The objective of a resume is to effectively market yourself so you stand out (from other resumes) and score an interview with a potential employer. For this reason, it should not simply be a templated list of job descriptions and generic skills that every other applicant is likely to use. Yet, most resumes I receive follow the same mundane structure (yes, people actually put “punctual” and “email” as skills).
Here’s the good news. For those who actually put some thought and effort to create an effective self-marketing document, it’s not so difficult to stand out from the crowd. Here are some tips on how to write a resume.
Specifically, if you can attract the reader’s attention in the first 15-30 seconds by using industry-specific keywords, accomplishments (rather than tasks) in your previous employment while decluttering your resume by removing useless information that waste valuable seconds, you’ll dramatically increase your chances of getting on the “A” list.
Here’s a 5-part series on Your Resume.
Your Resume Part 1 – Assume the Reader is Lazy
People (like me) are lazy. When we were busy running (sprinting?) our company, there were so many times when we thought “it would be great
Your Resume Part 2 – SEO Your Resume
I own a small online marketing company. Our mission is to help our customers WIN in online local search. That is, we use SEO (Search
Your Resume Part 3 – Outcomes Matter
If I only have 15 to 30 seconds to scan your resume to see if I want to read further, the first thing I’m going
Your Resume Part 4 – Things that waste space
I don’t know how “one-page rule” for resumes ever became a thing. The (conventional?) thinking seems to be that if your resume is too long,
Your Resume Part 5 – A Counter-Example
The major struggle of the Fintelligence project is getting in front of educators and asking them to allow me to volunteer my time to speak