Key Tips for Successful Resume Writing

The start of summer brings with it lots of graduations, with those graduations comes a huge pool of hungry applicants looking for job opportunities.  In today’s economy, no matter what your profession, if you can’t prove to employers you are competent and skilled within the first few lines of your cover letter and/or resume your chances of landing that new position or internship become slim.

As a marketing company, part of McCauley Marketing Service’s mission is to highlight the services and accomplishments of our clients to attract new business and retain existing business.  After reviewing our fair share of resumes over the years we’ve noticed there are some common factors that distinguish those resumes that always seem to make it to the top of the stack and those that, well, don’t.  Below are some of the tips we’ve compiled to boost any applicants chances of making it to the top of the resume pile:

• Proofread! Typos are embarrassing no matter what your industry, but can raise a red flag especially if you are pursuing a career in the advertising, public relations, or copy writing
  fields.  Have as many people as you can proof your resume.  Who knows, one of your proofreaders might know someone looking to hire an individual with your skill set.

• Choose your words wisely. With resumes, it really is quality over quantity.  Employers want to know how the experiences you list will translate to increased profits and new business for them.  For example, if you were a cashier at a clothing store, market that experience to highlight your customer relationship capabilities, responsibility with money, great math skills, etc. Don’t just say “Cashier at X store.”

• Nix the objective at the top of your resume. Most employers can and will assume that you want to “procure a (fill in the blank) position that utilizes your (fill in the blank) skills” just by the fact that you’ve submitted a resume at all.  Unless you have really unique skills, which should stand out on your resume anyhow, that you want to emphasize, save that space for something more specific like a special sales award you’ve earned or leadership position you’ve held.

• Personalize and include a cover letter. You might feel like employers know everything about you once they’ve read your resume, but often they are not even going to look at your resume unless you’ve engaged them with a personal introduction (a.k.a- cover letter.)  Research the company to which you are applying.  Chances are if you can find an individual to connect with there, they can get your resume to the right person a lot quicker that if you send it to the HR department addressed “to whom it may concern.”

• Make it visually appealing. Even if you’re not a graphic designer, as a media consumer, you know what is and is not easy to read. For example, don’t use a size 8 cursive font for your resume.  If employers have to translate your resume, they probably won’t.  It’s always safe to go with a traditional font like Times New Roman (or another font that is graphically similar) in a legible size (no smaller than 10 pts.)  You can also adjust your margins to eliminate all those pesky, choppy looking paragraphs and hanging sentences.  It might seem like a no brainer, but remember to emphasize your name (Bolding and larger font size is a great way to do this.)

• Keep it current. If you’re reentering the workforce after some time, make sure you let employers know what you’ve been doing recently.  Only include experience from the last ten years.  Businesses move so quickly now that employers really don’t care to know what you happened to have done back in 1985.  If you’ve been out of work for a while don’t fret.  Show hiring managers what you’ve done to make the most of your time while looking for work:  list any volunteering you’ve done, consulting work in your previous industry, even links to industry related blogs you’ve written.  Use the experiences from your time off, whether voluntary or not, to show employers how you can make the best of a situation and remain a productive and valuable worker- even if you were working for yourself.

• Follow up. Employers may receive hundreds of resumes. Following up will show the employer several things about you. Follow through; perseverance and interest in their company are important traits that will make you stand apart.

McCauley Marketing Services strives to maximize the professional reputations or our client companies and their employees.  Please visit our website or give us a call if we can help you with your self-marketing efforts.