Even if your work history isn’t that great, you can still create a good-looking resume that gets read. However, resume writing isn’t always a walk in the park. There are many important elements to resumes that get overlooked a lot. This blog post will help you in building an impressive resume or getting an already-written one on the right track.

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Choose an appropriate template

Building an impressive resume from scratch can be hard, especially if you aren’t good at design. Fortunately, there are a wide variety of resume templates available online that you can use. However, unfortunately, not all of them are going to be good enough for what you want. When you go to pick a template, avoid ones that force you to pick too many colors, have strange boldened text, or use silly graphics. A simple template in black and white, with minimal formatting, is the best approach to take here. You want your info to stand out on its own, instead of being lost in a blob of graphics.

Don’t forget to replace or delete all of the example resume text in the template before you send it!

Write out your complete work history

Your resume should contain all of your work history, to the best of your ability. You don’t have to include things from many years ago that aren’t as relevant, such as odd jobs in high school. However, everything you’ve done beyond that should appear on your resume. This should include full-time, part-time, temporary, seasonal, contract, and even volunteer work. This will give you the opportunity to review what experience you have, as well as see if you have any work gaps. Don’t worry if you don’t remember specific dates or supervisor names; these are less important. Just do the best you can with what you remember.

Organize work history

Organize your work history chronologically, or, from most-recent to least-recent. For example, if you are currently working, your current job should appear at the top, and your first relevant job should appear at the bottom. Organizing it this way makes it easy for employers to look at relevant experience as well as identify any gaps you’ve had in your work over the years.

Write short lists of job duties for each job

These do not have to be long, drawn-out explanations. You should only use one short sentence for each part of your job. The shorter the description, the better, since you’ll need space in your resume for everything. Less-important duties can be left off, if you feel you need the space. Once you start getting interviews, you’ll be able to explain past duties more thoroughly. The idea is to put the most important responsibilities on there so employers can get a better idea of what you’ve done in the past.

Double check for typos and grammar mistakes

After you’ve filled in everything on your resume, you should take some time to skim it for typos or grammar mistakes. Most glaring issues will be picked up by the program you’re using to make it. However, sometimes errors can slip through the cracks. For example, a common mistake people make is using the wrong word in the sentence, but its still spelled correctly. This error will dodge the detection of the application you’re using. Another one to watch out for is the correct usage of “to/too”, “their/they’re/there”, etc.

Now that you’ve started building an impressive resume, need help finding a job? Contact us today to find out how we can help!