JobXpresso

Before you Hit Send…Put Polish on your Resume

---

You’ve toiled over your resume. It’s updated with your most recent experience. It’s customized to a specific job. It’s got just the right number of key words…

You’re ready to send, right?

Not so fast.

Before you send your resume into virtual job-hunting land, consider having it proofread.

Invest the cost of a Thai dinner and a movie to have a professional act as your final quality control step. Don’t ask a friend or family member. Seek out someone who can truly be objective.

Who to ask? Someone with good-to-great writing or editing skills. Someone who is knowledgeable about style, sentence structure, consistency in tone.

I’ve found that marketing and communications professionals are excellent at proofreading. So are administrative assistants and technical writers. They are used to reviewing documents focused on making an impact. 

Ask them to be rigorous. You want candid feedback that will make your resume robust. And of course, they’ll need to catch any typos or grammar errors.

One applicant whose career was a mix of contract and staff jobs was asked by her proofer  about the years-long gaps in assignments. She solved it by adding a sentence at the top of the resume: Please note that experience includes both contract and in-house positions.
And the cover letter? Have that proofread, as well.

Technorati Tags: proofing, proofreading, quality, resume, resumes

Tags: proofing, proofreading, quality, resume, resumes