The much-welcomed warmer weather brings additional chores for most people. Homeowners are opening windows and cleaning out garages) kids are searching for missing soccer balls, and job seekers are dusting cobwebs off resumes that sat dormant during a long, cold winter.
Industry experts urge job seekers to finely tune their resumes by keeping them up-to-date, tightly worded, easy to read and – most important – easy to understand.
“To determine if you’ve written your resume in a clean and logical fashion give it to a teenager,” said Tim Dugger, president of Career Cafe, a career coaching and consulting service in Indianapolis. “If they can understand what your job is and what you’re looking for, then you’ve probably written something that the average person is going to comprehend as well.”
Take time to update
Kristen Shingleton, president of New Focus HR in Noblesville, advises candidates to prepare ahead of time and not try to update or assemble a resume at the last second,
“If someone is actively looking and searching for a position, everything needs to be up-to-date,” she said. “If you’re in a more hurried situation to get a resume sent out. then you’re putting yourself at more of a risk of forgetting something.”
A thorough resume polish and shine can only brighten your employment outlook. If s critical to update simple things such as contact information, job titles, dates, responsibilities and educational or certification opportunities so they aren’t overlooked.
“As your tasks and responsibilities in your {current} job expand, you need to get them on your resume,” Shingleton said. “Whether you’re promoted, demoted or even if it’s a lateral move, this is all important information to include in your resume.”
What’s resume-worthy?
Shingleton and Dugger both like to see resumes that quickly and concisely convey employees’ duties in previous roles and how they contributed relevant work those positions. Resumes should reflect accomplishments without overstating the ordinary.
Dugger said he’d rather see two or three “wow” items when reading about a job seeker’s accomplishments than eight or 10 tasks that water down the candidate’s credentials. The wow factor is the litmus test of an effective resume.
Technology might have changed the way employers receive and review resumes, but it’s as important as ever for them to be effective and well written. The perfect resume has never been written, but the perfect resume would be exactly as long as it takes to cause someone to go, ‘Wow, 1 want to interview this person,’ “Dugger said, “And not one word longer.”
Just as spring cleaners are getting rid of the dust, dirt and sludge that winter has wrought, job seekers should do the same. Keeping your resume clean and free of outdated and unwanted information can help you spring into a new career.
by John Adams for Custom Publications
Contact Custom Publications at indypubswriter@indvStar.com.
