Perfect Your Resume
We all know that a great resume is the key to your success. No matter if you are a job searcher, freelancer, or starting up your own business, your resume is ultimately what will get the ball rolling. As your greatest asset and first impression, perfecting that resume is essential. You want your potential employer or client at first glance, to see what a wonder you are. You want your resume to land you the job.
So get out that resume, and use this list of dos and don’ts to see if it’s up to par with the other creative professionals out there.
1.) Be sure that your resume generates interest in YOU. Employers and clients are likely viewing tons of resumes on a daily basis, so you most definitely want your resume to pique their interest in you as an individual and potential employee immediately. Act as your own publicist and let the resume serve as an example of your talent AND reflect your personality.
2.) Be creative. Resumes that utilize a distinctive type style that stands out, yet at the same time is easy to read is likely to attract employers and clients big time. Decorate your resume elegantly and ensure it features well-organized content. By decorating, I do not mean cute graphics, illustrations, or outlandishly cartoonish fonts - I mean creative in a subtle, professional way. Don’t OVERDO it.
3.) Pay attention specifically to the content in your resume. Obviously, spelling and grammar mistakes are a huge no-no, and content that does not speak to the true person you are and the experience you carry with you has no business being on there. If need be, get help writing your resume. There is nothing worse to employers/clients than a poorly written resume.
4.) Include a career chronology - this includes the names of employers/key clients and dates of employment. Employers and clients want to see where you have worked so they can evaluate the relevance of the experience to their jobs and projects.
5.) Important for freelancers - DIFFERENTIATE the freelance work you’ve done from full-time employment. This will help avoid any misperceptions of “job-hopping.”
6.) Always include a list of publications and/or awards you have received.
7.) Obviously list your education experience and degrees obtained as well. Highlighting your educational experience is especially important if you are just out of college and do not have any real work experience yet.
8.) Don’t forget computer skills. You always want an employer/client to know about your computer skills - highly critical skills in this day and age. And be sure to include whether you are proficient in a MAC, PC or both environments.
9.) Don’t include TOO much in the resume. This is why the portfolio exists. While it’s alright to include brief project and accomplishment highlights on your resume, the actual proof exists within your portfolio.
Next post we will go into more details on portfolios, and I have not forgot cover letters either. Stay tuned on how to write that perfect email cover letter to get the next freelance or work from home job you apply for.
Have a fabulous weekend, everyone!
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I LOVE this particular topic. Resumes can look so different. And in light of that I’m going to pose some questions as someone who was out of the working world for almost 6 years and was taught “old school” resume style writing.
Here’s a blast from the past…do we need an Objective statement?
#2: What are some nice fonts that look good? I personally don’t like the look of Times New Roman because I feel it’s too busy looking. Are Arial, Trebuchet, Tahoma, and Comic Sans MS ones that you’d recommend?
#4: Do we need to list the exact date? Or will the MM-YYYY suffice? I saw someone’s resume recently and it only had the year stated. I thought it was odd because it didn’t provide enough detail. Also, how far back in years should we list our experience?
#6: Should achievements be in their own section or mentioned under the job where the ‘highlight’ was accomplished?
#7: Is the Education section the “best” place to put additional coursework/certifications? Like MCSE or PMP certifications?
#8: Do we create a section that lists computer skills? Or should we somehow mention what skills we utilized at each job?
Thanks Karissa! These entries you do are enlightening and are generating some nice chatter.
You’re very welcome, Grace! I am very happy you are enjoying the blog. Thank you so much for the questions - I will most definitely answer them in future postings on resumes (check back next week!) :o)
Have a wonderful weekend!