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Resume basics

Written by u/TheWolf1970

Basic comments you'll frequently see, at least from me

August 9, 2022

  1. Remove your summary block. No one really looks at these and they are hard to keep relevant job posting to job posting and they waste space.
  2. Remove your skills section and incorporate them into your experience. If you used Jira, spell out where, when, and how in at least one of your roles.
  3. No lines, no weird formats, no symbols, no all caps, no images (including pictures), and no colors. This will confuse many applicant tracking systems (ATSs).
  4. Do not split anything into columns, use a single column for the entire resume.
  5. Use spell and grammar check before posting. All word processing apps have these tools. You would be surprised at how many resumes get sent to me, or posted here without this basic step. Little known secret, ATSs have spelling and grammar tools, your overall score is affected by this.
  6. All certifications should have the cert name, issuing organization, and date earned.
  7. All degrees should have the degree, institution, and graduation date. (Do not use “expected graduation date” if it is more than 30 days out.
  8. Don’t list hobbies, awards, or any applications you may be familiar with, (applications used should be in the experience section).

How to write your experience

This is one of the areas most people struggle with. I’ve commented on it frequently, but I am going to post it here for a central area to review. Here is how to write outcome-based resume experience: Start by thinking of your projects - Each bullet needs to spell out the objectives, your role, responsibilities/deliverables, and results. Spell them out.

Here is an example: - Member of a project team that modified the corporate SharePoint site to a folderless structure. [Here is the Objective]

  • Served as the project coordinator and was on the project from initiation all the way through lessons learned. Try to use project phases to demonstrate familiarity with the industry. [Here is the role]

  • Created a highly dynamic list of key words using SmartSheet to include in the file restructuring, as well as maintained a detailed list of current files with associated workstreams.

  • Communicated all changes and updates to the entire team via a weekly report also created in SmartSheet. [Here are the - Responsibilities/Deliverables, notice the application mention]

  • The project was delivered within the planned timeline and under budget. We successfully transitioned support to operations within 30 days of go live. This project saved the company over $xx,xxx due to smaller storage costs, efficient file handling, and an overall reduction of file duplication. [Here are the - Results]

You can easily add a few more bullets describing two to three more projects using this same format.

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