Let's talk about Resumes!
At Forum Group PNW, we are not just a recruitment agency; we take a consultative approach and enjoy spending the extra time assisting candidates with their resumes. Providing helpful tips to streamline and improve a resume, allowing candidates to stand out amongst the sea of resumes clients receive, is important to us.
What are a few areas of improvement we see most often on resumes?
✔️ Listing the company name under every position you have held within the same organization. This is redundant and it does not show a client the full tenure at a quick glance. Instead, list the company name once with the total tenure in the right-hand column. Keep each position separate with its own dates but do not put the company name over and over. You want to grab their attention at the top of the page and showcase longevity right away. Not to mention, it just looks cleaner.
✔️ Do not put graduation dates on a resume unless you are a recent (2 years) college graduate. Never put the year you graduated from high school. You are just opening yourself up to discrimination otherwise. This is something you might think everyone knows about however, you would be surprised at how many resumes we still see with the dates listed decades after graduation.
✔️ The last ten years of work history is all you need on a resume. If you have work history that goes past that time you are passionate about, add a section titled "Additional Work History" and list the company name, your title and one or two bullet points if you desired without dates. This way, an employer can determine industry and type of role you held without having your resume turn into four pages.
✔️ Speaking of pages, two pages is ideal. Many think they have to keep to one page. That is simply not true or even feasible especially if you are tenured in your career. It's not the end of the world if you have a three-page resume but any more than three pages is frowned upon.
✔️ Make sure your skills section is not subjective. This section is for skills you have actually performed or are knowledgeable with. Having "Excellent communication" or "detail oriented" is not nearly as tangible as listing software, typing speed, job functions and really using that space for key buzz words the employer would be looking for.
They say the average employer reviews a resume for 30 seconds and if they do not see what they need or want, the resume goes into the "no" pile. Remember, we read from the top down so don't wait to the end of a resume to place key information that might land you that job!
We understand resumes are not fun to create. It's time consuming and can make a person frustrated as well as overwhelmed. However, it's worth the time and effort you put into it. You got this!