4 Tips to Spring Clean Your Resume

Out with the old, in with the new…Spring‘s in the air, and we’re looking to replace the old with new pronto… And when it comes to your career, one of the things that can always benefit from a serious dust-up every now and then, without tons of time, energy or money investment, is your resume. I don’t know about you, but in my humongous Spring cleaning to-do list, I like to start with the stuff that I can get done faster…Priorities, right?

Refreshing your resume on a periodic basis not only allows you to add that little spring step in your career. But it also helps you stay current while re-evaluating your career and staying on top of your skills and experience…Not bad for dusting off that old sheet of paper from your last job a few years ago, right?

So here you are, pen in hand, brain in over-drive, ready to update your resume! Here are four simple tips for an effective resume makeover in minimal time while saving some energy to tackle those filled-to-the-brim kitchen cabinets:

Make it Look Good!

Whoever said looks don’t matter hasn’t updated their resume in a while…In today’s competitive job market, your resume’s look does matter! Just imagine being an employer having to choose between two resumes: one filled out from wall-to-wall with loads of text, four different types of fonts, and the other with clear, concise and consistent section headings and bullets and generous white space. Which one would you pick?

Here are some pointers when it comes to making your resume slay:

Make use of white space: That means leaving some blank space between the different sections of your resume, so readers can easily scan it. Also try to reserve at least one-inch margins around the text.
No font overload, please! I know, it looks fun to juxtapose five different types of fonts, but that won’t get you the reader’s attention (or the job, for that matter)! So tone down the font fever, and stick to two at most, preferably two that complement each other.
Bullet it down! You want to grab the reader’s eyes and direct it towards keys skills and achievements. Since they make it easier to scan your resume, use it whenever you can to highlight accomplishments and skills.
No more underlining! Underlining is a big no-no in the resume world. So give away your favorite college ruler and say good-bye to it! And while it’s OK to bolden and italicize characters once in a while,

Detox Time!

You know it’s time to detox your resume when its paper waistline has expanded to three or four pages? Or when your first job after college, yes, the one where you dropped two company laptops in three months and had to explain your ADHD tendencies to IT, is still listed on top of the page?

Take your resume through a much-needed Spring detox by:

Getting off the autobiography bandwagon: If you’ve ever dreamt of writing your own autobiography, this is the wrong medium! If employers cannot get critical information out of your resume by skimming it in 10 to 15 seconds, we have a problem, Houston! As a rule of thumb, your main credentials should jump off the page (please don’t bury your MBA on page 4 of 6), and you should be selling yourself right off the bat…Which brings me to…
Placing your sales pitch at the top of your resume: Showcase your qualifications at the top of your resume. For instance, you could include a Career Summary statement in your resume.
KIC (Keeping it Concise): Keep it concise by eliminating any repeating information, skipping irrelevant information (like date or birth or marital situation), and cutting down on job duties for instance.

Update Your Terminology!

Please don’t stay stuck in the 90’s with outdated acronyms and terminology? Instead, comb through your resume to update the terms and acronyms listed. You can also look for terms that employers are looking for, such as diversity for HR positions for instance.

Focus on Nouns more than action words!

Remember when you had to find the right action verbs to add to your resume? You know, verbs such “created” or “engineered”…I remember wracking my brain to dig out all the action verbs I could ever think of…

That was then…Nowadays, the focus is actually on nouns rather than action words. This is so your resume can be more scannable by employers. Power words such as “responsible”, “passionate”, “leader”, etc, can make the difference between your resume getting picked or not.

For more on Spring-Cleaning your resume, check out my “Spring Clean Your Resume Guide” by clicking on the image below: