And let me just say: most people's resumes suck.
Now, I'm not in HR, I don't have a job, and I'm not a career coach, but I'm critical, and I know ugly when I see it. And these resumes? They was ugly.
I've been told that I should put some advice-like posts in my blog so I'm not just entertaining (I hope), but also helpful. I like being helpful, and I can't stand ugly resumes. So here I am to give you...
ENTRY LEVEL'S RESUME ADVICE COLUMN
I'm going to get this out in the open: do not use a Microsoft Word template. It shows lack of creativity, lack of dedication to the resume process, and that will warrant itself to translate to lack of creativity, dedication, and competence on the job. If you're not creative enough to make your own resume, then maybe you would be better fit to fill out a job application at your local McDonald's. I don't think you need to submit a hard resume for that.
HEADING
So, let's begin at the top. Put your name, for god's sakes. And make it big.
Put your address under your name, but not so big. And if your current address isn't your permanent address, put your permanent as well. Then you don't need to go through the beauaucracy of "Oh, but I thought this was your place of residence," and you sounding unprofessional by going, "Yeah well, that was my dorm because I'm still in college, so I'm changing it every semester. You're just going to have to deal with updating your records everytime I decide I want to move." Also, if, say, your permanent address (where you vote and pay taxes) is in California and you're currently located in New York, it shows greater experience of inter-state citizenship and the fact that you're flexible about geographical living arrangements.
Also, put your phone number (the one they'll most likely be able to reach you at: your cell phone) and your e-mail. The proviso for the e-mail address is that you shouldn't put XxCuTiEpiE854735xX, or any other lame-ass e-mail address you've had since the sixth grade when AOL was the coolest thing and IMing was a good way to bypass the fact that your parents would only let you talk to that cute girl you had a crush on on the phone for a certain amount of time per day. Put something professional. Educational institutions are always a good bet. Also, anything involving your first name and/or last name is good. Numbers, strange capitalization patterns, nicknames, and seemingly random symbols are not good. I know this may come as a shock to some.
After that, we get to the meat of the resume: your life's history.
EDUCATION
If you're still in school, or just graduated (think three-ish months "just graduated"), put your education section first. And yes, these should be sections, with clear headings and separators. Put any educational institutions in reverse chronological order. That means put the most recently attended at the top. Indicate dates attended, location of the school, field(s) studied, and degree obtained. Some people say it's good to have GPA and accolades, but I'm not too keen on that fact. Maybe it's because I don't have a good GPA or any awards... but more often than not I've heard it's unecessary unless requested.
Unless you are a freshman or sophomore in college, do not put your high school. Yeah, yeah, you did international baccalaureate, you were a part of the key club, and you had a 4.5 inflated GPA with star track and field. So you were great when you were a teenager. You should have translated that greatness into college and not spent all your time hungover playing Super Smash Brothers, then you might still be impressive. In short, after sophomore year in college, nobody cares, and you should have moved on to better and greater things than high school. If you haven't, they probably don't want you. It's a harsh world out there.
EXPERIENCE
After education, you should show your relevant professional experience. Note that "relevant" and "professional" means that if you worked for Abercrombie & Fitch in the past as a "sales representative" (i.e. model who sells clothes, but really just stands at the doorway with their shirts off, you know what I'm talking about), it's probably not the best idea to put that on your resume if you're applying for a job at say, the NAACP or ACLU. They might not think too fondly of that experience.
This relevant professional experience should go in reverse chronological order, as well. If there happens to be a job that overlaps, put the most important/relevant one first, and the less important one after. As always, put the dates you were in the position, the title of the position itself, the employer, and the employer's location. As well, and this is quite important, underneath each write two to three bullet points about what exactly you did while in the position. Do not write a novel. Do not leave something unexplained. Be specific. Be succinct.
OTHER
After your experiences section, you should have a place for the bits and pieces that don't really fit anywhere else. On my resume are computer proficiencies, language proficiencies, extracurricular activities, board memberships, and interests. You can put awards here, you can put special skills here, and just any other things that don't really fit the realm of education or work experience. The trick is that for any position you held or award you won, write when it happened. And as for proficiency in language or technology: don't lie, and be specific. If you can read, speak, and understand French, but can't write it, don't say you're fluent. It'll get you in trouble.
And here are some other things that I'd like to mention in my "other" section of this advice blog:
- Don't use font below 10 pt. It looks cluttered and ugly.
- Don't use margins smaller than .5". It looks cluttered and ugly.
- Just don't make your resume cluttered and ugly. If you personally don't think it's pretty, a recruiter or HR professional probably won't think it's pretty. They won't think you're pretty. And you'll get rejected. Some tips for clearing the resume and making it nice looking are: columns, headings, bold when necessary, italics when necessary, and serif & sans-serif font for specific purposes (i.e. headings)
- Don't lie. I feel like it should be mentioned twice.
- "References upon request" is not necessary, nor are references directly on your resume. If you cannot procure references upon request, you won't get the job; it's implied.
That's all I can think of right now as far as resume advice goes. That, and I need to start preparing for my interview tomorrow. Don't be like me; don't leave it to the last minute.
If you have any questions or comments, or would like someone to anonymously look over your essay, leave a comment or send an email to entrylevelblog@gmail.com. It doesn't get any more anonymous than that.
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