An increasing number of Millennials are entering and moving up in the workforce, bringing about a shift in expectations along with the change in demographics. If you are an individual seeking new employment, you’ve come to the right place—read on for crucial resume advice.
Triple-check your work. It goes without say that editing is necessary—particularly when a single leaf of paper is so high-stakes—but it’s easy for mistakes to slip past an editorial eye. Read your work over once, take a break, read it aloud, and read it again.
Likewise, read over the content surrounding your resume. Whether you send an email detailing your interest or a cover letter typed into Indeed.com, make sure that you have the correct address of the company you are writing to, have saved your resume under an appropriate file name (“LastName-First Name-Resume.doc”), and have placed the email address and phone number on every page.
If a company has instructions on what to send, including file type (.doc /.docx /.pdf) or format, be sure to follow that. Note, many Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) only read .doc files (seems strange in today’s world but many companies do not update their systems) and most ATS do not read .pdf files correctly. If a company does not specify a file type, it is best to send a Word file.
Tailor your resume to the position. List relevant coursework, focus on relevant skills, and address your experience in meeting the responsibilities of the position you are applying for.
Give it time. Employers receive many resumes on a daily basis and may take weeks to respond to an application. If a job posting requests that no individuals inquire about the status of their application, honor it. If not, response times vary based on the location of a job, the size of the hiring team, and the number of applications received, but it is generally acceptable to politely inquire after a month has passed with no communication.
At Robin’s Resumes®, we understand that breaking into the job market is no easy task, and requires understanding many details. Contact us today to ensure that your resume exceeds present-day standards.