Here’s another post celebrating this being my seventh year of blogging. (Happy Birthday to KeppieCareers.com/blog!) This was one of my very first blog posts, offering a resume checklist, but I think it still makes key points about how to create an effective marketing document to help you land a new job for the new year.
Does your resume represent the best you have to offer? When you read it, are you proud to say that it represents you? Does your resume need a make-over? Review your resume with these tips in mind…
** Does your resume target your audience? **
Every job and each employer seeks a slightly different applicant. Unless you are applying for the same exact job over and over again, you should not be sending the identical resume for every position. Research your target organizations. Use their buzzwords and lingo in your application materials. (You can easily tweak a well written resume to appeal to different audiences, so don’t feel that you need to completely rewrite your resume for each new job.)
** Is your resume attractive, consistent, error-free and easy to read? **
Don’t underestimate how important it is to have a clear, error-free, visually impressive resume. Does your resume look crowded with thick text blocks that may be difficult to scan? Are you making strong use of bold to enhance your document, or are you overdoing it? Did you use a resume template from your word processing software? (Don’t!) Since readers likely give your resume a 20-second glance, visual appeal is important. If the reader notices careless spelling errors, it is not likely that you will land an interview.
** Do you DEMONSTRATE what you have to offer? **
Is your resume a laundry list of jobs you held, or does it engage the reader and demonstrate your skills and achievements? You should quantify your value using percentages, numbers and specifics. Your resume should highlight the positive impact that you had in previous jobs. You want to convince the reader that you could do the same for them. If your resume is TARGETED, ATTRACTIVE and DEMONSTRATES what you have to offer, it will be more than a TAD above the rest!