You’ve achieved a lot. We’ll guide you through the steps to build professional “resume,” or summary of your professional achievements. You’ll also choose the best way to showcase these accomplishments, whether it’s a paper resume, a bio or an About You page.
Your resume or summary needs to be in tip-top shape at all times, because, if not, you will not get a second glance from anyone looking to hire you. Resumes are important. It is the one sheet of paper that will decide whether or not you land the job or gig or have to keep looking.
How do you know if your resume, summary or bio is unprofessional? If it’s hard to read, is covered in errors or contains information that is unrelated to the job to which you are applying or your brand. Guess where these resumes land? You guessed it. Right in the trash.
Think of it like this. Your resume reflects you. Before anyone knows anything about you, they see your resume or bio. If your resume is sloppy, they can only assume you will produce subpar work.
Your resume should reflect you, your strengths and weaknesses, be consistent and concise. Below are some tips to successfully create a professional resume.
It Should Tell A Story
Think of your resume as your first impression. It’s important that your resume tells a story. List your relevant jobs in chronological order, with the most recent at the top. The same goes for a bio, to make it easy to read, list accomplishments in chronological order. If you have a statement of purpose, make sure it aligns with your career trajectory and also reflects your personal goals.
Consistency
It’s important to create a consistent theme and layout in your resume or About Me page. You want it to stand out among the rest. By sticking to a specific font, spacing, etc., you will be ahead of the pack. Unprofessional resumes can have a mix of dashes in some places and bullet points in another, multiple fonts, bold heading here and unbolded headings in other places. Make sure you keep your headings, subheading, and text consistent throughout the document.
Have Someone Review
One way to look unprofessional is to have errors or misspellings in your resume. While it may seem like you’ve corrected every mistake, sometimes our eyes can glaze over things after looking at them for a while. Find another pair of eyes to review your resume before you submit it or post it on your website. You never know what they might find. It could be a silly mistake that costs you a job.
Keep It Updated
Your job skills and qualifications are sure to change. Make sure you continue to update your resume and bio as you gain new skills and start new jobs.
Concise
Like we mentioned above your resume is your introduction. You don’t have to go into paragraphs of detail about every previous job, gig or school experience, a few lines will do. Try to focus on career highlights that will grab the reader’s attention. A resume longer than one page can be a turn-off.