The goal of searching for a job is to finally get your resume in front of a hiring manager in hopes that you get called for an interview. This is the first step to landing a job. When your resume is lackluster, you’ll be harming your hiring potential and suffer as a result. Think about it for a minute, your resume has to convey you as a professional that a company must have as part of their team. Does your resume do this? The experts at Employment Solutions can help.

Include the Essential 5 Sections

Every resume needs to have 5 essential sections included. These sections include:

• Objective
• Summary
• Work History
• Training
• Reference

That’s it! Adding in irrelevant sections can actually hinder your resume’s performance. While many people include the following sections, they are irrelevant and unnecessary:

• Personal interests
• Hobbies
• Accomplishments
• Languages

You should include how many languages you know and any work-related accomplishments within your 5 sections. They should not be in their own sections.

Update Your Information

If you’ve recently become unemployed, you’ll need to update the information that your resume contains. This is the time where you’ll add in new skills, accomplishments and of course, any references that can be added. You’ll also want to make your resume stand out at this time by doing the following:

• Perfection Check: There is no excuse for typos or grammatical errors. You will want to review your resume to ensure that it’s error free. If you need help with grammar, ask a friend or use an online service to check your grammar for you.
• Add in Specifics: The one startling area that resumes often lack in is specifics. You never want to say, “I managed a team and increased company sales.” Instead, you would want to say, “I managed a team of 20 employees and helped boost company sales from $1 million to $1.5 million.”
• Highlight Duties: Unless an accomplishment is outstanding, you’ll want to put more emphasis on your past duties. These are the duties that the hiring manager is in need of and needs to know you possess.
• Contact Information: It goes without saying that you need to ensure your contact information is all relevant. Many applicants forget to update their telephone numbers or e-mail addresses and wonder why they’re not getting a call back.
• Examine the Length: Resumes need to be thorough yet concise. The ideal length for a resume is 600 – 700 words in length. If you hand over a 2,000 word resume, chances are the hiring manager will toss it aside within the first 20 seconds.

The final piece of advice is to revise your resume slightly to meet the employer’s needs. Oftentimes, a one-size-fits-all approach is taken and a resume will not reflect the needs of the potential employer. You want to be able to catch the attention of the hiring manager by including action and power words that relate to their business and needs.

Spend an afternoon revising and updating your resume to bolster your chances of landing an interview. Contact us today for more information on creating a great resume.