The CFO Suite | QUICK Resume Tips

27 Jul QUICK Resume Tips

Posted at 16:00h in Career by The CFO Suite

At the CFO Suite we have seen many good and bad resumes. It can be tough to make an immediate impression and harder to make it a positive one that stands out from the rest for all the right reasons. With some help from our recruiting team, who have “too many” years of experience between them, we have compiled the best super quick and easy tips.

Make Your Header Stand Out: Ensure the header looks good and catches your eye and if you have a cover letter make sure they are both the same.
Have a Professional Email Address: Right: sarah.smith@gmail.com; Wrong: sassysarah123@gmail.com.
PDF Your Resume: This way it looks professional and the formatting won’t get messed up when it is opened on a different computer.
Consider the File Name: Make it easier for others to save and differentiate, use “[First Name] [Last Name] Resume”.
Remove Your Home Address: Your commute time, as well as neighborhood, should not be taken into account.
Consider Your Font Choice and Size: Fonts like Helvetica, Arial, Calibri or Verdana are good ones. And as for the size? Anything smaller than 10 points is too little to read and anything bigger than 12 points will look garish.
Align Your Content to the Left to Make it Skimmable: The first thing a hiring professional will do is skim a resume for keywords and phrases. You want to make that as easy as possible.
Use Bold, Caps and Italics Strategically: Be consistent with your choices. If you made one of your subheadings bold – make them all bold. Try not to overuse anything. The point is to make important information easier to find.
Delete the Resume Objective: Typically, the information is obvious and boilerplate, everything on the page needs to add value and be worth the space it takes up.
Spell Check: And of course correct any mistakes.
Only Add Jobs You’ve Had in the Past 10-15 Years: You do not need to list every job you have ever had. As a rule, only include the experience relevant to the position to which you are applying.
Give Your Sections Simple Subheadings: For example, “Resume Summary”, “Experience”, “Education” and “Skills”. Simple subheadings allow Applicant Tracking System (ATS) software to find them.
Review Your Verbs & Adjectives: Mix them up and look to use words that stand out or are unique, and are more interesting, avoid “detail-oriented” or “experienced”, as they are overused. Use “Synonyms” in Microsoft Word to help out.
Use a Professionally Designed Template: Do not spend hours trying to create your own layout, consider simply starting with a professionally designed template online.
Limit and Shorten Your Bullet Points: No more than six to seven bullet points for any given position and make them concise.
Avoid Space: Most good resumes are two pages, so if necessary, fill up space with additional information like volunteer work or additional skills, but do not overcrowd or allow your resume to look messy. Remember, no font smaller than 10 and no larger than 12 points.
Delete the “Reference Available Upon Request” Line: Why use precious real estate for an unneeded statement. If they want references, they’ll ask for them.
Read it Out Loud: This will help catch any spelling or grammar errors, and you will hear if anything sounds awkward or strange.
Ask a Friend to Take a Look: Send your resume to a few friends asking them to review your resume for what they immediately notice, good or bad.
Add your LinkedIn Profile: Create a custom URL to your public profile, see LinkedIn for how.

The CFO Suite is a boutique consultative staffing and executive search firm specialized in management and executive level accounting and finance talent. We boost the capabilities and capacity of your accounting and finance department, offering a unique ability to provide an integrated and comprehensive suite of services.

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