Putting your best foot forward and making an instant good impression can be daunting for any job seeker. It’s stressful enough to be looking for a job in the first place. How do you craft a resume so that it really makes you shine? Making sure that your resume has no spelling or grammar errors goes without saying. Over and above that, this list of our top 5 tips can help you get started in the right direction when looking for a job.
Personalize Your Resume: Most people send out tons of resumes and often fall into the cookie cutter trap. Remember that each company varies; each position varies. The hiring manager — also receiving tons of resumes — will want to see the skills this job requires, so read the job description carefully, and gear your resume toward the specific job you’re interested in.
Detail Your Successes: Instead of just listing your previous duties, be specific about your achievements. They like to see the numbers such as “I doubled our sales in six months” or “Our overhead was reduced by 25%” and so forth.
Include Your Unique Abilities: What motivates you? Why would this job be a good fit? Besides explaining your unique talents in your cover letter, add some of these accomplishments in your resume, choosing ones that can fill the need of the job posting. Perhaps you can implement new systems, create new divisions, or are motivated by saving companies money.
Make It Easy to Read: We already mentioned how important correct spelling and grammar are on a resume. Beyond that, the format is crucial. Don’t jam tons of info in long paragraphs. Focus in on the best action words such as accomplished, designed, and initiated. Keep white space on the page by having good margins. Choose a clean, simple font, and remember that the resume needs to be legibly printed out as well as on screen.
Get Professional Input: No matter your age or situation, MassHire can help you increase your chances of getting the job you want by helping you put together a great resume. Check out our resume writing workshops and our one-on-one resume writing and feedback sessions.
MassHire Cape and Islands Career Center connects workers with employers. Job seekers can access job and career search services by becoming members of the career center.
Go get ’em! You can do it!
