Never Put This On Your Resume

Your resume is the first and sometime the only chance that you will have to impress an employer before an interview. This means that it is vital that you utilize your resume to put your best foot forward. Fortunately, there are a number of ways that you can improve your resume and make it stand out from the crowd. Here are a few do's and dont's that can greatly improve the impression that your resume creates.

5 Resume Writing Do's

1. Put Your Best Material First

Since many employers will not read your entire resume without first being interested in it, it is essential that you place your most impactful information within the first few inches of the top of your resume. This is sometimes referred to as the “prime-time” space. It is will where the reader will first focus their attention.

2. Focus on Recent Experience

Your employers are going to place most of their interest in your most recent experiences. This means that your resume should focus primarily on your recent experiences as well. While you can list a long history of experiences, you should include the more information about more recent work experiences.

3. Design is as Important as Content

Many people get so focused on creating the best content that they forget to look at how the resume appears as a whole. Make sure that you use a standard, readable sized font such as 12 or 11 as well as use at least 1 inch margins. Additionally, bullet points and insert rules and help your resume look more professional.

4. Emphasize Work Experience Before Your Education

While your education is important, once you have been in the workforce for a few years, it becomes a secondary focus for potential employers. This means that you need to emphasize your work-related accomplishments much more than your educational background.

5. Proofread

Aside from a poor design, there is no faster way to look unprofessional than to have misspelled words. It is vital that you always proofread your resume before sending it out. For the best results, try to proofread it more than once.

5 Resume Writing Dont's

1. Don't Lie

This seems like an obvious piece of advice, however more and more people are lying on their resume to get ahead. Employers can fact-check your background faster and more accurately than ever before and to think that they will not check your background before hiring you is a big mistake.

2. Don't Include an Objective Statement Automatically

Many people will automatically feel the need to add an objective statement to the top of their resume, however unless the objective statement is extremely well-written and applicable, it isn't always the best choice. Generally, objective statements are too general and since they are at the top of your resume, they are taking up the “prime-time” real estate, which should be reserved for the best information possible.

3. Using Adjectives Over Examples

Saying that you are a “self-starter” or “detail-oriented” isn't enough because everyone is saying the same thing. A better idea is to include specific examples of how you have been a self-starter or detail-oriented in the past..

4. Don't Include Too Much Detail

Having detail in your resume is important, but it shouldn't be an autobiography. Limit every thought to only one or two sentences If you add too much detail, your resume will become difficult to read.

5. Don't Include Personal Data

Although employers cannot discriminate based upon certain criteria, that doesn't mean that they don't do it. Only include the minimum amount of personal information. Information to exclude includes: marital status, birth date (age), race, height, weight, photos, etc.

Writing an excellent resume doesn't have to be difficult. The key is knowing what to do and what not to do. These 5 resume writing tips can go a long way in improving your resume.

How to Use a Resume Builder to Create a Great Looking Resume

A resume builder is a wonderful tool to take advantage of if you suddenly find yourself on the hunt for a job. With a resume builder you can successfully build a great looking resume in no time at all and as long as you choose a quality resume builder, the process couldn’t be much simpler.

Really using a resume builder is a simple one, two, and three process. While you may have to go back after you are finished and tweak a few things here and there, for the most part using a resume builder to create a great looking resume is accomplished as follows:

1. Select Your Template: The first step in using a resume builder is to select the template you want to use. Most resume builders have thousands of templates to choose from so finding one that is appealing to you should not be a problem. Simply find a template that you like in the sector in which you are trying to get work in and move on to the next step.

2. Fill-In-The-Blanks: Once you have selected your template, your resume is ready to be completed. The resume template you selected will have all the information you need and to take that template from prototype to actual running model. It is as easy as filling in the blanks at this point. The great part about using a resume builder is that many of the resume builder programs come with information as to what should and shouldn’t be filled into those blanks. This ensures that you are including all the information potential employers are looking for and not including what they don’t need to or want to see.

3. Check and Print: The final step in using a resume builder to help you build the perfect resume is to check everything over and then print out the resume if you like what you have. If you are not pleased then you simply have to make any adjustments you desire until the finished product is exactly what you feel a potential employer will want to see. You should also save a copy of your completed resume to a file on your computer at this point.

Using a resume builder to help you build your resume is really a no brainer. These days there are so many resume builder programs on the market that it is very easy to find a program that has everything you are looking for, including a large number of templates, great customer service, and a price tag that won’t leave you in shock.

Easy to use and very effective, resume builders are now making it possible for anyone, regardless of technical skill level, to create a great looking resume. Your dream job is out there, but in order to land it your resume has to really shine. If you are not 100 percent confident in your abilities to create the perfect resume then you too may want to consider using a quality resume builder to help you achieve all of your employment goals.