A few weeks ago, I visited a career advisor to get some help on my resume. During my meeting, I learned lots of good tips and tricks about resume building. And now I want to share some of those tips with you.
1) Keep it simple
There are so many resume options and templates out there for people to use. Just a scroll through Canva and you’re hit with hundreds of options. It can be very tempting to choose a template that has some color and looks unique, I know I have this problem. One takeaway from my appointment is that simple is often better. You want your resume to be easy to read so that hiring managers can find information that they need.
2) People don’t spend much time looking at your resume
If you think that recruiters spend a long time reading every single thing on your resume, you’re wrong. Recruiters actually spend a few seconds, between 5-10, initially looking at resumes. If there are 20,40,60 applicants to a job or internship, that’s a lot of time for recruiters to be reading. They skim resumes at first to weed out the people who don’t have the skills they’re looking for.
3) Make your resume like a thermometer
This was another powerful tip I learned during my meeting. The basic concept of the thermometer is that you want the most important information at the top of your resume and the least important stuff at the bottom. Things like education and personal contact information are “hot” so they go at the top. Things like jobs are “cold” and go at the bottom of your resume.
4) Make your summary extremely clear
Before my meeting, I really had no idea about why a summary was so important. Now I realize that this part of the document lets people know what you’re applying for and what you want, like a job in marketing or an internship in graphic design.
5) A resume is like a highlight reel and a cover letter tells a story
Your resume and your cover letter are supposed to go hand-in-hand. They both should be their own unique document and no, your cover letter shouldn’t just state everything on your resume. In your cover letter, you should tell a story of an experience you had. The cover letter lets the hiring manager know that you have strong writing and storytelling skills. Writing a cover letter reminds me a lot of writing college admission essays
Happy resume building collegiettes!