Resume Tips

A resume is a personal document that serves as an introduction to a potential employer. A resume should always aim to be concise, accurate and presentable. This means that it should be of appropriate length (roughly between 2 to 4 pages as a guide), it should be truthful and without excessive embellishments, and it should look neat and tidy and be readable. Once you have achieved this, then you should aim to make your resume stand out so that any employer reading your resume will take notice and perhaps even remember some minute detail on there.

Your resume will contain a good deal of your personal details and employment history, and reflects on you as an employee and as a person to some degree. Your resume will give employers a brief impression of you and your experiences, so by making everything in it legible, clear and concise, you are imparting a positive impression. Remember to include vital information such as your IC or passport number, and your date of birth; employers find it useful to know a candidate’s age.

Be sure to follow any specific instructions or requests given by the employer, such as if the employer asks for certain information or a particular resume structure. A general layout for the main sections in a resume can be: personal information, strengths and achievements, followed by employment history, education, interests and hobbies, ending with a few referees or references. This suggested structure puts the important information first and at the front of your resume because a lot of the time employers browsing resumes won’t bother to read more than the first page unless it stands out. Alternatively, you can follow personal information with your education and work experience before achievements.

Finally, where possible try to use powerful, positive terms that create a strong impression, like accomplished, initiated, managed and proposed. These terms are loosely known as action words, and you can find many lists of these online. Additionally, try to refrain from using negatives such as “cannot” or “have not” in your resume, but instead omit or rephrase it to make it sound positive by suggesting that you are willing to learn. And one last and very important thing: do a spelling check of your resume. Spelling and grammatical errors can be off-putting and give negative vibes to someone reading your resume, so please use spelling checkers and keep an eye out for these when reading your own resume.

In the nature of keeping things simple and concise (and for those of you who came in late), here is a list of the above tips in point form:

• Keep your resume clear, concise and presentable. Get to the point and make it look neat and attractive. Readable, visually pleasing and not too long. Just use a computer (or typewriter, for those old school people) unless you have really pretty handwriting.
• Be honest. Obviously you want to make yourself sound perfect and ideal for the position, but if you have to heavily embellish (i.e. lie) to do that then you might need to reassess a few things. In any case, employers can and will eventually find out the truth, so don’t sabotage yourself.
• Make your resume stand out to catch an employer’s attention. Try to tell an employer what you’re good at and how suited you are for the job in as little words and space as possible. An objective statement might be a way to go. There is nothing wrong with getting a little creative and innovative as long as you keep it professional, so go easy on the rainbow colours for now.
• Follow any instructions or requirements given by the employer. This one is fairly self-explanatory. Sometimes employers generate a lot of instructions in order to weed out those who are less keen on the job.
• List the important facts first. Shift your strengths and good points up a notch on your resume so it becomes one of the first things an employer sees, because chances are they’re going to be the last things they see unless it catches their attention.
• Use positive terms and action words. Illustrate your passion and potential for the job by blatantly shoving it in their faces with your power-packed verbs and mind-blowing nouns. Impress and show them how you have planned and managed your way to the mighty over-achiever that you are today by describing your accomplishments using powerful, action-packed vocabulary.
• Check for errors. Errors in spelling and grammar reflect poorly on yourself. No one is exempt from mistakes, but seeing as this is your resume and a first impression for an employer, you should really be checking it thoroughly.