3 Resume Writing Tips to Secure Your Dream Job
You’re a college student and you want a job. Let me rephrase that, you need a job! Graduation is quickly approaching, and you haven’t even…
You’re a college student, and you want a job. Let me rephrase that you need a job! Graduation is quickly approaching, and you haven’t even started looking. There’s one thing though, your resume sucks.
It’s 3 pages long. Your bullet points are unclear and unmeaningful. Your experiences don’t align with the jobs you are applying for.
I understand what it feels like to have a resume you aren’t proud of. Like you, I had a resume that was 4 pages long. I had to cut it down. My bullet points sucked, and I was not conveying a strong message.
I’ve asked dozens of people what is their biggest struggle when it comes to resume writing? There was a surplus of different responses, but they all fell into 3 different buckets.
Tailoring your resume to specific jobs
Formatting
Writing experiences concisely
I am going to give you a few action items to combat each of these struggles.
Tailoring your resume to specific jobs
Read the job description. Employers include the desired skills and requirements in their job descriptions. You don’t need to meet ALL of the qualifications on the job description. However, it is an excellent place to start so you can modify your experiences to meet the job description and WOW the employer.
Contact your recruiter. Your recruiter knows what they want. Send them an email, and schedule a time to talk to them about the job you are applying for. They will be more than happy to chat with you. However, if they don’t have time, send them a brief email with a few questions. Here are some of the things you can ask: What are the 3 skills that are critical to excelling in this job? What are 3 things that are critical to excelling at your company? Is there anyone you can connect me with to learn more about the position I am applying for? This last one is HUGE. Yes, the recruiter is marketing the job, but the team you are working with knows the job you are applying for better than anyone else.
Contact an employee. Reach out to an employee who works in the group or division you are applying for. You can ask your recruiter to connect you, or you can find them on LinkedIn.
Formatting your resume
Keep it to one page. Recruiters don’t have time to look through your 3-page resume. Cut it down!
Keep font size 10–12. MLA format, size twelve font, and times new roman! Nah, I’m just kidding. But seriously, keep your font a reasonable size. Cranking it up to 14 and making the margins super small to fill in your lack of experience will be very noticeable.
Use past tense to describe past positions and use present tense for current positions. This is a big one that a lot of people miss. Watch your grammar, people.
Writing experiences concisely and effectively.
Use powerful action verbs to describe your responsibilities and accomplishments. Generally, your experiences fall into a few different categories: you led a project, you planned and brought a project to life, you saved the company time or money, you increased sales, revenue, or customer satisfaction, etc. if you “led a project” try using words like chaired, controlled, coordinated, executed, etc. If you “planned and brought a project to life, try using words like “administered, built, chartered, created, etc.
Quantify whenever possible. Which sounds better: (1) Designed weekly reports. (2) Designed weekly enterprise-wide reports that generated 99% compliance with a new system used by 40,000 employees? That sounds beautiful, doesn’t it? Anyone would want to hire that guy. Not to brag, that point is on my resume. :)
You’re on your way to getting your dream job! You have a resume you’re proud of. You’re confident in your experiences. You can communicate your experiences confidently.
If you need help with your resume, shoot me a dm on LinkedIn. I’d be happy to take a look.