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How do you make that perfect Resume that fits in exactly one page? Something that’s crisp and to the point? This can be hard, especially when you have a career spanning over several years. The pointers below will help you prune your Resume to make it look just right.
Let it go!
Your prospective employer will not be interested in that school debate that you won or that week long stint at a local restaurant, unless it is relevant to the position that you are applying for. Ideally, you should include only the latest and the most significant areas of your career in your Resume.
Kim Isaacs, a Resume expert for Monster and Founder of Advanced Career Systems, emphasises on this, and has written on their website that you should “eliminate old experience.”
However, if your old experiences are relevant, she says you can briefly mention it like so: “Early Career: ABC Company — City, State — Assistant Brand Manager and Clerk, 2008-2009”.
Less is More
Remember that recruiters get thousands of Resumes to scan each day. They will not want to sift through an entire paragraph just to understand what your skills are.
The best way to condense your content is to put it in bullet points. This makes it easier for the readers to understand, and for you to get your facts across.
Lily Zhang, Manager of Graduate Student Professional Development at the MIT Media Lab, has written about this in her article in The Muse. She believes in keeping even the bullets short.
She also emphasizes on not letting bullets dangle. It’s best to keep one bullet per line.
Remove the Redundant
Your Resume may have a line revolving around “References/Detailed Experiences/Portfolio available upon request”. This is unnecessary. It is understood that you will provide these as part of the Job Application process.
In the Balance, Alison Doyle, an author, career expert and founder and CEO of CareerToolBelt.com, writes that you should skip the references.
Illustrate Right
Your Resume should not be packed with those responsibilities that are displayed when you key in a Job Title in Google. It should stand out from the others by illustrating what you are capable of.
Marcelle Yeager, president of Career Valet and co-founder of ServingTalent, writes in the U.S. News & World Report that you should “filter out responsibilities.”
She also adds that you should replace your laundry list of duties with specific examples and the impact of your work. This will get you noticed.
Template It
Unless you are a Graphic Designer or a Page Layout expert, you still might not be able to fit your content in a page, even after following all the pointers mentioned above. This is when Templates come to your rescue. You can find a lot of free options in MS Word or online, that will help keep your content in place while making it look classy. All you need is to pick one that looks professional, and you are good to go!