This article was written by Emma Morrison, our Career Ready Ambassador at the Albury-Wodonga campus.
Resumes can sometimes be difficult to write, as it can be hard to sell yourself on paper.
Employers will see a lot of resumes when hiring new employees, so it makes you wonder how you can set yourself apart from other applicants.
That’s where the La Trobe Career Ready OnLine tool, CV360, comes in handy! By submitting a resume to CV360, it will generate a score for your resume and provide feedback and tips on how to further improve your resume.
Here are some of CV360’s general tips:
Files
- Documents are normally preferred in Word or PDF style
- Make sure the document has recently been edited, as older documents can often be overlooked by employers
- It can be beneficial to include your full name in the file name to make it easily identifiable
Presentation
- Best to keep your CV to two A4 pages maximum
- Recommended word count is between 350 and 800 words
- Try to keep different font types, sizes, and colours to a minimum
- Balance of white space is important to draw attention to specific parts and to reduce clutter
Structure
- Always include up-to-date contact information
- Identifiable sections (e.g., Work Experience, Education, etc.) are key
- Consider the order of your sections – more important sections towards the start of the document
Content
- Always include your first and last name in the CV
- It’s recommended to include your Linked-In profile URL
- Always list your education and work experience in reverse chronological order so that your most recent qualification is first
- Quality and relevance of work experience is more important than quantity
Skills
- A separate skills section is a great way to highlight your relevant skills quickly
- Should list skills in work experience section as well to demonstrate the quality of you experience
- The more times you mention a particular skill, the more experience and strength a hiring manager will presume you have
Language
- Spelling mistakes and poor grammar can indicate lack of attention to detail – so make sure to use spellcheck
- It’s easy to be repetitive with wording – so a thesaurus can be helpful
- Varying sentence lengths can keep readers engaged
- Readability is key
- Be consistent in the capitalisation of wording
- A CV should only take 2-3 minutes to read
Be sure to have a go at checking your resume through CV360, available via La Trobe’s Career Ready OnLine.
Your resume is normally one of the first things a hiring manager will see about you, so it is important to make sure it demonstrates that you are career ready!