Tips from a Recruiter: Time to Refresh Your Resume for the New Year
What better time to refresh your resume than the start of a new year? It’s an opportunity to review what you’ve done over the course of the last year, reflect on the skills and experience you’ve added, and determine what you want to do next.
These are some Tips from a Recruiter on how to refresh your resume –
- Clean Format: A crowded resume that is difficult to read and filled with columns and boxes will quickly have recruiters and hiring managers passing you over. Keep it neat with clear fonts, defined sections, and proper spacing.
- Create a Profile: At the top of your resume, create a profile section that highlights who you are and what you offer. You only get a few minutes for a resume to stand out, so include a thoughtful summary at the start.
- Consistency is Key: Fonts, dates, tense…everything! It’s important to ensure your fonts match, your dates are the same format (ex: 11/2018 versus Nov. 2018), and your words are in proper tense. Use present tense for your current job and past tense for prior roles.
- No photos. Unless the application specifically asks for it, don’t put your photo on your resume. We want to focus on your skills and experience, and pictures are distracting. The exception would be for the Graphic Design/Arts field, but again, only if it’s requested.
- Choose PDF or Word. Applicant tracking systems can be fickle and no one wants to lose out on a job because someone can’t upload or open their resume. PDF is usually best because it keeps your layout the same, but some applications ask for Word, so save your resume in both.
Remember to keep your resume current by updating it once or twice a year. It’s easy to forget what you’ve done and your successes throughout the year, so making this a priority every now and then will pay off. Hopefully, these tips will help you modify what you have and make it your best for a new year!