Resume Tips

In honor of the Game of Thrones Season 4 premier, I'll be tweeting resume tips all weekend - Game of Thrones style ;)  

Follow me @Natasha_29. 

Dates on a Resume

Dates on a resume are very important and something that EVERY employer looks at. They want to see how much experience you have and if you have any gaps in employment. This is one of the reasons why I don't like functional resumes, they don't show what position you gained your skill at and how many years of experience you have.


Graduation dates:Unless you're straight out of college and starting your career, I would typically recommend leaving graduation years off. They're a clever way for employer's to guess your age, which they don't need to know.  Another reason to include those dates would be to account for job hoping or a gap in employment while going to school.

"Degree - University Name, Year"

Employment dates:Include them, period. Months and years to and from preferably.  This should be for each position you've had and need to be consistent throughout your resume.  Don't use years for one job, and months/years for another, keep the formatting uniform.

"Title: Company Name, Location. MM/YY - MM/YY"

Shine and Graphical Resumes

While technology has grown at light speed over the past several years, resumes haven't changed much in the past several decades.  They can be boring and plain, but when you try to make yours unique and interesting, it gets rejected.  Graphical resumes and apps like Shine by Boluga, might look awesome, but they aren't generally accepted by recruiters and hiring managers.

If you are in graphic design or some kind of artist, you may be able to do a lot more than the average Administrative Assistant or Operations Manager.  However, to the average person looking for an office job: do not use graphics.  They take up room that can be used to show your skills and experience, and don't add anything of value to your resume.  And please, for all that you consider holy, do not use multiple colors on a resume.  It is distracting, tacky, and will be changed before it is ever seen by a hiring manager.  Maybe the HR/Recruiting industry will catch up to technology one day, but they are slow to do so.  For now, if you want to use graphics I would recommend one or two and sticking to black, maybe navy blue.

Let me know in the comments below what your thoughts are on graphical resumes or what ways you make your resume stand out :)

10 Commandments of Resumes

1. Thou shalt not Bold ALL
Bolding is great for headers like company and job title, but if everything is in bold, you're just yelling at me, and I don't appreciate it

2. Thou shalt not use multiple colors.
Annoying and tacky, don't do it

3. Thou shalt not use tables

Tables	A lot of templates come in tables, they're nearly impossible to edit or change formatting and usually waste a ton of free space on a resume
	They frustrate recruiters to no end.

4. Thou shalt not include a picture
Profiles, headshots, watermarks, anything, don't do it.  It's tacky, unnecessary, and recruiters will laugh at you.

5. Thou shall restrain from stating the obvious
"References available upon request"; "looking to use my skills to benefit your company". two words: NO DUH

6. Thou shalt not use meaningless buzzwords
detail oriented, hard worker, team player... these phrases don't mean anything significant on their own and are on almost every resume.  Instead, explain what you do to show these characteristics.  Do you mentor new employees, manage several tasks, volunteer for ad hoc projects?  Put these things on your resume instead.

7. Thou shalt not bear false witness
Do not, under any circumstance, lie on your resume.  It can, and eventually will be found out. Plus it's just bad karma

8. Thou shalt use bullet points
Paragraphs are hard to skim through and recruiters won't take the time to read through everything.  Change your formatting to bullet points so your skills and accomplishments can shine

9. Thou shalt review thy resume for spelling and grammatical errors
The fastest way to be rejected is to have tons of spelling and grammatical errors on your resume.  Your resume is your first impression with a company, and if you don't care enough to proofread it, you're probably not going to care enough to be accurate on the job, so I'll pass.

10. Thou shalt not spend hundreds of dollars on a resume writer
I got into the resume writing business because I found out that resume writers charge $200-$700 per resume.  I find it outrageous to charge people who are looking for jobs such high prices.  I charge anywhere from $89-250 to create or revise a resume and do not charge extra for additional corrections or revisions.  If you're looking for help with your resume please comment below or email me at info@insiderecruiter.com

Do you have other resume commandments or completely disagree with one of mine?  Let me know in the comments!

Resumes 101 - What to Include and What to Leave Out

Resumes are meant to give a brief overview of your experience and skills and to highlight your accomplishments.  Resumes have four basic sections: summary, skills, experience, and education.  Resume objectives are outdated and pointless, so leave them off and replace them with summary of what you bring to the table.  There are several thing that should be left off your resume, which I list in this post; and your resume experience should be in chronological order with you current or most recent job listed at the top of the page and your oldest experience listed last.

When you get into your experience you can do several things.  I recommend to list any awards you've received first, followed by your most important responsibilities like supervising other employees or growing the company's revenue. Then, you should list your other important responsibilities, BUT this should only be 5-10 bullet points at most.  Your resume is not meant to be a job description or list of every single thing you do at your job - just the highlights.  You can explain your other responsibilities in a phone screen or interview if needed.  If you're struggling to find things to include on your resume, view this post.

Resumes can feel strange to write because people aren't used to thinking about their strengths and how to market themselves to companies.  However, if you can get over this and be confident in your abilities, you can create a resume with really strong content.  Once you have the content done, it's about formatting and making the resume easy to read and visually appealing.  Bold font for companies and job titles is great, along with italics for awards or promotions, but the majority of your resume should be in plain text and all the same font.  It's important to stay away from long paragraphs which are difficult for recruiters to skim, and instead list skills and experience in bullet points, which are much easier to read.

Chronological Resumes - Mini Rant

I'm not going to get into the functional vs. chronological resume argument today other than saying that I, and most recruiters I know, don't like the functional resumes.  My advice is to stick to the chronological resume which lists each position, when you were working there, and what you did, in chronological order.

I see resumes from time to time with the first job listed being eons ago, and I don't understand the logic behind this.  Your resume should list your current job first.  I really don't care what you did 20 years ago, I want to know what you're doing now, and what you've done in the past 5 years.  Ok, I shouldn't say I don't care, but it's just not as relevant as your current responsibilities, so that's what should be included first.

While we're on the topic, please include the months that you worked, I'm going to have to ask for them anyway.  Listing 2010-2010 on your resume doesn't do me any good.  Does that mean you worked for a month? A year?  A day?  I have no context, and I need context in order to build a case for you, so please make my life a little easier.  If you listed January 2010 - November 2010, I can argue a case for you and say you have 11 solid months of experience, but if you listed 2010-2010 I can't.

Questions on the chronological resume, formatting, or what you should include?  Let me know.