LIM College

by Laura Lynch

Resumes are probably the bane of everyone’s existence. They’re pesky and tedious, but they are so important. Having your best resume possible is what you should strive for, but how do you make your resume stand out?

I spend more time looking at my resume more than anything else on my computer and luckily we live in a time where as college students and young professionals we have a distinct advantage that our parents didn’t have; The internet.

But, before we get technical and upload resumes online, there are some important things to note. It is always good to have another set of eyes look over your resume because people see things that you may potentially miss.

In my current position we continually do this with each other when we have downtime. You may think you have perfectly described your job, but getting the feedback from your peers and professors about how you’re sounding (i.e. are you rambling, sounding repetitive, etc.) is probably the smartest thing you could do. Let other people edit for you and give your eyes a break.

Utilize the career center at LIM…"Oh but I don’t have time...blah blah blah." Trust me you’ll be glad you did. EECM services can help with resume formatting, editing, career goal setting and so much more that will get you where you want to be.

Remember your resume should not be longer than one page. Anything longer and you run the risk of not being considered for a job. Time and again I hear employers mention people with resumes that are too long and they don’t always have the kindest things to say. Keep it short sweet and to the point.

 Always keep your resume up to date. You wouldn’t want to leave important details out of your family biography so don’t leave important details out of your resume. The smallest detail can make the biggest difference in determining whether you get a job or not. So if you helped write, design, participated in xyz for whatever company and it was of significant importance, use your better judgment and put it on your resume if you think it will aide you. Even though you’re sending one page of your job history, have a notebook with more points from your job duties if you have had a lot of things to do.

At the end of the day the goal with your resume is to get the job that you want and your resume is the best way to do that so make sure you give it the attention it deserves.