Spruce Up Your Resume in 60 Minutes or Less
How would you feel if you possessed a nicely polished resume that projects and elevates your level of professionalism? More confident? More positive? I bet!
Crafting a dynamic resume that is also a great selling tool is more time-consuming than 60 minutes. Yet, with the following quick and easy visual and marketing ‘styleover’ tips, you will begin to distinguish yourself from the job search mob in half an hour! That sounds good. Doesn’t it?
Tip 1: Check spacing and make sure your page margins are set to at least 0.7 all around. This will not only ensure that your resume is inviting with enough white space but that it meets universal printing standards (abating printing issues).
Tip 2: Bold your name and enlarge the font to 16 pt. or 18 pt. Also, centering your name is a great way to make immediate impact.
Tip 3: Separate your personal contact information with a bullet or divider, providing great visual appeal and easy email and phone number identification. Include your LinkedIn link so that employers can read recommendations.
Tip 4: Add your target Job Title to introduce your Summary or Profile instead of the more common labels such as “Qualifications Profile or Summary.” This will help you add a great resume keyword right at the top and will lend to your expert image/ brand.
Tip 5: Edit your Summary or Profile, ensuring sentences end quickly; combine ideas and try to limit this introductory paragraph to five to six lines. This will help create a nice crisp look and you will deliver your marketing message more clearly.
Tip 6: Go through the rest of your resume and remove all orphan words (words left on a line by themselves). This just causes an unorganized look and it really isn’t necessary.
Tip 7: Bold resume sections (Employment, Education, etc.) and enlarge the font size to 14 pt. This will nicely separate the areas of your resume and guide readers through.
Tip 8: Group job accountabilities together in a paragraph form, separating from achievements. Keep the number of sentences to no more than six. People lose interest when paragraphs are long-winded. Plus, long sentences and paragraphs makes it easier for your message to become convoluted.
Tip 9: Separate your achievements (how you actually performed and the results you generated) from the job description. Bullet them; no more than five to six bullets. Any more than that will look too busy and unwelcoming to the reader.
Tip 10: Ensure you have begun all bulleted sentences with action verbs. Here: Download Resume-Writing-Academy-Verb-List provided by the Resume Writing Academy.
Tip 11: Make sure all your bullets line up and match! Inconsistency screams sloppiness and conveys unprofessionalism. Use square bullets and get rid of those old round bullets! It is 2012, people! 
Tip 12: Eliminate any hobbies or personal information (picture, marital status, age, religious associations). These do not belong on your resume.
Tip 13: Read the entire resume aloud to catch awkward phrases end errors. As you read aloud, analyze if what you have just read is relevant to your new career target, if not–remove it! You want to target your new job title/role.
Tip 14: If you have created a second page that is at least one third full. There is no excuse for a second page with just a few lines on it.
Tip 15: Remove the phrase, References Available Upon Request, this is very antiquated and unnecessary. Sure, perhaps in the past when locating wasn’t as easy as it is now with email, Google, mobile phones, etc.
Tip 16: For extra marketing power add a nice snippet of a recommendation letter! Works like a charm.
Now, get to work! Invest time in preparing a resume that you have polished, in turn, fortifying your professional image.
Can you list a few of your favorite resume polishing tips?
Follow me on Twitter @resumeservice
Rosa Elizabeth Vargas
www.careersteering.com
writer@careersteering.com
Related post: Holiday Resume Sparkle
Ebook: Resume Writing Guide
The Resume’s Evolution
Nowadays you must craft the advertising of your qualifications as if you were your own company! Smart companies shift tactics based on market opportunity and needs! Are you adjusting your efforts to position yourself as the ideal careerist in today’s ever evolving job search market?
Dare to re-shape and revolutionize your job search campaign, beginning with a daring new resume that will soar above the rest.
A cutting-edge and interview-capturing resume…
Breaks the Traditional Formatting Boundaries: It is ‘okay’ to use color, perhaps a testimonial, a quote or even a logo on your resume. In fact, I encourage it! See what a difference it makes. It will impress within seconds, enthralling your employer and guiding their eyes further down the dossier.
Facebook and Your Career
Facebook and Your Career
Excuse me. Come again? Are you kidding? What is the first thing you do when you want more
information about ANY topic? You Google it. Simply put, Facebook can influence your online brand, your digital reputation, your corporate identity, and ultimately your employability.
The most important thing you must embrace is that EMPLOYERS WILL ABSOLUTELY GOOGLE YOU. If you have a name, you are Googleble! If you have any social networking account, even if just one—you are definitely Googleble, which means your reputation is searchable. So, now that we established this, what do you do with that
information? Read more 
Love and Work Together? True?
Do you agree with the following statement? “You have the right to love what you do and do what you love.”
Are you feeling just a little bit guilty about believing this or wanting to buy-in? If you are, you are not alone. But…are we correct in feeling a bit guilty or are we just settling for less?
It seems almost self-indulgent to want to love what you do when so many are out of work. Doesn’t it? But if I have learned anything about this world it is that we live with this ’dichotomy’ of life. Why then shouldn’t we strive for excellence when we are fortunate enough to be in that position?
Loving what you do is career excellence! Is it not? I read this great article via Forbes.com and while I loved the article and found myself infused with inspiration, I wondered how many buy-ins I could garner. Here is a snippet from that article by Kathy Caprino:
“Why should you take these steps? Because you have the right to love what you do and do what you love. People like to claim that loving your work is a pipedream – but those who defend that view are wrong. Enjoying your career and feeling there’s deep meaning and purpose in it is not just for a select, fortunate few. It’s for anyone who believes in him/herself and takes the right kind of action”
What say you careerist? Is your job search driven by your passion or your wallet? My opinion? Give me the ‘pipedream’! It keeps me alive and smiling! But I also have a practical side. I coach my clients to never give up on their dream job but if they find themselves in a financial crisis, take a temporary pause. You can still choose a career path that will align with your future goal. I do however, recommend that if you will be moving your dream job to the back burner, that you strategically choose it’s replacement! Don’t go join the circus unless you can leverage those skills in your new job, and credibly promote them. And DO NOT accept a job you hate. Mental health is as important as financial health!
Check out the post by Kathy Caprino over at Forbes. It is an excellent article with actionable steps to reconnect with your ‘old love.’
Rosa Elizabeth Vargas
www.caeersteering.com
321-704-7209
