Did your dream job just get posted online or did you bump into an old friend that told you about an opening in their office? Are you now panicking because your resume hasn’t been updated in forever but the application is due tomorrow? We’ve all been there and that’s ok. With 30 minutes or less and these 10 tips, you can make an updated resume.
Change your font.
According the Creative Group, a font size of 11 in the following fonts result in more job interviews versus other fonts in smaller or larger sizes: Times, Georgia, Bell MT, Goudy Old Style, Garamond, Arial, Tahoma, Century Gothic or Lucida Sans.
Move your education to the bottom.
It’s as simple as that. Your professional experience should be at the top of the page and your education at the bottom.
Remove your objective.
Take out that boring statement that talks about how awesome you are. Use the other space to enhance the language versus that long starting paragraph. According to US News, the statement actually does more harm than good.
Add key descriptive words.
Does your job title not fully explain your position? According to Life Hacker, you can add your years of experience to the title or your certifications. This trick will help your resume stand out in the crowd.
Remove “references upon request”.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news but this isn’t a thing. Of course, you will supply them with your references when they request it. Don’t waste the space and pull it off right now.
Change the tense.
Make sure your current position is in present tense while your previous position is in past tense. That’s it!
Add data.
Think about your current and previous positions and what data you can add to enhance the role. Did you increase sales by a certain percentage? How many hours did you cut out of a project?
Spell check.
Double check your spelling and grammar. If that’s not a strength, ask a friend to take another glance at it.
Remove your address.
According to Life Hacker, when you have your address on your resume employers take into consideration your commute time. Instead change it to the broad metropolitan area you work.
Condense your bullets.
You should have no more than 6 bullets per position so make sure the content you have is key. According to the Muse you should ask yourself three things before including it:
- Is it a big deal?
- Did you make an impact?
- Is it common sense to include?
Now, bust out that resume and make these changes to ensure it stands out in the pile!
If you want to avoid the crazy panic, in the future try to make occasional updates to your resume each month. Just set aside 30 minutes to reflect on your successes, projects and potential new roles. This will help you save time in the future.
What are some resume updates that you’ve noticed made a huge difference in landing interviews?
- Cultivating Relationships - July 20, 2021
- Empowering Our People - July 13, 2021
- Finding Purpose - July 6, 2021
This actually came at a great time! Thank you for these quick, useful tips!!
I’m so glad you found them useful Sarah! Good luck with your resume!
I love this I can definitely use these tips while searching for my career job. This happened to me about a week ago and I was in such a panice trying to update my resume, I will implement these next time so that I will be better prepared. Thanks.
It’s so hard since we usually only update our resume when we need it ASAP! I’m so glad you found these tips useful!
Such great tips! Great read!
Great tips! I have to dig up my resume and refresh it. Thanks for sharing!
It’s a great idea to have an updated resume. These are helpful tips!
Great points. As a business owner I have such stress reading resumes.
THANK YOU! this stuff is such a moving target. it’s good to stay up to date 🙂
Such great tips, thank you for sharing!
These are such great resume tips!
these are great tips! resumes are so important
Super great, useful resume tips! Love the font ones!
Thank you for the tips! It’s always such a good idea to keep your resume updated!
Super help information! It’s been a long time since I’ve updated my resume- definitely will use these tips!
These are all excellent pointers – most of which I am totally guilty of! Thanks for sharing!
This is so well written and full of helpful info! I’m a formulaic thinker so I love the way this lays out what to do to improve your resume in clear billet points.
Wow. Perfect advice for job seekers
Whoot! Such amazing tips to get that resume refreshed.
These are some great tips. I love how just simply changing he don’t can update and make your resume look brand new!
This is so helpful. Thank you for your post in explaining how to have a great resume!
Moving education to the bottom is SUCH a smart tip! Once you’ve been working for a few years, it’s that information that is much more pertinent.
These are great suggestions! I like moving the education to the bottom.
Thanks so much Shani! Having a professional profile and highlighting the skills at the top gives you a better chance of it being read versus your education since people spend an average of 6 seconds reading it.
Glad I saw this; made me realize that I needed to update mine soon!
Thanks so much Jae!
Ooh, these are good tips! I’m pretty happy with my resume, but I need to do better. It needs to be more to the point. I’m gonna use your tips to make that happen
Thanks so much Johanne! I can’t wait to see what changes you make!
These are all great tips for optimizing your resume quickly! The objective statements are really outdated at this point, plus removing the objective allows for more space to share your experience 🙂
Kristen | http://www.sophisticatedgal.com
Exactly especially if you’re trying to put it on one page!
All of these are so true and often over looked! And can be done so quickly!
Thanks so much Rachel!
These tips are SO helpful! I’m about to do a complete update to my resume and LinkedIn because I’ve been in my position for over a year now, so there are a lot of things I can change. Love these tips!
I’m so excited for you Kiara and can’t wait to see what you come up with! I typically make my LinkedIn profiles more conversational and in 1st person giving it a littler more personality!
Awesome tips! I love learning new ways I can revamp my resume!
Thanks so much for your kind words Anna!!!
These are all SO GOOD. Refreshing keywords is ALWAYS helpful – sometimes they just get stale (and overused!)
Coming Up Roses