Sample Resume Blog

Simply put, a resume is a piece of paper that tells an employer about your relevant education, job experience, and skills. The objective of a resume is to land a job interview, so that you can then “wow” the employer in person and secure the job. Many people think that they are trying to land the job with their resume, but that is not the case. Your resume is simply a tool to help you get in front of the employer.

 

Since the employer can’t tell much about your from a piece of paper, you are likely to never have a resume that is good enough to actually land you the job — no matter how hard you try. Instead, you should be focused on this question: “Would this resume pique an employers interest in me, enough to call me in for an interview? Will it make him want to know more about me?”

 

What NOT to include on your resume …

 

If you have your resume template in front of you, then it is easy enough to see what you should include on a resume. Therefore, I am going to take a little bit of time to talk about what should NOT be included on your resume.

 

The first culprit: Things those are not relevant to your current job or industry. It doesn’t matter what you did in another field or how high you climbed up the ladder — if it is not relevant to your current job or field, then it is just talking up valuable space.

 

Culprit two: something that could be seen as an exaggeration or an untruth. Of course, many people use large words and fancy sentence arrangement to try and “inflate” their pat job titles, skills, and accomplishments, but there is a line that you should try not to cross. For example, saying you managed a group or team when you didn’t or saying that you are an expert at using a certain program when you aren’t.

 

If you avoid these two things, it will help keep you from making a mistake in the interview, being excepted for skills and accomplishments that you never had, and avoid the “rejected” pile altogether. Of course, avoiding these two things won’t guarantee that you will land an interview, but they will help keep your resume relevant and keep you out of trouble.