How to improve your resume. 

You’ve got the skills and experience to be a great candidate for a new position, but whenever you submit your resume to a new company, you don’t hear back. You’ve double-checked the job requirements and you meet the criteria they’re looking for, so you don’t understand why you didn’t even get an interview. Before giving up on your search for a career or position you can be passionate about, you might want to take another look at your resume. No matter how impressive your education or skills, a messy or improperly formatted resume can have hiring managers tossing your application aside without a second glance. Here are three ways to repair your resume right now. 

Remove information that isn’t necessary. 

When you’re applying for jobs, your first instinct is to include as much information as possible. After all, this is the thing that’s supposed to get you through the door and on to the next step in the process: an interview. What if you forget something that could have impressed the hiring manager? In an attempt to make sure you’ve got everything you need on your resume, you’re loading up the page with so much information that the hiring manager reading it might give up before getting to the important details. Take a look at your current resume and try removing a few unnecessary items like

• The objective. You might have read articles or resume how-to’s that advise you to always include an objective at the top of your resume. But it’s tough to write a good objective. After all, your current objective is to get the job you’re applying for, right? Delete it. You’ll have more room for relevant information, like the skills you’ll bring to the company. 
• Every job you’ve ever had. You want to make sure you include previous job experience that could be relevant to the position you’re applying for, but listing every job you’ve had since high school makes for a lengthy and difficult to navigate resume. A good rule of thumb is to keep your resume to one page. If you’re listing jobs and go past that one page, delete them. Another good rule? Don’t include jobs older than ten years, unless the job experience is relevant to the one you’re applying for. 
• Obvious skills. Depending on the job you’re applying for and your past experience, there are certain skills you don’t need to list on your resume. That includes how fast you can type, whether or not you know Microsoft Word and Excel, or your computer skills. The hiring manager more than likely expects applicants with similar past job experience to already have those skills, so adding them makes for a cluttered resume. 

Keep your resume simple. 

You want to stand out from the crowd, so you make sure your resume is different from the rest. That could include creative fonts, interesting formatting, colorful text, or fancy paper. But unless you’re applying for a design job or a position that calls for artistic expression or a portfolio, getting fancy with your resume can be off-putting to hiring managers. If your resume is hard to read, they’re not going to try. Keep it simple. 

• Use standard, easy-to-read fonts. You may really want to use a pretty script font on your resume to show off your personality, but it’s better to stick with the “boring,” standard fonts. Helvetica or Arial are straightforward, clean, and simple for a hiring manager to skim through. Making your resume easier to read will encourage them to read what you submitted to them in-depth, whereas a stylized font might give them a headache. 
• Stick to standard formatting. You can’t use the creative font you want, so it’s time to get creative with formatting, right? Not really. Avoid formatting your resume so that it looks like a newsletter or any other special set up. 
• Keep it short. There are some industries that do look for longer resumes, but most want a short glimpse into what you can offer to the company. Keep your resume to the one-page standard, if possible, and include only necessary information. Adding fluff or volunteer positions you held back in high school (if it’s been more than three years since you’ve graduated) just makes it harder for the hiring manager to find the information they really want to know. 

Stay up to date. 

Whether or not you’re looking for a new job or are applying for a promotion at your current company, updating your resume on a regular basis is essential. When you take on a new role at work, pick up a new and relevant skill, or finish an important project, go back to your resume and add the information where necessary. 

Besides updating your resume regularly, it’s also a good idea to keep up on resume trends. While including an objective on your resume is out of style these days, at one point it was vital to have. Hiring trends can shift just like fashion trends, so staying in the know can help you stand out. 

Learn new skills to boost your resume. 

While you want to keep your resume compact and easy to read, adding new and relevant skills to your resume can help you prepare to catch a hiring manager’s interest. Completing flexible, online certificate classes with ICS Canada can help you take the next step toward feeling career confident. To learn more about what programs are the best fit for your needs, call in to speak with an Admissions Specialist today at 1.888.427.2400!