In some cases, a silly detail causes your resume to be discarded. Therefore, it is worthwhile to dedicate time to take a very close look at your resume. You want to make sure you haven't overlooked ANYTHING that might be the difference between getting a call for the next step in the hiring process or being cast aside. A small mistake might give a competing job seeker the advantage. Consider the following 5 tips to revise your resume for the details.
Triple Check Contact Information
If you provide the wrong contact information, the company will not be able to contact you for an interview. Don't assume they will spend the time hunting you down. If they have other candidates, they will move down the list. Therefore, you should really triple check your contact information to make sure you haven't accidentally swapped digits in your phone number or mistyped your email address.
Also, make sure your contact information is easily read so the hiring manager doesn't mistype your information or misdial your number and then assume you just aren't returning the emails or calls! Make sure your voicemail greeting includes your name so a Human Resource Officer knows they have the right number when leaving a message.
Double Check All Dates
Resumes are often filled with dates including graduation dates, dates representing different jobs, dates when certificates were earned and more. Take a few minutes to verify that you have correctly recorded all of those dates on your resume. If you made a mistake, it might appear you have a large gap between jobs or that something overlapped that shouldn't have.
Again, the hiring manager is not going to take the time to try to solve the mystery, but will select a candidate whose resume doesn't appear to have issues.
Check Font and Spacing
If your resume is crafted properly, it will help provide a professional reflection of you. If you provide a clean, well-formatted resume, you will give the perception of being detail oriented.
It can be easy to miss a small error, however. For example, sometimes a section of your resume does not match font type or size with the rest. Misalignment of your work experience dates is also a common error.
Consider printing your resume out to get a view that is different from your computer screen. Look closely to see if you notice any strange fonts, font sizes or text that is bolded but shouldn't be. Look at how each section of your resume is aligned and make sure you don't have anything off-kilter.
Re-think Relevancy
Many job seekers feel the need to include every past job and volunteer experience on their resume. Often this makes for a lengthy resume containing information that the hiring manager really isn't interested in. Take a few minutes to really think about whether all of the information you have included is relevant to this particular job posting. Anything that isn't relevant should be omitted.
Grammar, Spelling, Vocabulary
It is impossible to talk about revising a resume without mentioning grammar, spelling and vocabulary. A quality resume will have all three done correctly throughout. Recruiters that look at resumes all day may discard anything that has obvious errors because that demonstrates that not enough time was put into editing. They will likely assume that if a person didn't bother to spend the time reviewing and updating their resume, they may also not pay attention to details when on the job. If you are not good at finding grammatical or spelling errors, seek assistance. Revision Resume takes pride in providing resumes that are error free and offers both resume writing and resume critiquing services.
Crafting a resume that reflects your unique qualifications and is free of errors, including those that are considered just small details, is challenging. Revision Resume is happy to assist you so that you can submit your resume with confidence!
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