in grammar or punctuation. F7 is there for the using. It amazes me how many people submit their Resume with grammatical errors all over it. Proof read, proof read, proof read! And as for bullet points, if there’s more than 6 per section you have some downsizing to do.
Length: 4 – 6 pages is ideal. If it’s more than 6 pages chances are you’ve got some war and peace stuff in there. You only need to clearly explain the key deliverables in your job role and the deliverables you achieved.
Contact details: This may sound like a fait accompli but if I had a dollar for every time I’ve seen contact details on the last page of a Resume then I’d easily have enough money for that top shelf golf driver I want so badly! Contact details are page 1 material.
Photos: To be used for social and professional networking sites. Never in a professional resume (unless of course, you’re in modelling!).
Horizon Recruitment Solutions has helped many professionals and support staff transform their Resume and right now we’re offering a free professional, obligation free and 100% confidential health check of your Resume.
We’ll communicate back to you on how yours matches up to the essential criteria of any high performing Resume and post review you choose whether you’d like us to retain the Resume or delete it from our system.
To take advantage of this free offer simply email your Resume to cc@horizonrecruitment.com.au or call direct on 0411 492 440 to discuss.
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The Gentle Art of Making Resumes
