I Spent Over 40 Hours in Perfecting My Resume
And guess what…? It worked!
You’re here because you either want a better resume or to find out what’s the secret recipe for the perfect resume.
Or… maybe because you need help to get your creative juices flowing.
But let me get one thing clear…
There is nothing like a perfect resume.
Just like a fingerprint, what you offer in skill, knowledge, experience and education is unique from the rest of the people in your industry or work space.
These days, most of our ‘job applying’ is through online portals and hiring managers already have STACK of resumes to go through.
Our job, is to make their life easy and to make sure we stand out from that stack of resumes (not literally, but you can try).
Consider yourself lucky if they even get past your bio.
They say, it takes just just 6 seconds to judge if we’re a right fit or not.
It’s an opportunity to pack your most important accomplishments, in order, with a brief detail, into a single document.
Your resume matters because you want that job. And that’s your end goal.
And to help you think a little differently, I’d like to give some resume tips for you guys. Here are a few pointers:
- Always start off with your strong suit (education or experience) related to the field you’re applying
- Narrate your resume like a story, because we all love stories
- Try to catch the reader’s attention in 6 seconds
- Have a kick-ass bio which describes you, your potential and your role
- Use keywords from the employers job description for better SEO optimization to lure the ATS Applicant Tracking System
- Throw in numbers, stats and measurable items from your past work experience
- Display your assets & skills (courses, certificates, tests, awards)
- Don’t lie. No, seriously. Do not lie
- Keep it short, simple and clear
- Avoid typos (Get it spell and fact checked)
- LinkedIn or GitHub not your resumes, but add it to your resume as a hyperlink — here’s mine
- Avoid using clichès and mainstream sentences like “task-oriented”
- Link your social platforms if needed (LinkedIn, blogs, Instagram)
- Use ready made templates from Microsoft Word, Google Docs or Canva
- Never settle on one template — try mixing with style, margins and font
- Always ask for feedback from mentors, teachers, friends and family
- Have a meaning full file name — Eg; ‘Burhans_resume’ (not something like ‘Resumefinal2_2020_jan_7’)
- Have fun making it
To end, I’m just another post-graduate telling you what to do. I believe everyone’s got their own potential and uniqueness and you can’t simply ‘perfect a word document that describes you on paper’ a.k.a. resume.
I’m in the same boat as you guys reading this article.
Since I’m new to ‘career mode’, I haven’t experienced enough of job shifting or hiring recruits to give you the real insight or reality of the hiring world. I hardly know about the hiring world.
But, I’ve spoken to multiple teachers in my field, attended advertising/marketing conferences, questioned hiring managers, looked and compared friends’ resumes, read loads of LinkedIn posts and comments, spent hours on websites reading tips and tricks and another few hours looking for templates that complimented my profession, my style.
I created 8–10 resumes for an Advertising internship and 2–3 part-time resumes for a generic hourly job. And believe it or not, each one seemed perfect.
But nevertheless, I kept mixing, fixing and playing by adding-on or removing bits and pieces till I was content with the resume. I kept working on it, just like Bob the Builder. Yet, I still feel my resume still needs work.
Once a teacher of mine said,
“You must spend at least 40 hours in making a resume”
That’s too many hours to put in a piece of paper, but think of that piece of paper representing you and a chance to get your foot in the door.
Some may argue, but hey, it’s still a piece of paper, whether it’s PDF or a physical document! But if it determines your future, then you might as well give it a try.
Here are a few templates you can try: Canva or Google Docs
Thank you for reading! Leave me a comment or clap if you enjoyed reading or gained something useful to add on to your resume.
All the best!
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