Hiring managers are revealing that they are seeing more poorly written resumes cross their desks recently than ever before. You can ensure your resume doesn't eliminate you from consideration by following these tips:
1. Format Your Resume Wisely
Your resume likely won't get a thorough reading the first time through. Generally, a resume gets scanned for 25 seconds, so make certain it isn’t hard to read, poorly organized or exceeds two pages.
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Use a logical format and wide margins, clean type and clear headings
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Selectively apply bold and italic typeface that help guide the reader's eye
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Use bullets to call attention to important points (i.e. accomplishments)
2. Identify Accomplishments not Just Job Descriptions
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Focus on what you did in the job, NOT what your job was
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Include a brief job description first, then list your accomplishments
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For each accomplishment listed, state the benefit of having done it.
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Accomplishments should be unique to you or the team you worked with
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Avoid using the generic descriptions of the jobs you held
3. Quantify Your Accomplishments
Your resume is a marketing document designed to sell your skills and strengths. Include and highlight specific achievements that present a comprehensive picture of your marketability. If your work helped to reduce costs, state the dollar amount saved. If your project improved response time to customer questions, provide the data.
4. Cater Your Resume for the Industry
Unlike advertising and design professionals who have greater creative license in designing their resume for those fields, a hiring manager in the mechanical engineering industry might be turned off by distinctive resume design. Err on the side of being conservative stylistically. Your accomplishments, error-free grammatically-correct writing will make the impression for you
5. Replace your “Objective" with a "Career Summary"
Too many resumes start off with
“Seeking a challenging, interesting position in X where I can use my skills of X, Y, and Z to contribute to the bottom line.”
Replace it with a Career Summary that gives a brief overview of who you are and what you like to do. Remember, you’ll need to grab a hiring manager's attention right from the beginning, and you have only 25 few seconds to make a good impression. Spend time developing a summary that immediately gets their attention, and accurately and powerfully describes you as the BEST candidate for the job.
