Resume Tips and Tricks

By Danielle Talbot

Did you know recruiters spend an average of six seconds reviewing a resume? That’s why it has to be captivating, yet relevant. It says a lot about you and what you can bring to a particular company.

It can be scary thinking about whether your resume will catch the eye of an employer in six-seconds, so that’s where our local professionals came in. GVSU Ad Club co-hosted a Resume workshop with PRSSA where we invited 6 professionals to come review students’ resumes.

We wanted to share with you the general consensus of the tips and tricks our local professionals had to say:

The Importance of Work Experience

Your work experience, or employment history is one of the most important parts of your resume. The pièce de résistance, if you will, and it should be one of your first sections. Think of it as a highlight reel of your greatest accomplishments. In this section, it is important to list each job in reverse chronological order and use bullet points to emphasize relevant achievements and responsibilities. Employers also love to see numbers and facts. So highlight those whenever possible.

Keep Things Relevant

While you may want to show an employer all of your work experience, it is more important to keep the information relevant. With jobs changing so often, showing anything past 10 years old may not look good on your part because of changing technology. Highlight your technological abilities and keep language current.

For instance, you should never have any jobs listed from your high school days unless you just graduated.

Ditch the About Section

Looking to free some space on your resume for more important content? Our professionals mentioned that they didn’t see a need for an “About Me” section on our resumes. So, ditch the short bio and your address and fill that space with something more relevant.

1 Page Limit

There are very few instances where your resume should ever exceed 1 page. While you may want to make sure everything is on there, it is more important to be concise and to the point. Remember, you only get an average of 6 seconds, people! Once your resume lands you the interview, then is the time to dive deeper into your experience.

Keep a Master List 

When you apply for jobs it is key to swap information in and out depending on what the job you are applying for entails. Therefore, keep a resume master list on your computer where you keep any information that you may want to use on a future resume. The list should include every job: full time, part time, temp positions, internships, work studies, self-employment, and independent projects. For each one, include your achievements and responsibilities and any other information you may have previously used or tailored.

Then, when you’re crafting each resume, it’s just a matter of cutting and pasting relevant information together. You certainly won’t include all of it on the current resume you are circulating, but it could be a valuable resource for you.

These are obviously just a few resume tips and tricks and ultimately, each recruiter is going to have slightly different tastes and opinions. What may look relevant to one recruiter could be something completely different than what another recruiter values in a resume. Either way, keep it concise, relevant, and original.

Are you a professional who has some further resume advice? We’d love to hear what you have to say. Post your best advice in the comments below!