Blog Alan Corey

Thursday, June 28, 2012

9 Things to Check Before Sending Out Your Resume

As a job hunter, it is vital for you to understand how you can sell yourself. The first impression which you create about yourself is through your resume which tells a lot about not only your education and experience but also about various details about your personality. Your resume should certainly reflect the current trends of resume writing and at the same time should also reflect professionalism and industry requirements. If you are looking up for landing on your dream job or a higher salary, you need to have a great resume which will be the best for floating around in your industry.

Most of the people feel that writing the perfect resume is an enormous task, which is just a myth. As long as you understand the below pointers, you are sure to create a fabulous, executive resume.
1) Are there long sentences in your resume? Long sentences and lengthy paragraphs make the reader lose interest in your resume. Try cutting down the length of the paragraphs as much as possible and convey the essential features as bullet points which makes it easy to read and understand.
2) Is it positive? It is important to make sure that your resume and cover letter has a positive overtone throughout. A depressed or a negative overtone of your resume will not help you to get an interview.
3) Is it too technical or geeky? It is highly important that the use of slang, flowery language and jargons is completely avoided. You should certainly sound professional in your resume and your type of language matters a lot.
4) Is it professional? Do not cram everything into your resume without proper demarcations. It takes only 15-30 seconds to scan a resume, so it is your responsibility to make a good impression in that little space of time. Adequate spacing is important and make sure that there are no spelling, typos and grammatical mistakes.
5) Is it in an active voice? Use of active voice is a must. Strong, effective words make a big difference and words like ‘managed’ or ‘organized’ should be used.
6) Does it leave them wanting more? Apart from the powerful content, a clean and simple resume manages to get the maximum attention. Having a lengthy resume of five or six pages is unnecessarily wordy. Leave them wanting to learn more about you.
7) What is the competition doing? Before you create your resume, check out a few online samples of resumes in your specific field. What is your competition (other potential hires) doing?