Resume Guide

What’s the point of a resume? “To get a job”, you say? No! It is to get an interview. A good resume will not take you through the whole recruiting process, only to the initial job interview. From there it is your interpersonal and interviewing skills. But to get there, you must have represent yourself in the best light possible with a killer resume. You might be awesome and a high performer, but your resume may not communicate that. When that document is the only thing that a recruiter has to learn about you, if you want to catch their eye, make sure it is top notch.

Professional Profile

Make this the most high level, but comprehensive description of who you are. Highlight key skills and accomplishments.

Skills & Expertise

List bullet points of your top nine skills. Order them in terms of what you have the most experience in. Make sure the rest of you resume can back there up with specific examples.

Professional Experience

Of course, always provide company name, title and maybe the team you worked on. You can also give a short description of you responsibilities. However, the most important part is not listing duties, but accomplishments. Don’t make that mistake. When listing bullets out of what you achieved, start describing them with the quantifiable impact first, then how you accomplished it. A hiring manager is reading this because they already don’t have enough time to do their job, thus they need to hire someone like you to help. Make it easier on them by showing the impact first.

Education

Depending where you are in your career, if you have been out a few years from school, this should be listed after experience. School can help you get your first job, but after that, you are only as good as your last job. Be sure to list leadership and extra-curricular activities that you participated in to show you didn’t just do academics.

Additional Leadership

This is certainly an optional section, but highlighting ways you took initiative outside of you assignments will help show you are not just about yourself and that you can help out in more way than you designated responsibilities. This can include volunteer, employee, community or church groups.