Online First Impressions: Resumes that Represent your Best
Just a decade ago, discussion on how to make the best first impression for a potential job or academic setting might have centered on what to wear, how to deliver a firm handshake, and how to speak confidently about your skills. Today’s first impression almost always happens online. With more competition than ever before, how can you make your resume stand out from the best? There are a number of ways to develop strong resumes that will open doors for the next step in your career. There are also, unfortunately, a great number of pitfalls to avoid. Here are four common mistakes:
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Your resume is too long. Assume that your reader has no more than 3 minutes to review your resume. Highlight only your strongest achievements and format your document so that all of your strengths stand out in a memorable way with just a quick skim.
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Your resume doesn’t have a professional design. Resumes don’t have to be as beautiful as the latest magazine spread but there are simple ways to improve the aesthetic value of this important professional document. Adding white space between sections of your resume is a simple way to add clarity to your resume and make the document more attractive.
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Your resume lacks action and numbers. Managers respond most favorably to resumes that make it clear what you’ve achieved in your clear. Be clear. Use action verbs and concrete numbers. Consider numbers to describe how many people you’ve supervised, the number of presentations you delivered in the last year, or how many other milestones you met.
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Your resume doesn’t emit confidence. Many job seekers are hesitant to create resumes or online job-seeking content that sounds extremely confident. Hiring managers are far more likely to view a resume as meek or lacking confidence than to assume that a person sounds overly confident. Remember-the employer doesn’t yet know how many skills you have to offer. WOW them with your resume and follow-up with an equally strong second impression. Creating a confident resume can be one of the most challenging tasks for job seekers. Allow us to help with the process. PowerPapers can review/revise current resumes or we can create a new resume with your information.
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