Three Steps to Refresh Your Resume and Make It Awesome

Posted on Tuesday, July 11th, 2017

Has it been ages since you’ve looked at your resume? Are you applying to dozens of jobs and not hearing back? Does the whole resume situation just make you feel a bit blah?

All these things may be a sign that it’s time for you to refresh your resume and make it eye-catching and awesome. You may have seen some examples of unbelievably cool resumes online, but don’t worry—you can make yours fresh and effective without being a crazy talented designer.

Here are three foolproof ways to revamp your resume today!

[But before we start, a note for Algonquin College co-op students: don’t forget to follow the instructions in Module 3 on Blackboard to build your resume!]

1. Rewrite Your Work Descriptions

The first place to start is with your work descriptions. This is the least fun part of refreshing your resume, but it’s one of the most important.

Remember: on your resume, your goal is to show employers exactly why your previous education and experience makes you the best possible hire for their position. Every single word on your resume should be used to get you closer to that goal.

Take the time to review your resume and ensure that your work descriptions are doing that. Here are some things to look for:

Transferable Skills

First, read our guide to figuring out your transferable skills. This will walk you through how to identify what skills you got from your previous jobs, and how to write effective descriptions for them.

Then, include those skills on your resume. These will make seemingly non-relevant work experience—especially retail or service industry experience—become very relevant.

Numbers and Stats

If you have them, try to include numbers in your work descriptions. Were you part of a team that increased sales at your retail job by 20 per cent? Did you close cash at a store that handled $10,000 in sales a day? Did you serve 300 customers daily lunch? These kinds of stats show the scope of the work you did, and are super effective ways to demonstrate your abilities.

Clarity and Brevity

Because each work description should have 4 to 7 bullet points, you can end up with a lot of writing on your resume. Reread everything (or, even better, have someone else reread it) to see if you can shorten any of your descriptions. Remove any words that aren’t necessary to make your resume more compelling.

2. Delete What You Don’t Need

Your resume should be no more than 2 pages long, with a 3rd page for references. Once you’ve reworked your work descriptions, you may find that it’s getting a bit long. It’s time to delete those unnecessary sections.

Start at the top, and get rid of your outline/objective/summary. In 2017, having a career objective on your resume just isn’t needed anymore—employers know you’re looking for a job, and they don’t have time to read a paragraph explaining why. Delete it, free up some space, and focus on making the rest of your resume pop.

Then head to your education section, and take out any mention of high school or elementary school. Employers aren’t looking for your biography—instead, they want to know what particular experiences you have that make you suited to their organization.

By culling these sections and ensuring the rest of your resume is clear and concise, you’ll make it much more relevant to potential employers.

3. Make It Pretty

People love things that look good. Since it’s your goal to make employers love your resume, it only makes sense that your resume should look good.

Resume Design for Non-Designers

But don’t worry, your resume doesn’t need to be a work of art. In fact, depending on your industry, you might want to have a conservative resume. But this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t spend time on formatting—in fact, the more traditional it is, the more you should make sure that its design is clean and legible.

Creating a well-formatted resume can be as simple as using a consistent font, ensuring you have enough whitespace between points, and building a strong header. This gallery has some awesome ideas for non-designers to create nice text-based resumes.

Examples for Inspiration

There are thousands of awesome resume examples online for inspiration. Find one that works for you and recreate the design as best as you can.

4. Think Strategically

Remember that if you’re applying to co-op at Algonquin College, your resume still needs to meet the requirements laid out in Module 3 on Blackboard.

Also bear in mind that if you’re applying through a huge employment database, the system may not be able to pull keywords from heavily formatted resumes. It can be handy to have a few versions of your resume—a simple text-based one for applying to large companies, and a fancier one for smaller organizations where your resume is likely to be sorted by hand.

These are three great ways to refresh your resume for a job hunt in 2017. You’ll stand out from the crowd and set yourself up for awesome opportunities.

 

Remember, Algonquin College co-op students have access to resume workshops through the Co-op Department. See what’s upcoming on HireAC under Co-op/Events and Workshops, or contact your co-op consultant.

If you would like to learn more about the Algonquin College co-op program, please visit our website at https://www.algonquincollege.com/coop/, connect with us at coop@algonquincollege.com or call us at 613-727-4723 Ext.7623. You can also follow us on Twitter @AlgonquinCoop.


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