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While an overhaul of your resume is highly recommended once in awhile, the toll of working (or job seeking) can make it seem like an unnecessary hassle.
However, as with most things in life, starting with small and easy tasks, and then working your way towards bigger assignments can be a useful strategy that’ll help you accomplish more.
Here are six quick hacks that will clean up your resume in a jiffy:
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Chances are, you may have used Microsoft Word’s default font – Calibri.
To increase readability (most hiring managers skim through resumes faster than a hungry patron at a drive through), try switching to something more professional such as Times New Roman or Arial.
This can also decrease the likelihood of your resume being rejected by an applicant tracking system.
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Before making a decision, many employers will do an online search first. To nudge them in the right direction, add a live link to your professional profile.
While the popular choice is Linkedin, a personal blog or bio on various websites whose content you’ve contribute to will work as well.
Unless it is your highest education level, delete any information that you’ve got on your secondary school.
Most of the time, any achievements acquired then is irrelevant and as a general rule of thumb, precious space on your resume should only be reserved for your latest accomplishments.
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On this vein, it is important to note that work experience should always take precedence over your education level.
Moving your education down and keeping your job experiences on top helps draw the hiring manager’s attention to what they’ll care about more: your past performance as an employee.
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It’s common knowledge that a resume should ideally be no more than a page long. Hence, being concise is key to a stellar resume.
However, if you’ve got heaps to write about, try this nifty hack: reduce the margins on the top, bottom and sides. This should give you just enough space to add a bullet point or two.
Unless you’re a designer or applying for a job in a similar field, chucking out distracting or overly-flamboyant designs is a must.
In the first stage of the application process, most companies do not screen resumes manually but rather, put them through an applicant tracking system.
These systems usually shortlist resumes with keywords that are relevant to the job scope.
However, some systems are glitchier than others and resumes with complex formatting may confuse the system and be inadvertently discarded.
Simplicity is key
While the dos and don’ts of resume writing covers a huge spectrum, the main takeaways are that simplicity and concision are what most employers look for.
In other words, a candidate that can convey suitability in the least amount of words will always be appreciated.
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