Resume Writing Tips

Yawn! I want to sleep zzzz…. Have you ever felt like this when you sit down to write your own resume? I feel like flying paper airplanes when my mind is all blanked out & I can’t think beyond a point. This certainly happens when you try to write a resume like a 100-meter sprint. Trust me, it doesn’t work! All you will end up doing is seeing some garbled text beyond a point & wonder why on earth you started this project 🙂

Here are a few resume writing tips that will help you write your resume without the overwhelm.

First Draft

Start with a fresh document & re-write, NEVER EDIT an old resume. Sounds like I am shouting in your ears, that’s because it’s more important than you think it is. First, make a skeleton only describing your work experience in reverse chronological order, followed by any Awards & Accolades that you may have received, then comes Certifications & last but not the least Education.

Buffet your resume

Give yourself plenty of time to course it out. You don’t have to load your resume plate with everything at once. Start with experience then go read the newspaper. Come back & tweak it, change it from all that you’ve done to what is relevant for the job you are applying for. Go water the plants, then see where you missed the action verbs. Later delete all rhetoric statements & write more measurable achievements. Go have a chit-chat with a loved one for a few minutes then come back & do the summary.

Edit some more

Your resume is an expensive piece of real estate. Don’t waste space with a bunch of blah blah words. Recruiters will get bored and Yawn! Bye Bye! Here’s how you do it. When you think you’ve got the final resume ready EDIT it! That’s correct EDIT it some more. Look for words that don’t add any value and eat them for lunch or dinner or midnight snack, whatever time it is for you.

For Example: Change “KPIs Accountable for” to “Accountable for” the acronym KPI isn’t adding any value whether you mention it or not, & like it or not you’re still accountable for certain results like revenue, profitability etc.

Proofread for grammar & spellings

Finally, proofread your resume for any grammatical errors, typos & spelling mistakes. See that you are using the same formatting throughout the document. For example, if you date Jun’06 – May’12 keep it the same for all jobs. Check all the designations, time periods & numbers are correct.

If you follow the above tips you’ll have a perfect resume without all the stress. Saved me a lot of mess from the paper airplanes 🙂

I also have this free resume cheat-sheet that tells you exactly what goes in which section of your resume.