Continued from our previous blog post¦
After the summary, or headline, of a resume is read, the reader turns to the job titles. Job titles in a resume serve as the secondary headlines of the resume because they give the reader an idea of what the rest of the content of the resume will be about. If a hiring manager is seeking a store manager and he reads Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker he will know the resume is not going to contain the qualifications he needs. However, if the resume job titles were Department Manager, Retail Manager, and District Manager, he would know he's on the right track and keep reading.
Job titles are crucial bits of a resume but most job seekers place them secondary to the name of the companies where they worked. Company names are important, especially if the companies for which you have worked are direct competitors of your target employer. Company names are not as important as job titles and should not come above.
The next parts of the resume to be read are the bullet items in the experience. Bullets are meant to call attention to information, but unfortunately, many job seekers use them simply to mark beginnings of paragraphs or items in a list. That is a waste of bullets. Think of bullets as call-outs. They serve like call-out quotes in an article. They grab attention and focus it on specific information that the reader needs to know. That information should be the accomplishments and results that the job seeker has achieved.
Finally, the reader reads the last part of the last page which usually contains details about education, affiliations, and technical skills. These sections are not going to make or break the resume but rather support the previous information that has gone before. The degree should have been mentioned in the summary and now the details of that degree can be found in the Education section.
Sometimes, job seekers put in a Personal section or an Interests/Hobbies section at the end. Sections like these are a total waste of page space. Think of them like the ads in a paper that say Your Ad Could Be Here - it's a filler for the newspaper because they needed something to take up that space. Personal information and information on hobbies have not place on a resume. Employers don't need that information to make a decision on the quality of the candidate and whether or not he/she is worth interviewing.
Think of a resume as a periodical or newspaper. Lead with the most important information. Write it to the needs and wants of the reader. Cover what needs to be covered in powerful language. Leave out the irrelevant information.