A resume is your calling card -- your introduction to a potential
employer. Unless you’re an accomplished veteran in your field, it is
usually the only thing a hiring boss will know about you, at least until
you get an in-person interview (which you probably won’t if the resume
fails to impress).
Countless career counselors and other experts have given advice over
the years on how to craft a great resume, but some of the best is that
offered not long ago by Harvard University’s Extension School Office of
Career Services.
This extensive and authoritative guide
to impressing potential employers, which includes a number of sample
resumes in varying formats, starts by cataloguing the most frequent
mistakes people make with their resumes: spelling and grammar errors,
missing email and phone information, lack of good organization or
concision, excessive length, and the use of passive language instead of
“action” words. So make sure you’re correctly using words people get wrong all the time.
In
addition, according to the guide, don’t use personal pronouns,
abbreviate, use a narrative style, number or letter categories, use
slang or colloquialisms, include a picture, or mention your age or sex.
Two additional “don’t”s recommend against listing references (they’ll
ask if and when they want them) and starting each line with a date
(these should come at the end of the line).
The recommendations
aren’t all negative, however. Be consistent in format and content, the
guide stresses. Make the resume easy to read, using consistent spacing
and employing italics, bold type, underlining, and capitalization for
emphasis. List headings (like Experience) in order of importance. Avoid
information gaps (like that missing summer). And make sure that your
format will translate correctly to a .pdf.
One other important
piece of advice: Hiring managers tend to have to sift through scores and
sometimes hundreds of resumes, so prepare yours for people who are
likely to scan through documents quickly.
Many people want to
impress with their resume so they can find a well-paid job. The median
pay across all jobs in America is $46,072 a year. There are many
professions that tend to pay much higher than that -- here are the highest paying jobs in America.
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