Spring Cleaning and Your Resume

In a perfect, tidy world everyone would keep their resumes current by adding new relevant information as it happens. In the real world, however, we usually only dust off our CVs when presented with a new opportunity. These last-minute edits often result in less-than-stellar resumes. While it isn’t reasonable to think that people will always maintain their resumes in presentable form, a little spring cleaning may be just the trick to spruce up your CV. Here are five tips to spruce up one of your most important career documents.

Get Organized

Before you start editing or writing your resume get yourself organized. Gather your current resume, your previous year’s calendar, awards, seminar or continuing ed certs, and any other relevant information. If you are updating your resume for a specific job opportunity, make sure you include research into the employer. This is very important as ultimately your resume is not about you. It is about getting the hiring manager to give you an interview.

Lead with Results

As I mentioned above, the purpose of your resume is to persuade a hiring manager to interview you. Hiring managers are very busy when they are filling a position. It is likely that they are sifting through dozens, or in some cases hundreds of resumes. The first line of defense for them is to quickly find reasons to disqualify a candidate. One particular thing they find annoying is fluff. Your best offense is to get rid of the fluff, replace it with results, and lead with that.

Quantify Results

Employers like results, and they love quantified results.

No – Met or exceeded my sales goals in 2019.

Yes – Closed 12 strategic clients resulting in $12 million in new billings in 2019.

Keep It Brief

Remember that the hiring manager is busy and doesn’t have time to read your autobiography. Get to the point, stay focused, and keep it concise. It’s rare that a resume should exceed 1 – 2 pages.

Ask for Help

Even the best authors know the value of a proofreader. The simplest typo could spell disaster for your employment chances. You can hire a professional to assist you with writing your resume. If you can’t hire a pro, at the very least get a trusted friend or colleague to proofread the finished product. A second set of eyes is always a good idea.

Danielle Foppe is a Recruitment Manager at Business Centric Technology. If you are interested in learning more about how to get the best IT talent in the Dallas metroplex, contact Danielle specializes in recruiting IT talent in Dallas, Ft. Worth and North Texas. If you are looking for a rewarding career contact us today.