[Replay] Six Resume Writing Tips

Over the next two weeks, we’ll revisit our posts on resume writing and interview techniques. If you’re interested in learning more and attending a free resume writing and interview techniques workshop, check out our flyer below for our workshop in partnership with Virginia Career Works – Hampton Center

1. Only include what is relevant and applicable to the position you’re applying for. This means omitting things like hobbies, and possibly excluding past employment, education, and skills that are not relevant to that specific job. This means that if you’re applying for multiple positions in different industries, you will likely need unique resumes for each of those positions. Also, remember that what’s relevant in one situation may not be relevant in another. One individual fresh out of college would likely want to include employment information during college and high school, to show some level of structured employment experience, while someone applying for the same job but with 20 years of relevant full-time experience should likely omit that information.
2. When listing your job duties from past employment, be sure to describe what you specifically did using action verbs, and avoid vague terms like “assisted”, “contributed,” or “provided customer service.”
3. List education and job history in reverse chronological order, most recent listed first. If your resume is growing too large, beyond the typical rule of thumbs of one to two pages, consider removing past employment information from more than 15 years ago, especially if it’s not related to the position you’re applying for.
4. Don’t forget to include applicable skills, and relevant extracurricular and volunteer experiences – to some employers this can be just as valuable as previous employment experience.
5. Include a cover letter – cover letters allow you to stand out and sell yourself in a more personal way that shows your interest in that specific position.
6. For your section on education, if you have a college degree, you probably don’t need to include information about graduating high school. Additionally, for recent college graduates, a good rule of thumb is to exclude providing information on GPA unless it was 3.0 or higher.