A POLISHED RESUME

GET YOUR FOOT IN THE DOOR

There’s nothing quite like job-hunting to fiddle with your anxiety levels.

The constant waiting between applying for a job and getting a response (if you’re lucky), the strained phone conversations, thanking someone for giving you feedback and bad news, the highs after a good interview, and the lows after a bad one.

This whole process can leave you feeling anxious and helpless.

One thing you can do to take back some measure of control, is to make sure your resume is as perfect as it can be.

According to Kate Southam of Careerone: “No one gets a job based on the resume alone. The purpose of the resume is to get the interview, no more, no less.”

Here are some tips to get your resume on track: Spelling and Grammar: This is perhaps one of the biggest issues with resumes.

When writing yours, make sure you check, recheck and triple check your spelling and grammar. Then ask someone else to check it for a fourth time.

We tend to miss our own mistakes and notice those of others.

Nothing says ‘no attention to detail’ quite like a resume full of mistakes, so take the time and check, check, check.

Font and Spacing: At first glance, you want your resume to look professional.

Try out some basic, non-dramatic fonts and choose the one that looks best. Good options to use, will always be the tried and trusted Times New Roman, Arial and Calibri.

Once you choose a font, stick with it. The same can be said for spacing. Stick with the spacing option you choose.

For headings, sub-headings and other sorts of descriptions, utilise the ‘bold’, ‘underline’ and ‘italics’ functions (but keep this to a minimum).

Keep it Simple: Get rid of irrelevant information like your age, marital status or gender.

These facts should not influence prospective employers, so don’t tempt them in the first place.

Keep it Professional: Make sure the language you use and items like your email address show you in a professional light.

If your email address is something like partybunny18@, open a new account using some variation of your name.