The Ultimate Resume Master Guide

Maybe you really like the feeling of money in your pocket or you want to gain the relevant experience needed to achieve your dream of becoming a Fortune 500 Company CEO. Either way, you need to dust off that old resume or create a fresh one. After all, how can you tell future employers about all of your impressive skills without that all-important document? Sort of like your Facebook (except more professional), a resume gives potential employers a quick snapshot of your experience.

Important? Yes. Scary? Definitely. For the newbies, how do you create the perfect resume without crashing and burning faster than someone running on two hours of sleep and six Redbulls?

RESUME BREAKDOWN

1. The Essentials

 Without your name and contact info, your resume is only a list of impressive accomplishments. Don’t forget to include your email address (the one you actually check), phone number, and street address. Place this at the top so it’s the first thing they see.

2. Education

You’ll want to list your school, using its full name, your graduation date, your major, any minors, relevant coursework and awards/scholarships (if you have them). As for your GPA, only include that if it’ll blow their minds. In other words, if you cringe looking at your GPA, then keep it to yourself.

3. Experience

Pro tip: List only the most impressive and relevant points in reverse chronological order, including the location and the time period you worked there. While looking at a stack of resumes, your potential employer’s short attention span needs a reason to keep reading. If you’re applying for a marketing position, don’t bother including high school goalie, but make sure to list last year’s business internship. Don’t forget to write out a job description and acquired skills for each position to show how your previous experience will translate to the job you’re about to land.

4. Organizations

You know all those clubs that take up so much time? Here’s when they come in handy. List anything from sports teams to Greek life to honour societies, especially if you held a leadership position.

5. Skills

Use this section for any relevant skills for the job. Include your WordPress and Adobe premiere pro expertise, but leave out Microsoft Word since most people know how to use it.

Some of the obvious questions which would bother you while making your resume:-

Q1) SHOULD I INCLUDE MY LIFE STORY IN MY RESUME?

Absolutely not—only include anything relevant to the position you want. If you hope to land a writing internship, definitely mention your editor experience at your school’s paper. If you’re applying for a position at your school’s biology lab, nobody cares about your part-time barista experience.

Q2) HOW CAN I BEEF UP MY RESUME?

Do you need the experience to put on your resume to find jobs so you can get experience…sound familiar? If your professional experience equals zero, then volunteer experience, part-time jobs and internships come in handy. Keep in mind that part-time jobs may feel like a waste of time since you’re not gunning to become a fast-food server for the rest of your life, but the skills you gain (like time management) actually attract employers like college students flock to free food.

Q3) HOW DO I FORMAT MY RESUME?

Avoid fancy fonts and stick to a simple one that’s easy to read. Your contact info goes at the top, in a slightly larger font (think size 14–16 or so), while the body follows your typical font size of 12. You want to include a second page only if you can fill that entire page. Otherwise, cut down your resume to one page. A longer resume doesn’t necessarily look better, so don’t include fluff to make yourself seem more impressive. Your English teacher never appreciated long run-on sentences included only to meet the page requirement (curse those 10-page papers), and your employer feels the same way too.

If you'll keep all these things in mind then your resume will definitely leave a good impression on your employer.