8 Steps to Building the Perfect Resume

The Importance of a Resume

One of the primary ways in which you can organize your accomplishments is through a resume. A resume helps to highlight your accomplishments, communicates your qualifications, and can be a useful tool to get your foot in the door to many opportunities. Ultimately, the purpose of a polished resume is to get you an interview or afford you an opportunity.

Step 1: Add Contact Information

Making sure one has up to date contact information, usually including one's phone number, email, and address is the key to facilitating communication between you and interested employers. Employers will not make any extra effort to reach out to someone difficult to contact, so securing a job requires one to be easily available. It is usually courtesy to place this section at the very top of the resume.

Step 2: Include Level of Education

The level of education is arguably one of the most important parts of a resume, as it is one of the few parts of a resume employers really pay attention to, in determining the selected applicant for a position as well as pay. For example, if one has a PhD, they're probably going to get paid more than someone with a bachelor's or associate's. The level of education can also be partially used to determine if an applicant is qualified for a position.

Step 3: Skills and Certifications

Skills and certifications on a resume tend to be more common in specialized blue collar jobs, the beauty industry, or positions in medicine that don't require a full four year degree, for example, certified nursing assistants, or CNAs. These are also common with specialized schooling like nursing and cosmetology where it is vital for applicants to have certain skills. Some certifications are also necessary for safety purposes, especially in jobs with very high rates of accident or injury.

Step 4: Work Experience

Most jobs prefer applicants with better experience, meaning either a lot of experience or very high quality experience, usually taking the form of participation in prestigious organizations or employment from very well-known companies. Usually both quality and quantity of experience is taken into equal consideration, however, usually it's more beneficial to have quality experience related to the job one is applying for.

Step 5: Publications & Professional History

Especially if applying for jobs in more specialized or academic settings, one should include any previous research or publications, or any other work related to or potentially relevant to the job position. This can include previous projects, ventures, or portfolios. In some situations, this can also include any involvement in your community or with organizations.

Step 6: Languages

Foreign languages, or languages in general, are a very important detail that is often forgotten on resumes. Being fluent in more than one language is a great achievement, and can also influence pay. Saying that, this is only something to put on a resume if you are fluent or at a relatively high level of output, not just because you took some spanish courses in high school.

Step 7: Awards and Achievements

Any significant achievement related to the job you're applying for can also greatly sway the person reviewing the application. This can be anything from a measurable accomplishment to a recognition for work one has done. When creating this portion of the resume, keep in mind that the achievement should be relevant and relatively recent, not an award from middle school.

Step 8: References

References are also incredibly common alongside resumes, both for jobs applications and in an academic setting. References can assist potential employers in making decisions between applicants, and references are typically provided by a former employer or someone who has worked around one in the past and gives quality insight into the character of an applicant.

Academic Resumes

The purpose of a resume also dictates what content should be left out, or focused on in more detail. Students in high school, college, or higher forms of schooling often create academic resumes, which usually include extracurricular activities and their descriptions, as well as course rigor and sometimes grades and test scores. These resumes also tend to focus a lot more on awards and achievements than resumes for job applications. Academic resumes are usually used by those applying for an organization or opportunity that is heavily based in academics, and usually by those with more academic accomplishment than work experience. Always remember to create or alter your resume for the target audience!

Conclusion

With the rising competition in the job market, hopefully this article helped you learn something you didn't know before! Considering a business career? Check out our Instagram page (@nextstepbusinessofficial) and subscribe to our newsletters to learn more about upcoming events!