The Truth About Landing Your Dream Job: Part 2 Putting Together Your Resume

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5

The first step that you need to take is to organize your work history and education into a resume and cover letter. Do not underestimate this step as it is one of the most important and you must learn how to create yourself in a positive light in only one page. Most resumes are glanced over and separated very quickly only to be read fully later on. Not being able to pass the first glance resume test will dramatically reduce your odds of getting interviews. Here are a few things that will ding a resume on a glace test:

Crazy Resume Formatting- Keep it clean and simple, your resume should be one page and should be easy to read and understand.

Low GPA- If you have less than a 3.5 GPA keep it off your resume. If you have a low GPA you want this issue to come up in the interview so you can defend it, not when your resume will be filtered into a pass or fail pile.

Too Much Noise- Remember that a glance test will skim through your resume in few seconds. Long paragraphs and descriptions will get you dinged. Make sure you have sharp crisp sentences with bullet points that highlight your strengths.

The next step that most employers will take is to file your resume into a pass pile, in which it will than receive a more in depth review. This is where you really need to maximize your strengths and hide your weaknesses. You need to come off as the best employee ever, even If you have no related coursework or experience. So how exactly do you make this happen—Its all in the description. You need to make sure every sentence counts and makes you seem like a great employee.

For example:
If you are trying to obtain an entry level position in Finance or an internship and your only work experience is at a fast food restaurant, you will need to spice up your resume.

Instead of saying- Worked at xxxx restaurant and was in charge of the drive through cashier.
Spice it up- Handled upwards of $500 in cash and was responsible for managing the velocity of customers. Worked and coordinated with team members to ensure customer satisfaction.

Now we are not saying to flat out lie… That will get in you trouble but we do recommend to spice up your resume to get your interviewers attention. Remember the goal is to get as many interviews as possible.