Here are some tips for creating resumes that are short and sweet. These tips will help resume readers see you as a great applicant. Your credentials will stand out immediately.
Eliminate the summary of your experience.
People often include a summary of the experience at the top of a resume. The information in your summary belongs with your accomplishments within the body of your resume. Putting a summary of your experience at the top is unnecessary, is a reading burden, and wastes space.
Eliminate your high school graduation if you are a college grad.
People who have to read resumes do not need to read that you have a high school diploma. The fact that you have started attending college or have graduated from college shows that you have a high school diploma or the equivalent of a high school diploma.
Eliminate full sentences for your accomplishments and skills.
- Increased revenue by 10%
- Managed a team to create nationally recognized software development process
- Fluent in French, conversant in Spanish
- Type 55 words per minute
- Operated forklifts and narrow aisle trucks
Eliminate non-skill or education information on your resume.
Hobbies, interests, references, and personal recognition do not belong on your resume.
Include information on certificates and credentials you are studying or have completed.
Even if the certificates or credentials do not apply specifically to the job for which you are applying, a brief statement on these additional studies may broaden a resume reader’s view of your skills. There may be jobs beyond the one for which you are applying and for which these studies make you fit.
Include information on your major, minor, and other important studies.
- Majored in computer science
- Minored in math
- Completed advanced studies in data analysis
- Received a certificate for heat transfer engineering
- Interned as an assistant project manager at [specific company]
- Studied music for a year under the orchestra master at [name of school]
Include a specific area on your resume for volunteer work.
Volunteer work and community service are important things to have on your resume. They are particularly meaningful to a person reading your resume when the experiences fit the job for which you are applying. List the organizations and functions just the way your list companies and skills or accomplishments in your resume.