Writing The Perfect Resume

A resume is more than a list of past jobs; it is an advertisement and you are the product. Your resume should be a carefully selected summary of experiences, skills, and accomplishments relevant to the role. A strong resume should showcase your unique skills, achievements and potential that highlights your ability to deliver results.

Crafting the perfect resume requires balancing concise and relevant information with a clear and professional design.

Hiring managers often receive hundreds of applications for a single position. Your resume needs to quickly and effectively communicate the value you could bring to the company. Employers use resumes to determine who to interview so your resume should answer the question: “Why should I hire this person?”.

A good way to secure an interview is to position yourself as the solution to an employer’s problem.

Basic Information

You’d be surprised how many people incorrectly enter their basic details, double and triple check your contact information. Even if the company is still able to contact you the error is a bad first impression.

You should include:

• Name

• Phone Number

• Email Address

• LinkdIn Profile/ Portfolio (if relevant)

It is generally recommended to use an email address from your university if you have one (especially if it is a prestigious institution).

At the very least your email address should sound professional, partyanimal95@hotmail.com is not a good look.

It is also generally considered poor taste to include a photograph of yourself unless appearance is directly related to the job such as modelling or acting. This can vary around the world but for English speaking countries I’d recommend not including a photograph.

Formatting

Recruiters often only spend a few seconds reviewing a resume, so the layout should clearly highlight key achievements and skills at a glance.

It may seem unfair but the formatting of your resume can be as important as the content.

Use a clean, consistent font such as Arial, Calibri, or Times New Roman in 10–12 point size. Headings should be bold or slightly larger to create visual separation and bullet points help to clearly show responsibilities and achievements.

Any resume should fit on to one piece of paper.

One side for less experienced employees/ less technical work and 2 sides for highly experienced employees/ highly technical work. The aim is to provide only relevant information in as few words as possible.

You could be the perfect candidate for the job but if you resume makes it difficult to quickly find the important information you might never get the chance to prove it.

Layout

Your basic information should come first followed by a brief personal statement that is no longer than 3 or 4 sentences.

A personal statement should quickly summarise who you are, your skills, your goals for the future and what you have to offer the company.

After your personal statement your should list your work experience with your most recent job at the top. Include a brief description of the role, responsibilities and achievements within that role. Education should follow work experience, again with the most recent at the top.

Less experienced employees will give more details about their education and other activities (sports teams, clubs, volunteer work etc.).

More experienced employees will focus on their experience and only briefly summarise their education if relevant. I have worked as chef in the past and don’t even include my education on a resume as it is not relevant.

I like to put my skills, qualifications/ certificates and languages spoken in a side bar separate from the main text as it creates some separation helping it stand out and be quickly read by a hiring manager. If you choose not to do this then put this information after work and education experience.

Keywords

Many companies are now using ATS software which filters applications before they are ever seen by a human being. This means including keywords from the job description in your resume is essential.

Carefully review the job posting and incorporate relevant keywords naturally into your professional summary, skills list, and work experience.

You want to avoid filling your resume with buzzwords as this may pass the ATS software but is unlikely to impress a hiring manager. Your goal is to demonstrate, through real achievements, that you possess the skills and experience the employer is looking for.

Specific and Precise Action Words

You generally want to avoid using personal pronouns (I/ we) in a resume and use strong action words. Below are some examples of words you may want to include in your resume.

This list comes from Harvard University’s website, click here for the full list of words provided.

You also want to avoid vague phrases, be specific and provide quantitative data where possible.

‘Led a team’ or ‘Grew social media following’ gives little information while ‘Managed a team of 8 employees, improving project turnaround time by 20%’ or ‘Grew Instagram followers from 2,000 to 10,000 in six months through targeted campaigns’ shows your ability to deliver results.

No Two Resumes the Same

You should have a template resume that you then make ultra specific for each role you apply to. This allows you to include important keywords from the job description and to position yourself as the perfect candidate for the role.

You should avoid overselling yourself and making promises you can’t keep. A candidate that has the relevant skills and is open to learning is often more attractive than one claims to already know everything.

Good hiring managers know that many people will say anything to get a job, being authentic and open about some of your weaknesses can actually be an advantage.

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