Writing a professional resume isn’t as difficult as most people think.  There are tons of resources out there geared at helping you format a professional resume that works for you and lots of tips for how to polish it up to make it shine.

But when you think about it, researching how to write a professional resume just turns up a lot of the same old, same old BS.  Seriously, how many times can you hear to “Keep it this long, Make it sound like this, Don’t Do This, Make Sure You Do That,” before your head just starts to hurt?

Creating a professional resume doesn’t have to be difficult, but you need to make sure you avoid those BS clichés that are all over the place because sometimes being afraid to be different or go against the grain can cost you the opportunity of a lifetime.  Kind of like that time in high school or college when you didn’t ask that girl or guy out and then found out years later that they had a thing back then for you too.

Don’t have regrets- and don’t fall for BS professional resume tips that will prevent you from having a unique and personalized professional resume.

Here are some of the most common BS facts about writing a professional resume that you can choose to follow if you want… but you’ll probably reap more rewards if you don’t!

Don’t put a lot of different jobs on your resume- you need to show you’re specialized in a particular field. This is complete BS!  Of course you don’t want to show that you switch jobs every three months (and hopefully you don’t because that’s a lot of BS on your part too!) but showing that you have a wide range of skills helps, not hurts you when it comes to building a professional resume.  Who wants to hire someone who only knows how to do one thing?

Use an overly creative resume template. I’m going to be honest with you, here.  Sometimes it really does pay to have a professional resume on an off-white colored paper or that uses a unique format.  But other times, it’s complete BS to go “over the top” because an employer isn’t going to be impressed by how flashy your resume is.  They care about what it says and what you have to offer while doing it in a classy yet professional way.  How professional is it to have a hot pink resume anyway?

Cramming too many keywords throughout a professional resume. If you spend all of your time stuffing too many keywords into your resume, what kind of “meat” and overall quality are you contributing to your document?  Remember, the “keywords” are for the computers and if you have too many, you’re going to alienate your human readers.  If you don’t keep both of these things in mind, your document likely won’t get read, no matter how many pretty keywords you throw onto your professional resume.

Have a specific professional resume for specific types of jobs.  Don’t use the same resume for every job. I know a lot of people might disagree that this professional resume tip is BS.  But this is like saying don’t drive the same car every day- tailor it to where you’re going.  Since we’re not all millionaires, this is obviously impossible for most and it’s really not necessary to change it up when you’re applying for different types of jobs with your professional resume either.  You probably already have experience in a few different fields so the broader your resume is, the better.  Just make sure it’s not too off track.  I mean making your Circus Clown experience the focal point of your professional resume for an executive office job isn’t really a great idea.

These tips are some of the most common and most basic tips for professional resume writing… we’ve all probably heard them before and we’ve probably even used most of them… but do they actually work?  Maybe.  But they’re not essential to writing a professional resume that sells you to an employer.

Writing a professional resume is sometimes just about going with what feels right…  so no matter what kind of BS tips you keep receiving, you ultimately should do whatever works best for you or suits your personality or particular skill set.

What do you think?  Leave me a comment to tell me what you thought about this article or what you think is truly important in a professional resume!

Tags: professional resume

Tags: professional resume
Posted in Home - How To Write A Resume, Professional resume | No Comments »

 

Everyone knows that our economy is in shambles. Jobs are scarce and everyone is worried about money. As a job seeker it can really be a major pain in the ass when it comes down to figuring out how to write a resume.

After years of studying the hiring process and learning how to become successful with interviewing and landing jobs consistently, I’ve discovered that the first step in getting hired ultimately comes down to being able to GET THE INTERVIEW IN THE FIRST PLACE. And this can be done by learning how to write a resume.

But not just any resume…A resume that will AUTOMATICALLY attract employers and hiring managers and literally force them to want to interview you.

So what can you do to start learning how to write a resume?

Here are my 5 “Hidden Secrets” on how to write a resume:

1) Learn How Hiring Managers Think – How will you persuade employers to interview you? How can you make yourself look good enough on paper so that hiring managers will be convinced that you are worthy enough to bring in for a job interview? That is probably the most challenging assignment there is when it comes to creating a resume. Take Sun Tzu’s advice from The Art of War,  “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.” Study hiring psychology. Study the hiring process. Figure out what employers are REALLY looking for.

2) Write With Their Needs In Mind – If you give employers what they want, they’ll listen to you. What does every employer want in your resume? That’s hard to say, because  every employer has a different job that needs to be filled. Its your job to figure out what they want and deliver on those needs in your resume. Hiring managers generally ask themselves a few questions when they pick a resume to read. Here they are:

1. “Who cares?”
2. “So what?”
3. “What’s in it for me?”

When you think about it, hiring managers are looking over your resume for their reasons, not yours. They don’t care what you want. They care about what they want. Every employer, every hiring manager, is the same. Can you provide the answers? If you cant, your employers—well, you wont have any employers. Consider this step a part of your research phase in how to write a resume. Its an essential step in how to write a resume that will nail your future employer’s eyes to the page.

That’s what you want, isn’t it?

3) Select The Format That Gets RESULTS – I get this question a lot from my clients, “How should I format my resume?” And do you know what I tell them? Use whatever format that does the job and gets you the interview. Period.

Now it turns out, there have been some formats that have been statistically proven to drive the best results and some formats that have been proven to drive the worst results. Based on my research, I’d recommend using the accomplishment based resume format and I would never EVER use the skills based (or functional) resume format.

4) Learn How To “Word-Smith” Your Accomplishments – This is where most of us “non-writers” get stuck in the resume writing process. “How do can I make my responsibilities sound really good?” The answer: Learn how to write a resume with hypnotic text. Learn how to build desire. Emotion. Learn how to let your words paint a picture and tell the story of your previous successes. Reel them in with benefits and curiosity. And give them reasons or logic for why they should interview you. Think about the hiring manager’s emotional concerns, and talk to them in a way they cant ignore. If you do, you’ll create a resume that is both persuasive and hypnotic. For example:

Before

“Typed, performed data entry, answered phones, receptionist duties”

After

“Performed data entry for 16 regional hearing officers as member of eight person office team. Assisted with email responses, distribution, report generation, and payroll input. Helped purge backlog of 1,000 obsolete files.”

Are you beginning to see why its important to learn how to MARKET yourself to employers?

5) Learn Resume Design Principles – Did you know studies of resume screeners have shown that “pretty” resumes are more likely to get into the interview pile than an “average” looking resume? Its true. This fact has been proven countless times. Having a resume design that is both simple and professional is crucial if you want to be able to stand out among the masses. The key is to make your resume look inviting and easy to read. You have to ask yourself, “If I were forced to read through thousands of resumes as my job, which ones would I naturally be biased towards before ever reading a single word?”

Use short paragraphs, bullet points, and wide margins. If you pick up a resume and  it’s a solid block of text, would you want to read it? Probably not. It’s not inviting. It looks like work. Instead make your resume attractive. How you lay out your resume is a key factor in how to write a resume which can make people like it before they even read it.

As you can imagine, how you use those secrets is up to you. Go through your resume—go through the entire document—with these pointers in mind. Look for places to rewrite, reformat, or in any other way grab and hold your reader’s attention. And as you absorb this information, you’ll see that a resume is not merely a piece of paper used to convey your work experience. Its actually a marketing tool used to PROMOTE you as someone worthy of a job interview.

See the difference?

Tags: how to write a resume

Tags: how to write a resume
Posted in Home - How To Write A Resume, How To Write A Resume | 4 Comments »

Alright, you’re ready to start working on creating a resume that WOWS potential employers. Solid. A necessary first step towards landing the perfect career is making a good resume. But whatever you do, don’t get onto Google and start copying those same templates the car wash attendants are using to claim their water-logged fame. If you want a legitimate career with potential for growth, you need to set yourself apart, especially when creating a resume.

Here are six simple steps to creating a resume that really stands out.

1. Make Something Out of Nothing When Creating a Resume—Creative White Space

Rather than fill the page with unnecessary words, use extra white space when creating a resume. This allows less information that could potentially ruin your potential as an employee while giving the impression that you have offered a lot of information. It also creates the subliminal impression that you offer a lot of substance with a little effort. You do not have to delve into everything in detail because when creating a resume your actions speak for themselves.

2. Avoid Getting too Creative With Font Styles and Sizes

Don’t settle for creating a resume that looks like you wrote it while on mushrooms, even if you were. All those different font sizes and styles are distracting and symbolize a chaotic individual. Employers don’t want chaotic, they want stable and sober. Don’t ask me why—people are picky these days.

3. When Possible, Include Bullet Points

Bullets send a signal to the brain that a new part of the text has begun. This helps to process the information quickly, get to the next point, and keep moving on. So use a lot of bullet points when creating a resume. Their subconscious mind is processing the signal that you are an easy, organized employee who makes life easier on them.

4. Split Big Paragraphs up into Chunks of 2 or 3 Sentences

It is much easier too read text that is split up into small chunks. Keep this in mind when creating a resume. This allows the eyes too skim easily without losing place. Imagine a book with no paragraph indentations. You’d likely never make it past the first two chapters.

Not only do you not want your manager tiring out from reading your resume, you also want to avoid the meaning they will attribute to the extra effort they had to put in just to read the thing. Their subconscious will immediately decide that you are more trouble then you’re worth. Focus on creating a resume that’s straight forward and easily readable.

5. Don’t Use a Jagged Format; Everything Should be Flush on the Left

This rugged resume design comes across looking sloppy and amateur. A big rookie mistake! It’s just how the human brain works—we like visually symmetrical material. If we don’t adhere to this we start going nuts, trying to bite our own ear off, and chasing our tails in circles. Well, that happens to some of us—the rest of us just judge you and don’t even know why.

6.Keep the Text Vertically Centered

Also a problem with symmetry, the human brain likes that perfect balance on all edges of the paper. How crazy would it drive you to hold a piece of paper in your hand that started 2/3 from the top? Visually pleasing layout is what you’re going for. If you have good organization when creating a resume, it will signal good organization skills. Employers love an organizer because they make things happen and keep the team on track.

Did you like these resume tips? Because your future employer will. There’s plenty more where this came from. Watch my FREE Resume Rebel Video Course now and change the way you think about creating a resume.

If you have any suggestions on how you’ve successfully went about creating a resume, please share them in the comments below!

Tags: creating a resume

Tags: creating a resume
Posted in Creating A Resume, Free Articles, Home - How To Write A Resume | No Comments »