5 Tips for a Great Resume

One of the keys to changing your career and getting the job you want is having job-related skills, interviewing skills and a good resume. There’s still no guarantee that you’ll get any and every job that you apply for, but a well-constructed resume and good interviewing skills can help boost your chances and put you ahead of the competition.
So what makes for a good resume? Here are a few quick tips:

1. Make your Resume Easy to Read

Employers, interviewers, and hiring managers usually scan through a resume quickly, so it needs to be easy to read and the important stuff needs to stand out. A resume should have plenty of white space, so don’t use tiny font or single-space your lines. Bullet points and bolded headlines make a resume easier to read quickly. Also, keep your resume to one page – two at the most.

2. Talk about your Accomplishments, not just your Tasks

Potential employers are often less interested in the daily tasks of your former jobs, and more interested in the skills you learned. Even if the job required mundane tasks like operating machinery, indicate how your skills in that area benefited the organization, instead of just stating that you performed the task.

3. Update all your Information

If you’re dusting off an older resume and revising it for a new job search, make sure that all of the prior information on it is correct. Information like phone numbers or emails – yours, and those of your references – can change frequently. You don’t want to miss out on a new job opportunity just because your previous boss got a new phone number.

4. Focus on your Strengths

You may be wondering how listing previous jobs will help in your current job search if you’re trying to change careers. See point number two about focusing on your skills and contributions, not just your tasks or duties. Jobs that helped you develop good communication skills, leadership skills, or creative problem-solving skills are worth mentioning. Also, if you’ve just received a certificate or diploma, then focus on how your education applies to the new potential job.

5. Proofread your Resume for Typos

Simple mistakes like spelling errors or grammatical mistakes can get your resume tossed aside, even if you have all the qualifications for a job. Show your resume to at least one other person who can double-check for those little mistakes that sometimes even spell check can miss.

Here at Central Coast College, we want to help students transition into the workforce as smoothly as possible.  Our Career Services Department is here to help students in or near their last term learn techniques for conducting a successful job search. You will learn how to draft an effective cover letter, prepare a strong resume, prepare for an interview, develop or improve your networking skills, and other job search techniques and tools, including compiling a personal reference list. Find out more and let us help you prepare for a career change!

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