Simple Resume Writing Tips

Make a Good Resume Great with These Two Tips

Dec 12, 2008 Lena Gott

Create a good resume with these tips. When writing a resume, weigh education vs. relevant work experience. Learn power words from the Rockport Institute.

Writing a good resume (also know as a curriculum vitae, or CV) can be a daunting task. Here are two simple tips to help job seekers organize their thoughts on paper.

Put Important Information First

Before writing a resume, determine whether education or experience should come first. A college student or recent grad with little work experience may want to highlight education; candidates with extensive relevant work experience may want to highlight those qualifications.

Unless the hiring pool is sparse, recruiters and hiring managers must quickly make decisions based on their first impression from a CV. Putting the most important information first makes an immediate impact. This is especially important if the person reviewing the resume is short on time; if the document opens with impact, he or she will be motivated to read more.

Capture Attention with Succinct Statements

Avoid language that doesn’t add to the message. Be specific and emphasize exactly what can be contributed to the company. Unnecessary words take away from the resume because they don’t serve an important purpose. Make sure to tighten up the language to be more to the point. For instance, in the work experience section, use valuable words (valuable, as in, every word serves a purpose and isn’t simply a filler word) to describe work experience. Here is an example of saying the same thing with fewer words:

Longer version: Have developed all course materials for and provided in-house training classes in business software that provided a customized approach to application training for employees.
Shorter version with impact: Developed course materials and provided customized in-house training to employees.

Note how the shorter version is easier to read, yet it says the same thing. It uses fewer words and leaves room on the page for other important descriptions. Because the shorter version is easier to read, it will allow the resume reviewer to quickly assess the candidate’s qualifications. Cutting out unnecessary words is one of the simplest ways to format a resume for impact.

Improve a Good Resume: Incorporate a Variety of Action Words

The Rockport Institute website contains a fairly comprehensive list of "power words." Use synonymous words on this list to describe past work experience without repeating the same words over and over. For example, someone who has experience of taking notes at monthly meetings at two different employers could use the phrase “prepared notes” to describe that task at one employer and the phrase “recorded meeting information” to describe the same exact task at a second employer.

Use the resume writing tips above and the list of power words from the Rockport Institute to write a CV with impact. Remember to use the principle of “most important information first” when writing a resume in order to capture the reviewer’s attention and motivate him or her to read further. Also, use short phrases with valuable words. See the article How to Format a Resume for helpful formatting tips from a resume writer.

The copyright of the article Simple Resume Writing Tips in Career Advice is owned by Lena Gott. Permission to republish Simple Resume Writing Tips in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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