1) A resume is your advertisement. When I produce billboards, the rule is 3 seconds or less to get the message. It’s about the same amount of time to grab the hiring manager’s attention.
Leave out the objective statement and adverbs. Your resume needs to be concise.
Go straight for a list of accomplishments. Like “Handled international media buys”, or “Won Emmy for…”
Name drop big clients you’ve handled.
2) Don’t be afraid to style it up. When I hire, my eyes glaze over reading hundreds of black on white type.
But don’t go crazy with bright colors and graphics. The key with any job is to know your audience. I’m a production studio so applicants could show off their design skills in their resume.
If you’re applying to a conservative law firm, I’d tone it down. But still add some sizzle.
Check out the company’s website. That’s their resume to the world. Copy some of their design elements onto your resume and you could be subconsciously telling them you fit their culture.
3) Do not send out template resumes. We’ve seen them all. Just like professors, we can spot resumes copied online.
Your basic info will not change. But the jobs you’re applying for will have different requirements. Make sure you address those requirements at the top of your resume.
And bullet points work. I like them at the top, sort of like a table of contents about your resume. Again no adverbs. Just snappy verbs and nouns that grab attention.
4) Leave off obvious info. I like one page resumes. Do I toss two-pagers? No. But my time is money.
Just like a 30 second ad I create, every little space is precious. Leave off “Proficient in Microsoft” and the like. Leave off extemporaneous stuff about your degree. Honestly, I only care that you graduated. It shows you accomplished something.
However, when I graduated from college my experience was internships and crappy hourly jobs.
Everyone has accomplishments. When I applied to my first video production job, I listed the TV spots I worked on as a gopher. I didn’t lie. The hiring manager knew I was a rookie. But it caught her eye that I worked on a national RadioShack commercial. And that I assisted every department on set. That showed I could multitask in high stress environments.
5) Keywords Matter. Remember it’s an ad. Like Google Ads, good resumes thrive on keywords.
My first task in reviewing resumes is scanning for keywords that are in my job requirements.
Did I miss some? Comment below with your advice!