If you construct and present your resume in the correct fashion, it could help you get a face-to-face interview with a potential new employer. That’s why it’s critical that you invest the proper amount of time and energy into creating it. With that in mind, I have some quick tips that can help.
First, make sure that your resume contains your contact information and your city and state. You don’t need a complete address, but a city and state are necessary. Second, use an executive summary or a professional summary instead of a mission statement. This gives you more flexibility with the employer and it might line up more closely with their hiring needs.
Third, list your work history in reverse chronological order and tie that work history as closely as you can to the position. You have to show the hiring manager that you’ve provided value to past employers and that you can provide the same kind of value for them.
Fourth, do not use any unusual formatting in the resume or include a photo of yourself. These resumes go through something called an applicant tracking system, and if the ATS rejects your resume for any reason, then the hiring manager might not see it.
And fifth, the length of your resume should be no more than two pages. Hiring managers take a maximum of 30 seconds looking at a resume, so make sure that they’ll see everything they’re looking for on two pages.
If you follow these tips, you can greatly increase the chances that the hiring manager will notice your resume, as well as your chances for landing a face-to-face interview. Remember your resume is your ticket to an interview.