First Appearances: In business, first appearance is crucial. There is no way around it.
It’s not only how you look in person, but how anything you do looks, including your resume.
Resumes are the first thing and often the only thing an employer sees of you. Moreover, employers have so much work to plough through that they begin by sifting through resumes.
They may give any resume as little as 10 seconds before they dismiss it.
Get Attention: Your task, then, is to make sure your resume receives its deserved attention. You need to have a strategy.
Resume Style tips: How to format a resume?
How to Make a Resume Look Good?
There are, of course, the basics:
- Standards fonts: Times New Roman, Courier New. Bold headings or sub-headings.
- Layout: Organized, easy-to-follow layout. Follow standard resume formats.
- Spell check: No spelling mistakes or typos. Go over the resume as many times as necessary to have no mistakes whatsoever.
- No grammar mistakes.
- Facts: No factual mistakes (employers do verify information if interested in a candidate).
- Use pristine-clean copy
- Good quality paper, but not too overtly expensive (if not submitting electronically).
You should also make sure you include all the absolutely necessary information:
- Contact info and the position you are applying for.
Do not neglect to write a good career summary or objective statement.
It should tell as much as possible about you, what you seek, and what you can do for the company, in 2 to 4 concise sentences.
PowerPoint Presentation Resume & Styles: New Trends in Resume Writing
Most professions do not require showy resumes with color fonts and paper.
Even if you are an artist, this may not be necessary. Avoid it, unless you are certain it’s required.
PowerPoint resume presentation:
There are, however, some recent trends which present new opportunities for making a resume stand out.
A PowerPoint presentation can be a powerful tool – It is easier than you might think. You can even include photos and videos of yourself. This is how easy it is:
- Create your resume as a PowerPoint slide show.
- Upload it to SlideShare.net or to YouTube.
You can even include it on your personal webpage and send it out as a link.
Of course, this does not substitute electronic resume or a paper resume which you may have to send out.
Note: Often paper resumes are not required at all. In most cases, electronic resumes are submitted and you would bring your paper resume to an interview if you get offered one.
One thing to keep in mind, you should avoid the temptation to make an unnecessarily showy slide-show. You have to make sure your PowerPoint is adequately professional and serious, and provides all the information required from a CV.
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