Top 12 basic tips for crafting a great resume

Your resume is the linchpin of your professional identity in the eyes of potential employers.

It’s your calling card and the very thing that can get you in the door.

Constructing a compelling and meticulously structured resume is paramount to effectively showcasing your skills, experiences, and qualifications.

To ensure your resume shines brightly among what could be a deluge of applications, it's important to get the basics right and follow these 12 basic guidelines in creating a winning resume.

There are also a number of good templates which are freely available online you could use to help base the structure of your resume.

• Articulate your accomplishments, responsibilities, and qualifications with clarity and conciseness.

• Employ succinct sentences and bullet points for easy readability

• Avoid verbose paragraphs that could obscure your key points.
  
  

2. Tailoring to the Job:

• Tailor your resume for the specific job you're pursuing. Delve into the job description, identify the skills and experiences needed, and emphasise those that resonate with the position.

• Where you can, use the some of the same wording used in the job description or advert for the role.  This will help for the ‘key word’ searches that some companies use in their recruitment software.
  
  

3. Contact Information:

• Accurate and comprehensive contact details is the name of the game here.

• Include your full name, professional email address, current phone number, and (if you have it), a link to your LinkedIn profile.  

• No need for your actual address, date of birth or anything else, just keep it simple.
  
  

4. Professional Summary:

• Create a succinct professional summary.

• This brief yet potent statement should encapsulate your strengths, career goals, and the distinctive value you can bring.

• Tailor it to each application to underscore your suitability. 

• You could even try using ChatGPT to help you script something that you can then tailor to you. 

• And no photos!  Gone are the days when photos are included in resumes.
  
  

5. Work Experience:

• Present your work chronology in reverse order, starting with your most recent role.

• For each position, provide the company name, your job title, tenure, and a detailed (bullet pointed) account of responsibilities and accomplishments.

• Begin each bullet point with dynamic action verbs.
  
  

6  Achievements and Results:

• Utilise quantifiable metrics such as percentages, dollar amounts, or numerical figures to highlight the impact of your contributions

• Include specific numbers to showcase the scale of your achievements, e.g., “Successfully set up and ran a new product launch event for 150 people with a budget of 200K”.

• Highlight any awards or recognitions received for outstanding performance.

• Provide context for achievements by explaining the challenges you faced and how your efforts addressed them.

 7  Skills:

• Dedicate a section to showcase both hard (technical) and soft (interpersonal) skills.

• Separate technical skills into relevant categories, such as programming languages, software tools, and certifications.

• Emphasize soft skills such as communication, teamwork, and problem-solving with examples of how you've applied them.

• Include any industry-specific skills that set you apart from other candidates.

• Tailor your skills section to align with the specific requirements of the job you're applying for.

 8  Education:

• Detail academic history in reverse chronological order, including institution names, courses, degrees earned, major subjects, graduation dates, and any honors received.

• Provide additional context for academic achievements, such as noteworthy projects or research.

• Include relevant coursework or special projects that demonstrate practical application of your education if it is applicable for the role you are applying for.

9 Projects and Contributions: (include these in your work experience section)

• Outline key contributions to projects, emphasizing your role, the project's purpose, your specific contributions, and the achieved outcomes.

• Use the CAR (Challenge, Action, Result) framework to structure your project descriptions. (TIP: Also use the CAR framework in interviews when giving examples to the ‘tell me a time when’ questions.  The interviewee is also using that framework !)

• Highlight any innovative approaches or solutions you implemented during projects.

• Include any collaborative efforts, demonstrating your ability to work in a team.

• Quantify the impact of your contributions, showcasing tangible results whenever possible.

10 Leadership and Volunteering:

• Highlight leadership roles and volunteer experiences to demonstrate qualities such as teamwork, commitment, and community engagement.

• Specify leadership roles held, detailing the scope of responsibilities and achievements.

• Showcase your ability to lead teams, resolve conflicts, and drive positive outcomes.

• Describe the impact of your volunteer experiences on your personal and professional development.

• Use specific examples to highlight how your leadership and volunteering experiences align with the values of the prospective employer.

11  Proofread and Format:

• Thoroughly proofread for errors and inconsistencies.

• Use grammar and spell-check tools, but also manually review your resume to catch nuanced errors.

• Consider seeking feedback from peers, mentors, or career advisors to gain different perspectives.

• Pay attention to formatting consistency, ensuring font styles, sizes, and spacing are uniform.

• Choose a clean and professional format, avoiding excessive colors or fonts that may distract from your content.

12  Continual Improvement:

• View your resume as a dynamic document. Regularly update it to reflect new achievements, skills, and experiences, ensuring it accurately represents your professional growth.

• Set a schedule for updating your resume, especially after completing significant projects or acquiring new skills.

• Tailor your resume for each job application, emphasising the most relevant experiences and skills.

• Seek feedback from industry professionals or career advisors to identify areas for improvement.

• Stay informed about industry trends and adjust your resume to align with current expectations.