5 tips and tricks to improve your resume and get your dream job!
Ah, the resume. It’s the one piece of writing that everyone must engage with, and the quality of this document can affect your life, or at least your career. We here at Crest Personnel know firsthand that writing a resume can appear daunting at first, which is why we have prepared some tips and tricks to make your resume stand out above the rest and get you that dream job!
1. Provide a minimum of a phone number, email address, and suburb
Recruiters want to get a hold of you, and you want to make sure that they are able to contact you back. A phone number, email address, and the suburb you live in is the minimum required, but some jobs might require your licenses and education and right to work in Australia, in which case you might also need to include that in your resume.
2. Start with a profile about yourself
Your profile should be at the very start of your resume—typically at the top or to the side depending on your resume format—and it should give a brief summary about yourself. Who you are, what kind of position or industry you are looking for, your ambitions and career goals, and what makes you a great employee. Ideally your profile will be before or after your contact information.
3. Have the most up to date resume available
It might sound obvious, but it’s important to keep your resume as up to date as possible. Your most recent experiences, whether that be your last job or your latest education and newest licenses, should be included as soon as they occur. Be mindful that the latest job experience is at the very top of the experience section, with the older jobs going down from there.
4. Keep the resume to approximately 2-3 pages
Recruiters will often be going through several resumes at once, so it’s best to make your resume succinct. If your resume is over 2 pages, consider cutting down on certain details to allow it to fit. Perhaps that is removing excess detail in describing your job experience or using a smaller font size. If your resume is only 1 page, add more detail to describe your past experiences and any particular goals or achievements you received.
5. Use simple, clean formatting, and use keywords
Technically you could argue this is 6 tips, but these two often go hand in hand. You want your resume to look nice to stand out from the crowd without getting cluttered, both from a visual perspective and from a systems perspective. Use one or two colours in your resume, use dotpoints to detail key individual points, and use text formatting like bolds and italics to highlight your employment history. When searching for keywords, look for them in the selection criteria of the job ad, as recruiters and recruitment software often look for these first. Including these keywords will put your resume to the top of the list!
Have any questions about the above? Still require a bit more assistance in crafting that perfect resume? Contact Crest Personnel at 08 9215 6200 or email us your resume to vacancy@crestpersonnel.com.au and we’ll be happy to help.
