Resume Tips

Resume Tip 1: Looking for a job
Resumes are a key tool for marketing yourself. Don't make the mistake of copying other resumes to build your own. The resume text format should be unique based upon your strengths. You want your strengths to stand out amongst other competing resumes. You should have both an electronic and printed copy of your resume.

You want to be able to produce a copy whether it is requested to be emailed or mailed. Make sure to bring your resume along with you on the interview don’t rely on the interviewer to have a saved copy. Make sure to have everything remembered on your resume. You don’t want to appear as you are unsure of any information listed on the resume.

If you are looking to working in a specialty field like Marketing or Information Technoglogy (IT) make sure to focus on the skills that you learned upon the way. Think about how you can uniquelly use these skills to help your new employer. Always go into an interview with the mindset of how you can help the employer reach their goals. If you help the employee they will help you achieve what you desire whether that is a title or pay.

Resume Tip 2: Keep your resume current
It’s easy to get out of the habit of keeping your resume current. When you aren’t currently looking for a job you tend to let your resume slide. The issue with this is that you never know when an opportunity will arise. You want to be ready when an opportunity arises. Trying to think on the fly of all of your past accomplishments over the last couple of years is really difficult. You can’t remember the years that you spent in a position before you transitioned to the next one. Try to update your resume whenever you switch positions in a company or you leave a company.

Resume Tip 3: Make sure your contact information is correct and at the top
Your contact information should be easy to spot on your resume.  You should have something like the following:

Your First and Last Name
Email Address
Phone number with area code
Optional: Web Address if you want to link to an online portfolio

Resume Tip 4: Consider starting a blog
If you need to stand out and show your expertise through examples a resume alone isn’t enough. You could build a blog to work directly with your resume. Put your blog address at the top of your resume that links to examples of your work.

For example say you were applying for a position to be a cake maker at a bakery. You don’t have a lot of experience because you just graduated from school but you’ve made some impressive cakes for friends. Write a blog about your cakes and include pictures and details of how you created the cakes. The person who is reviewing your resume could review your cakes and determine your expertise prior to setting up an interview with you.

If you want to get a position in social media maybe start a blog about how to create a social media strategy. Include finished pieces of your work in the blog such as videos, screen shots and etc. You could create a hypothetical product and give examples of how you would promote it both online and offline.