Writing a Resume the Right Way
It’s time. You’ve put this off for months now and it’s constantly nagging you in the back of your mind. It’s time to update your resume. Resume work is one of the most tedious tasks because there are so many wrong ways to do it and contradicting tips across the internet. There’s also the common rule that resumes should be one page long, whether you’re struggling to fill it or your experience is overflowing, don’t let this trip you up. We’re here to make resume writing a skill all can succeed at!
So, what should be put on it and what should not?
A resume is composed of four main sections:
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Contact Information
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Skills/Professional Summary
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Experience
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Education
The way it is organized should be based on how you want to format your resume and how you want to prioritize your information.
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Contact Information
The important contact information you must include on your resume:
- Your name
- Current email address
- Current phone number
Adding your mailing address to your resume is optional, but certainly makes it easier for recruiters to make sure they are contacting you only for positions that are near you. Remember that if any of your contact information changes you should update your LinkedIn and any other locations your resume is housed.
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Skills/Professional Summary
Consider this a snapshot of your experience and the part that will capture the reader’s attention and determine whether or not they’ll continue reading your resume. The ‘Skills’ or ‘Professional Summary’ section is a list compiled of your best skills and is most commonly shown using bullet points.
You might list something like:
- 5+ years medical front office experience
- Sufficient in Microsoft Suite, specific scheduling software, etc.
- Ability to answer multi-line phone with 100 inbound calls per day while operating check-in window
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Experience
This section will take up a good chunk of the space, but keep in mind that not every job will go on it. You only want the jobs you’ve had in the past 10 years or the most relevant ones. Also, make sure there are no gaps in your job history.
You want to have your most recent job at the top of your ‘Experience’ list and then have your jobs listed in reverse-chronological order. When labeling your experiences, you should have a maximum of five bullet points under each job.
Here’s a tip! If you are applying for a job, go off the advertised job description and elaborate your experience for that skill on your resume. When you get the chance, use numbers to quantify your experience.
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Education
The ‘Education’ section should list the schools you attended and the degrees you’ve earned. Just like in your ‘Experience’ section, this should be in reverse-chronological order. If you’ve graduated from schools higher than high school, leave your high school off.
Add your major and what you studied or concentrated in. Along with your studies, fill in any awards or honors you received whether it’s Valedictorian or Honor’s Society. If you don’t think your GPA is good enough, don’t put it. And, if you’re not a student, don’t put it at all. Also, make sure to put the month and year you graduated.
Now that we know what to put in your resume, let’s go over some things that absolutely shouldn’t be on your resume.
- Anything personal such as your height, weight, social security number, marital status, your religious beliefs, or your sex.
- Don’t be that person who has the word “Resume” written at the top of it. The employer will know 100% that it is, indeed, a resume.
- Leave your photographs out of it. Selfies cropped to remove friends from the picture and even some professional head shots can be a laughing stock. And due to Equal Employment Opportunity legislation, an employer would never ask for this.
- Grammar and Spelling Errors!!! Make sure you double, triple check that you have no errors on your resume.
At HealthCare Support, our recruiters are resume writing experts. In fact, one of our recruiters average at least 20 resumes a week. If you feel stuck and need a hand, we are here to help you display your skills to the best of your ability and land your dream job!