Job Hunting Edition: Create a Simple, but Awesome Resume Part 1

A Lot of people are confused about what to put in their resume especially when they are job hunting for the first time. Here are some tips to simplify your resume process.

Creating your resume

Header

The header should have your full name and your contact information. If you’re putting your resume on the internet, I wouldn’t add your home address. Just list your city and state. Also, be careful with your phone number because that’s how you get a lot of spam texts.

Objective

What are your goals? How is it related to this company?

Education

List all your education. If you went to college, it’s a given that you have a diploma of some sort, so you don’t have to list your high school especially if you’re saving space. Unless you went to some prestigious private school or a high school that focused on a trade, like art school, then go ahead and skip it.

When you’re listing your college education, you should:

1. List the school name in order of most current year..

2. The Graduation Date.

3. Your Degree.

If you’re currently in school, list all of the above along with:

• Start date – current, instead of the graduation date.

Skills

There are actually 2 types of skills: Hard Skills and Soft Skills. You should list both on your resume.

Hard skills are skills that you learn from education or experience. Here are some examples:

• Accounting
• Graphic Design
• Typing Skills
• Web Design
• Software knowledge (Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Word)

Soft skills deal more with your personality and characteristics. Examples include:

• Time Management
• Leadership skills
• Communication
• Patience
• Planning

Employment History

List all the relevant jobs (relevant to what you’re applying for) you had in this section. If you haven’t had a lot of jobs, just list all of your  jobs in chronological order starting from the most current job. Under each job, list your job duties.

Volunteer work and awards

If you don’t have that much experience in the field that you want or you haven’t been working, then volunteer. There are a lot of volunteer opportunities in different fields of work. I used Volunteer Match to find work in video editing. After you finish your volunteer work or while you’re volunteering, add the experience to your resume.

If you’re a student or a recent grad without that much experience, you can also add your awards, scholarships or other achievements. Do you know how many interviews I got even though I wasn’t qualified  just because they were impressed with this section? Make sure you list all your achievements. For example, at the end of middle school and all through high school, during the summer I attended the University of Houston Downtown for an engineering program. Not a lot of kids give up their summers for 4 years to attend college to learn engineering. It made me look loyal and determined (both are my soft skills, by the way). Employers are impressed with that.

Make sure it looks pretty

After you create all your sections, make sure it looks pretty. I am a designer. My job is to make things look pretty so that people will look at it and decide they want it. This is exactly why your resume should look pretty.

I’m not telling you to add colors or fancy fonts. Your resume is supposed to be professional. Choose a PROFESSIONAL font that is LEGIBLE. If HR can’t read it, it’s going in the trash.

What I’m saying is organize your resume and keep the details simple. HR doesn’t want to read a book. They have a lot of applicants to go through so they will probably only glance at your resume to see if you fit the position.

The best way is to create sections and make the section titles bold. Add bullets when you’re listing things, and add italics to emphasize things.

Check yourself before you wreck yourself

Make sure you check your grammar and spelling! You’re supposed to look professional and this is ALWAYS a deal breaker. Especially in the age of spell check.

This post ran too long, so watch out for Part 2! 
-P