The design of your resume may be eye-catching for hiring managers. However, the most important question to ask yourself, does it answer questions that a hiring manager might have?
In order to answer their questions, format your resume with these sections and key information.
Contact Information
It doesn’t matter if you sent your resume by email or included your contact information on the job application, you should ALWAYS include your email and your phone number on your resume. That way, if a hiring manager looks at your resume, then they don’t have to shuffle through to find your contact info.
Summary, Not Objective
You may have heard the tip to remove the objective statement from the top of the resume. Our suggestion is to transform that section into a brief summary of your career accomplishments, why you think you would benefit the company you’re applying to, or what sets you apart from every other applicant. Make sure it’s short (i.e. three sentences) and attention-getting. This allows you to summarize the reasons why a hiring manager should schedule an interview with you.
Work Experience
Work experience doesn’t just include the work that you receive a paycheck for. Make sure you include unpaid experience that relates to the job you are applying for. Unpaid experience, such as internships or volunteering, actually gives you bonus points with the hiring manager because it says that you worked hard to gain experience in any way you could. Make sure you bullet each of your experiences with your job title, the employer, the dates you worked, and a few accomplishments or skills you obtained at that experience. Shy away from listing basic job descriptions unless your job title is vague.
Education & Certifications
What level of education have you achieved or are working toward? Be sure to include the highest level of education you have received. If you are working toward or have completed a level of higher education, such as college degree or professional certification, make sure you include the name of the school, degree or field of study, and date graduated/completed.
Skills
One of the more important sections that tends to get overlooked is the skills section. This section clearly defines the skills that the hiring manager may be looking for. The best way to determine what to include in this section is by first reviewing the job description for skills that the hiring manager is searching for and determine which of those skills you can demonstrate if asked. Then do some research on LinkedIn and other job search sites to review other job descriptions and possibly view the skills that other professionals have listed on their profiles. Just make sure that the skills you put on your resume are something you can demonstrate. Don’t Lie on your Resume.