Over the years I have read a lot of resumes and participated in many interviews. I’ve seen all kinds of resumes from terrible to outstanding. I wanted to share some tips to make your resume stand out amongst the rest and get you more money. Although this article is aimed at Industrial Maintenance Technicians, it could be applied to almost any profession.
1. Keep it Short
I recently read looked at a resume that was 6 pages long! That’s way too long. If you how a long job history, only show your last three jobs. The main format should be, name, address, Objective / Goal, Special skills/experience, Job History present to Past, Education / Military Exp. and if needed hobbies and interests.
Your resume should be no more than 2 pages. Try not to leave a lot of blank space. Think about it, most sales brochures have no blank space. They’re usually only one-page front and back.
2. Don’t Go Overboard with 20 Years of Work History:
It’s rare that anyone wants to read all of your work history. No matter how many years you’ve spent working, only include your last 3 or 4 jobs. You can include a sentence like: More work history available upon request. Failing to do this could actually cause you to look bad. If you’ve worked at 10 different jobs over 10 years you could look like a job hopper.
Most of the interviews I’ve been involved in we only review the last 3 jobs unless something jumps out or is interesting. If you’ve had some interesting experience along the way, include that in the Special skills/ experience area.
3. Don’t Lie on Your Resume
Be prepared to explain anything you put on your resume. If you are interviewing for a professional position, someone in the room will probably be able to tell if you’re full of it. Make sure that your application and resume match up as much as possible.
Avoid using jargon or buzzwords, remember you’re creating a document to give you a chance at an interview. Your resume is the first glimpse of you that the interviewers see. Make it count!
4. Curb Appeal / Consistancy
I usually read resumes at least twice. The first time is when I get the invitation for the interview and again prior to or during the interview. The resume gives me a picture of the candidate before I see them, good or bad. Not only is the work experience and information important, keeping your resume consistent and looking good helps.
Get someone to help you if needed. Think about it like a sales brochure, you’re selling yourself here. This isn’t High School, you can pay someone to make a resume for you. Just make sure you don’t lie and know it backward and forwards.
This means headers should be capitalized properly. No big paragraphs, use bullet points. Use other examples and pick what fits your style and experience. Even though it seems like a pain to create one, this could affect your pay coming in the door. Take your time and do it right.
5. What Format to E-mail?
A friend of mine Dave H. gave me this idea years ago, shout out to Dave!! It doesn’t matter what program you use to write your resume, you need to e-mail it in PDF format. It’s that simple. Everyone can open a PDF, and you won’t have to worry about weird formatting issues that come up with word processors or incompatibility. Windows 10 has an option for Print to PDF in your printers. In some ways, this goes along with #4.
Oh, if for some reason you actually hand in a resume, pick out a nice heavier weight paper. Hand it in with a report cover or a folder.
6. Spell Checking and Phrasing
This should be obvious, but use your spellchecker! There are also apps to help you with your phrasing like Grammarly that helps you in real-time.
7. Sell Yourself
As mentioned before this is a sales brochure for you. It needs to sound and look good. You need to ham it up a little bit, not too much. Be careful with the ham level. Too much and you sound like a show-off. Not enough and you sound generic. If you’ve accomplished something during your career or life, now is the time to show it off.
Again, this resume is how you grab peoples attention. Sometimes you may need to make it past an HR person for the hiring manager to see your resume.
8. Let Someone Review Your Resume
You need to have someone review your resume before you send it out. If you know a maintenance manager or someone that reviews resumes, that would be perfect. If it is your significant other or parent, that would work too. It would be best to have multiple people to review and get a consensus on this document. It’s also good to have someone who is not in your profession read your resume. You may get some of the same questions you would get in your interview.
9. Be Professional
I have said it many times in this article, this document sells you! It has the power of giving you a chance to get to the next level in your career. Having a professional resume gives you a professional image before you ever do an interview. Using these tips could help you do that.
10. Keep it Updated
No one does this, but it is a good idea to keep your resume updated. You may need it at a moments notice. I never expected a pandemic to send me home from work for over a month, I may need one myself! If you have spent the time to create a winning resume, keep up with it and keep it updated.
Conclusion
I wish you this best of luck in creating your resume. Using these tips will guarantee you a winning one. Good Luck!
