The most useful tips for writing a resume perfectly
The most important thing when writing a resume is not to worry. One doesn’t need to have a great writer talent to create a beautiful and well-organized resume. All that’s necessary to professionally compose this type of document and express the thoughts accordingly is fully described in this article.
Do not forget that the competent use of the English language implies:
- Grammar;
- Spelling;
- Punctuation;
- Variety of vocabulary;
- Proper use of terminology.
This approach will help everyone to look like a true professional. If somebody still doubts about the level of his/her English, then this problem can be solved. Most often, the top effective way is to sign up for a seminar on the business fundamentals of the English language.
Nevertheless, it’s practically impossible to keep in mind all the basic rules and principles that a candidate received as part of the studies at a college or university. Besides, you rarely need the knowledge gained when writing a resume. Indeed, in essence, a resume is a business document that’s written according to specific rules.
Principles for creating sentences in a resume
The writing style used when writing a resume is somewhat different from your usual English. Below we will try to show you the basic principles of writing a resume. Mastering such skills will help when you need to start writing your own paper.
‘I demonstrated professionalism, determination, and stress resistance when I collaborated with our clients on various issues’. Instead, a candidate needs to state: ‘Demonstrated professionalism, determination and stress resistance when collaborating with our clients on various issues’.
‘I led the department whose main goal was to control and audit the security systems of the company. I prepared the bulk of the reports for the management and conducted briefings with the staff’. Instead, you need to state: ‘He led the department whose main goal was to control and audit the company’s security systems. He prepared the bulk of the reports for management and conducted briefings with the staff’.
As you may have noticed in every second case, the sentence begins directly with the verb. If you use action verbs at the beginning of your sentence, this is the most effective tactic when writing a resume. Do not pay attention that this contradicts the basics of the letter that you used when writing term papers and other documents.
Create sentences as short as possible
When writing a resume, you should make sharp and clear statements. At the same time, this should be a full-fledged offer. Let’s give an example:
‘For three years I worked in the sales department as a quality sales manager and customer support and at the same time managed to demonstrate all the skills of a professional seller and an effective manager, and in this way, I was able to build a high-quality customer base’.
Instead, you can compose it this way: ‘For three years I worked as a sales manager. Also, I dealt with customer support. I successfully demonstrated the best skills of the seller. He always achieved the desired results, and created a customer base’.
Listing your achievements with the help of bullet points
If you want to emphasize each specific performance, then you have an excellent opportunity to submit them in a list.
Let’s look at this with an example:
- I participated in organizing and using statistics for the local city hall, which required the usage of spreadsheet processing software for cost analysis and, besides, I created databases to track citizens’ visits.
- Organized and used statistics for the city administration. Cost analysis using spreadsheet software. A database has been created to track visits by citizens.
And here’s how it will look in the labeled format:
- Organized and used statistics for local authorities.
- Cost analysis using computer programs for calculation using spreadsheets.
- A database has been created to track citizen visits.
Keep to a simple writing style when creating a resume
If you still think that using complicated and long words is your advantage, follow these basic guidelines when writing your resume:
- The simpler your resume in writing style looks, the better.
- Try to use as few adjectives as possible.
- Do not use complex grammatical constructions
Use bulleted lists where appropriate to make it easier to read
As you can see, using bullet points is quite good at listing your achievements. The same applies to other items that may appear on your resume. It doesn’t matter if you compose complete suggestions and or break their fragments; each of the options has its pros and cons. Nevertheless, remember that everything’s based on what kind of information you want to highlight and convey to the employer.
In addition, bulleted lists are more readable and catch your eye. Nevertheless, lists take up more space, and therefore your resume can turn out to be very cumbersome at first glance.
Do not forget that when writing lists, you need to indicate marked items as briefly as possible. However, try not to pay attention to concurrency. Thus, a job seeker needs to try to ensure that each element adheres to a similar grammar pattern.