{"id":6708,"date":"2021-03-01T23:16:20","date_gmt":"2021-03-01T23:16:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/explorecareers.emotedigital.com.au\/?p=6708"},"modified":"2024-02-28T09:10:06","modified_gmt":"2024-02-27T22:10:06","slug":"how-to-write-a-resume-lets-go-back-to-basics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/explorecareers.com.au\/how-to-write-a-resume-lets-go-back-to-basics\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Write a Resume: Let\u2019s Go Back to Basics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>If your career is a journey, your resume is your passport!<\/strong><em><br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Okay, we just said that out loud and realised how cheesy it sounds &#8211; that\u2019s on us! But, it is <em>kind<\/em> of true. A <a href=\"https:\/\/explorecareers.com.au\/mastering-the-art-of-resume-basics-with-nestle\/\">well-written resume<\/a> is your starting point, and it will grow with you alongside your career.<\/p>\n<p>Everyone has different ideas for what makes a \u2018great\u2019 resume, but there are some obvious ideas for what makes a \u2018bad\u2019 resume &#8211; knowing the difference can be confusing!<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re going right back to basics with this blog because we know that\u2019s the best place to start sometimes. We\u2019ve scoured the internet, picked the brains of our <a href=\"https:\/\/explorecareers.emotedigital.com.au\/employers\/\">employer friends<\/a>, and collated the best advice we could find.<\/p>\n<p>Whether this is your first time writing one or not, the below tips will help you build a baseline for resume success:<\/p>\n<h4><strong>Cover All the Basics<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>The goal of a resume is to present your relevant skills and accomplishments best. Every resume requires these basic elements:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Contact information<\/strong>: This includes your full name, the city where you live, your email address and phone number. You don\u2019t need to have your full address, but a postcode helps the employer know whereabouts you\u2019re based. <strong>Never<\/strong> include things like your age, gender or religion. They\u2019re not relevant for an employer to decide whether you\u2019re a good fit for the job.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Relevant skills related to the job:<\/strong> Use some of the words in the job advertisement, provided you have those skills. Begin your list with the most important skills, and don\u2019t be afraid to sell yourself.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Relevant work and volunteer experience:<\/strong> List your experiences in chronological order &#8211; meaning start with your most recent job or work experience. Focus on listing achievements rather than tasks, and don\u2019t be afraid to be specific. Instead of saying \u201cworked in a team\u201d, say something like, \u201cworked as part of a team of ten customer service advisors\u201d.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4><strong>Don\u2019t Worry About What You Don\u2019t Have &#8211; Focus On What You Do!<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>Many young people get caught up in all the skills and experience they don\u2019t have or don\u2019t know how to articulate on their resume &#8211; don\u2019t worry!<\/p>\n<p>Employers aren\u2019t expecting the world from you; they\u2019re generally pretty okay with the fact you don\u2019t have experience. They\u2019re more interested in how you talk about what you <strong>can<\/strong> do.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s all about how you present yourself so:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Use school projects, team sports and personal hobbies to detail your passions and skills. This includes teamwork, project management, communication and working to deadlines!<\/li>\n<li>Part-time work and odd jobs all count, too &#8211; it demonstrates commitment and organisation, including that babysitting gig or helping the grandparents with the garden.<\/li>\n<li>If you\u2019re unsure, ask parents and teachers what they think you\u2019re best skills are &#8211; then think about the experiences you have that back up those skills.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When you can, back up your achievements with real data to add detail. For example:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Unquantified:<\/strong> <em>Delivered a quality presentation in class.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong>Quantified:<\/strong> <em>Received the highest grade in the class for the end of a year group presentation.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4><strong>Keep it Short &amp; Simple<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>For young people with less work experience or fewer educational achievements, employers aren\u2019t expecting a two to three-page resume!<\/p>\n<p>One side of A4 is more than enough to detail your experiences and create a really clear idea of who you are and what you can offer.<\/p>\n<p>This means paying attention to how you format your resume on the page, too, so keep your experience as a list of short, scannable statements rather than writing out long paragraphs.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>Proofread to Catch Typos!<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>Unfortunately, a single spelling error is sometimes enough to get your resume in the bin!<\/p>\n<p>Review your resume multiple times, doing a thorough line-by-line, word-by-word edit. Even if you\u2019ve used spell check or grammar checking software, be sure to do a read through again &#8211; these things aren\u2019t always perfect!<\/p>\n<p>And an outside perspective is always a good idea. Ask a friend, teacher or mentor, or family member to review your resume for you before submitting it to employers.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>Tailor It!<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>And last but by no means least, make sure you tailor your resume for each job you apply to.<\/p>\n<p>This means using the job descriptions to help you understand what skills and experience to focus on, identify keywords you should be implementing, and generally getting a vibe for how you need to present yourself.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s totally fine to keep some things the same, but make sure you add a few tweaks here and there to align yourself with the job you\u2019re applying to.<\/p>\n<p>And that\u2019s it!<\/p>\n<p>As you grow with experience and confidence, you can keep adding to your resume and creating a stronger picture of who you are as a professional &#8211; this is just your starting point, and these tips will help you start strong!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Interested in finding the right career for you and your new resume?\u00a0<\/strong><strong>Try our <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/explorecareers.emotedigital.com.au\/career-quiz\/\"><strong>Career Quiz<\/strong><\/a><strong> to see where you should get started!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If your career is a journey, your resume is your passport! Okay, we just said that out loud and realised [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6709,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[635],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/explorecareers.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6708"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/explorecareers.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/explorecareers.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/explorecareers.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/explorecareers.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6708"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/explorecareers.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23746,"href":"https:\/\/explorecareers.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6708\/revisions\/23746"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/explorecareers.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/explorecareers.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/explorecareers.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/explorecareers.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}