Know Your Audience

Remember that with each resume you write you have a clear goal in mind: to land this specific job. The resume you write isn’t for you, it should be tailored to the position and easy for the person reviewing it to see that you are a good fit for the position. Incorporate key words from your industry and directly from the job listing. Review the company website to get a deeper understanding of what the company needs and values. Incorporate examples from your education, skills, accomplishments, and experiences that fit with the company’s needs and values into your resume.

The Draft and Getting Going

There is nothing more difficult than sitting down in front of a blank computer screen and getting started on your resume. I recommend filing in the easy information first and saving the more detailed and complex parts for later.

Further, it takes time to construct a quality, tailored resume. Build in breaks and realize this is not something you can get done in one sitting. In fact, your resume will be a working document, you will add to it throughout your career, so it important that you do not work to get your resume done but rather look at this as a process that will take a significant amount of time now, and in the future. A resume is a serious and important document, and you shouldn’t expect to create even a complete draft in just one sitting.

Start by creating the document, setting your margins, and using the fonts and font sizes I recommended above. Fill in your contact information and your headings first. Start with the standard headings: Work Experience, Education, and a bonus section. You can always go back and modify your headings later. Now you have a nice outline for your resume, and you aren’t starting with a blank page.

Once you have a nice template created you can start filling in the details. Consult the information you gathered but know that you won’t use everything you have gathered on every version of your resume. The key is to respond to the employer’s job posting by focusing on what the employer has told you is important. Consult the original opening and include as many keywords and phrases as you can into your resume.