Struggling to find space on your resume to fit some key details and accomplishments? It might be time for a resume cleanup.
There may be a lot of items on your resume that were relevant six years ago, but are no longer relevant for what jobs you’re applying for in 2015 that can simply be removed. There are also items that need to be refreshed in order to make you look more professional.
Here are a few things you need to clean up or take off your resume immediately:
So you’ve spent hours working on your resume, maybe days. You’ve probably read our last blog post on how to perfect it and now it is time to send it off to the HR department of your dream company. But don’t send it just yet. There are some little things you can do that you probably haven’t even thought of, which might give you a tiny edge over another candidate.
It’s Resume Month! Check back every week to see how you can increase your chances of landing a job by improving your resume and cover letter—it’s resumes, and resumes only, for this month!
The cover letter: a source of misery and confusion for job seekers everywhere.
It’s not easy writing cover letters. No matter how many times you write a cover letter, there’s really never any certainty what you’ve written is what the hiring manager is looking for—or that the hiring manager is even taking the time to read your cover letter to begin with.
With that in mind, let’s keep it simple (the first point of this post) and dive right into it. Here are five tips to writing a killer cover letter:
Think about how many applications a hiring manager has to sort through for each posted job opening. It’s a never-ending wave, and this means each resume might have only a few seconds to make a real impact with a hiring manager before it gets tossed aside. Knowing this, you need to make sure your cover letter is simple and straight to the point. Don’t write too much, otherwise your cover letter will look like a daunting wall of text to the hiring manager and won’t get the attention it deserves.
It’s Resume Month! Check back every week to see how you can increase your chances of landing a job by improving your resume and cover letter—it’s resumes, and resumes only, for this month!
Noticed a job posting that you’re thinking of applying to? Chances are that the job posting has been noticed by hundreds of other curious candidates too, and the process for each candidate is the same: apply through email, or apply through a website. Unless you know the hiring manager personally, the only way to stand out from the crowd is through a well-designed resume.
If you’re a graphic designer, chances are you already have a resume that’s well designed, but for all other professions, a traditional resume (designed in Word or InDesign) is what you’re working with. And while resumes for other professions can have elements of graphic design associated with them (e.g. a resume geared for the advertising industry might lean towards the creative side), normally the customization is limited to bolding, underling, and italicizing.
Your resume serves a specific purpose, and that’s to get noticed by the hiring manager. As a result, you need to strategically customize your resume with the limited number of tools you have available in order grab the hiring manager’s attention—too much customization and your key points will all blend into one another, too little customization and your resume will be flat and boring.
Here’s everything you need to know about styling your resume:
Welcome to The 9 To 5, our ongoing series where we highlight and interview creative professionals doing great things. Today’s profile is on Milton Kiang, Professional Resume Writer.
It’s also Resume Month! Check back every week to see how you can increase your chances of landing a job by improving your resume and cover letter—it’s resumes, and resumes only, for this month!
1. How did you end up focusing on professional resume writing after attaining a law degree?I practiced as a lawyer right after obtaining my law degree. I articled and practiced with a downtown Vancouver law firm, then traveled overseas to work in Hong Kong.
While in Hong Kong, I obtained qualifications as a Hong Kong solicitor, and worked at Intel’s Asia legal department. After practicing for about 10 years, I wanted to do something different, so I became a legal recruiter (i.e. a headhunter) specializing in recruiting lawyers for in-house, law firm associate and partner positions.
As a legal recruiter, I reviewed and screened hundreds of resumes. Often times, I would correct or update applicant resumes. I knew what my clients (i.e. employers) were looking for in job candidates, but I found that many of the resumes did not emphasize the applicants’ biggest selling points. So with the candidates’ permission, I would make “tweaks” to their resumes. After making these adjustments, candidates would get calls from the employers for interviews. This is when I knew I had a knack for helping job candidates write good resumes.
It’s Resume Month! Check back every week to see how you can increase your chances of landing a job by improving your resume and cover letter—it’s resumes, and resumes only, for this month!
Putting together your resume, but tired of the drab and traditional Microsoft Word layout you’ve been using? We’ve scoured the internet to find 10 of the best looking resumes that you can use for inspiration to help with your own resume design and layout. Keep in mind that you don’t have to stick to Microsoft Word when building your resume—use Photoshop or InDesign and save your file as a PDF!
It’s Resume Month! Check back every week to see how you can increase your chances of landing a job by improving your resume and cover letter—it’s resumes, and resumes only, for this month!
If your job interview goes well and your prospective employer wants to make you a job offer, he or she will, without exceptions, ask you for references. So the question is, “should I list out the names of my references in my resume?” I tell my clients that it’s not necessary to list your referees for two reasons:
by Sheila Hansen
What do mints, Kodak moments, selfies, Lady Gaga and 2 a.m. decisions have in common? They were all used to illustrate the finer points of messaging at the Art of Marketing conference, April 15 at the Vancouver Convention Centre.
Five marketing mavens/bestselling authors each took to the stage during the daylong event to share their expertise with some 1,200 attendees. We were enlightened, emboldened and entertained. Here is what made me go “hmmm” long after the ballroom lights came on:
You’re an intern! Probably not the best for your wallet, but the internship itself is worth its weight in gold. As an existing student (or recent grad), the internship you’re in right now can be the jumping off point for your entire career—but only if you play your cards right.
Yes, it would be great if the company offered you a full-time position towards the end of your internship, but nothing is guaranteed, and you can’t assume as much. Some companies simply don’t have the finances to create a paid position, beyond the small stipend you’re already receiving, others don’t have the workload to justify adding a new position, while in some cases you might be doing the internship though your school and it’s understood that the position won’t be extended to full-time upon completion. What you can do, however, is use your time as an intern to learn and grow from everyone around you, and maybe—just maybe—perform so well that you almost force the hand of your company to create a position to keep you around.
A company will always look at your character and personality when considering adding you on full-time.
Here are three things you should be doing to make the most of your internship (and show the company why it needs to hire you):
Yes that’s right, we’ve arranged to give away another completely FREE ticket to the epic Digital Strategy Conference coming up in Vancouver from May 12-14.
The conference promises three exciting days of case studies, amazing speakers, best practices and candid discussion.
In order to enter this free ticket giveaway you only need to do two simple things:
Good luck on this one folks we’ll choose a winner by next Wednesday the 29th of April.