What’s your focus?
Resume Tune-Up from Robbie Miller Kaplan
Hakim has lots of credentials and experience in diverse industries and sectors. His challenge is to identify the direction he would like to take and select the credentials and experience that demonstrate his “hireability.”
The profile or summary of qualifications is an excellent place for Hakim to detail the credentials and experience he’d like to use. Avoid mixing in a variety of other non-essential qualifications; you’ll confuse the hiring manager, suggesting they guess what it is you’d like to do.
Hakim’s first task is to edit his profile while choosing information that clearly demonstrates that his qualifications match the job requirements of targeted jobs. Once this initial step is completed, the rest of the resume should fall into place. Hakim’s experience jumps from sectors to industries. It’s essential that he evaluate each position and determine which experiences and accomplishments support his job candidacy. Any experience or credential that has nothing to do with the targeted position is clutter and should be eliminated.
Hakim’s resume has thick paragraphs and is tough to read. Changing margins from 1.25” to 1” all around will add some space. Try substituting a different font; Book Antiqua or Century Schoolbook will tighten the text. Further reduce the length by eliminating experience sentences that read like a job description. Instead, substitute accomplishment statements that detail what you have achieved and what you can offer. Use bullets for these statements to enhance readability.
Education is buried within the training courses; organizing these differently will better highlight credentials. Edit the resume for redundancy and clarity. Ask yourself, “Does this make me a more viable candidate?” If it doesn’t, it will distract the reader and should be eliminated. Resumes that work best clearly identify to prospective employers how qualifications match the job requirements.
Your resume should tell a story; one in which the hiring manager can clearly see how your experience and credentials fit together.