Today we are wrapping up our series on resume writing. The past five posts we have discussed common ways resumes can easily work for or against you. We’ve covered everything from formatting, verbiage and keywords, to providing evidence of success and relocation. There is enough covered to ensure that the 15 seconds that a hiring manager spends reading your resume is enough to get you an interview.

Here are the last tips for this series that we have to offer you.

Leave out unnecessary details.

This is a very important part of editing and updating your resume. Focus on professional essentials that pertain to the position for which you are applying. Do not include hobbies, religious affiliation, and other unrelated personal facts on your resume. It’s essential to eliminate potential for pre-interview discrimination as well as maintain a high level of relevancy to the position and the organization.

It’s safe to assume that in applying for a high-level job you do not need to include entry- or low-level skills. A hiring manager would expect that a candidate would have considerable experience with Excel or Outlook, where as proficiency with field-specific software is much more significant and important.

Give enough information.

Your resume is intended to be a summary, not an entire life history. We mentioned in previous posts it should be a good outline for your interview and a marketing tool to promote you and your valuable skills. Allow room for discussion in your interview. Give enough information to qualify you, but not so much that there aren’t any questions when you meet. If your resume reads like a job description and can apply to anyone, it’s important to give more information about your history as it relates to you. Eliminate the generic details.

Thank you again for reading and keeping up with us. Continue checking in here, LinkedIn and on Twitter for updates and new blogs and series.

In our last couple of blog posts, we have been discussing ways to make your resume work on your behalf. If you have been keeping up with the series, we would love to hear your thoughts and answer any questions you might have. Feel free to comment on our blogs or e-mail us!

Today we are continuing the series on successful resume writing and covering relocation and leadership experience.

Relocation

If you are open to relocating, mention it in your summary, along with the cities or areas you are considering.  This can help prevent your resume from being overlooked simply because of your current address. As mentioned in the last post, always provide your current and up to date contact information; it should not be hard to reach you.

Highlight leadership.

Showcasing your leadership experience, especially when in consideration for a management role, is vital to your resume helping you get an interview. Questions to think about when you’re summarizing your leadership in a particular position: How do you lead a team? What is your leadership style? How many people have you supervised? What success and growth has your leadership promoted? Have you served in upper-management roles? 

Hiring managers want to know that you can successfully lead a team. Simply stating that you were credit manager isn’t enough. What have you done that sets you apart from other credit managers applying for the same position? How does your leadership experience align with the organization’s job description? If the hiring manager can pull useful information like this from your history in a quick scan of your resume, it is highly likely that the company will want to know more about you.

Stay Tuned!

Thank you for reading and keeping up with this series! We’ll be back next week with two more tips for using your resume to get you hired. We are here to help, so if you have any questions feel free to e-mail us or leave a comment below.