We all know that going out for a new job/position can be an intimidating and slightly terrorizing process especially when you don’t already have an assured network connection that will help you attain whatever position it is that you want! But fear not, no semi-sensible hiring committee can deter a nicely dressed person with a bomb resume in hand! So here are 4 essential steps to perfecting your resume and ensuring that you soar into that new position.
1. Choose great verbs
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When writing a resume, you want people to feel excited to hire you by reeling them in with action words. Instead of using verbs like choose…opt for something more substantial like appoint! Or instead of participated try lead, or instead of listened substitute in actively engaged… or orchestrated!
2. Talk yourself up
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I know most of us want to be a humble, modest visionary who would never want to hold the position of center of attention. However, no one is seeing this paper except you and the person you want to desperately hire you. What you’ve don emay not have been good to you but good to someone else. So, sell yourself! If you don’t, no one else will because you are your own biggest advocate.
3. Get someone to look over it
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If your school has a career services center, I highly recommend paying a visit in order to have a trained professional look over your formatting, grammar, and overall content of your resume. Helpful critiques and a few tweaks could be the deciding factor between you getting hired or not! If there is no center for services such as this, have a trusted friend or associate take a look at the resume. Having an actual person who you can interact with and critique your resume rather than an online resume helper will be more beneficial to you in more ways than one. So, take advantage of your resources!
4. Weed out outdated information
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Yes, we all know that the summer of your sophomore year in high school that you volunteered for two days at a pumpkin patch for your little sister’s school carnival. But, if you’re applying for an intern position that has no immediate qualification for a pumpkin picker, I think it’s safe to say we can leave that off your resume. Instead, include more relevant and recent volunteer activities, in addition to campus and community organizations that you’re involved with and passionate about.
Also, be sure to include languages that you are fluent in!
A resume is a constant work in progress. It can be modified daily because as you grow, it grows with you. Just be sure that whatever is included on your resume, you actually care about! Because no one likes to have an amazing piece of paper in front of them and not an amazing person to go with it.