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Whether you’re applying for your first job or continuing your career in a new role, the one thing you’ll need is a resume. A resume is more than just a sheet of paper with a list of things you have done. It’s a way for you to sell yourself through past experiences, highlight accomplishments, and capture a future employer’s attention. No matter if you’re starting from scratch or brushing up your current resume, here are some tips on building a strong resume.
Formatting is Key
The format of your resume is the first thing an employer will notice. It’s important to be consistent with your spacing, the font size, and the use of bold and italicized font. Avoid using text smaller than 10 points. Make sure for each past or current job position to include job title, name of company or place of employment, location, and the date range (including year) when you held the position. Your resume speaks volumes for you and should communicate a level of professionalism. It should look clean, precise, and free of errors.
All Experiences Matter
Employers aren’t just looking for past job roles you held when reviewing your resume. There are the obvious ones to include like volunteering, student organizations, internships, projects, freelancing, but make sure to incorporate other experiences as well. Regardless of how relevant they seem, employers take into account activities or classes you’ve done outside work. That art class you took not only shows your creative personality, but that creativity can come into play with how you problem solve.
Tailor It to the Job
The structure of a resume is relatively standard, but that doesn’t mean you should use the same resume for every job you apply for. Instead of simply listing out everything you’ve ever done in other job roles, tailor your resume for that specific job. Read over the job description and pick out key experience needed or certifications they’re looking for out of a potential candidate. This allows you to better align the responsibilities of your current or past jobs to the ones you’re applying for. Avoid general headlines and instead, be as descriptive as possible, and try to incorporate some of the keywords of the job description.
Keep Design in Mind
You don’t have to be a designer to create a strong resume. Resumes have a standard structure to make it easy to communicate your professional experience to an employer. Pay attention to the amount of black and white space. Avoid too much blank space or going overboard on the text. Take advantage of using bold and italicized fonts. While there isn’t one standard font for a resume, you want to select ones that are attractive and legible. Fonts with a little personality might be fine for larger sections like headlines, but cursive fonts should be avoided when typing out things like job experiences in smaller fonts.
Make It Skimmable
It’s important to remember how many applications employers have to read for an open job position. They may have a chance to spend only a few minutes looking at your resume, so make it skimmable. Keep your bullet points precise, digestible, and make sure it’s easy to see how they align to the position you’re applying to with the company.
Proofread
Now that you’ve filled out all your information, relevant jobs, experience, awards, and certifications, it’s very important to proofread. Use spellcheck to look for typos and make use of a free website like Grammarly to check for grammatical mistakes. It’s always good to have a friend or someone you know review with a fresh set of eyes to catch things you might not have after working on it for so long. You don’t want your resume to get thrown out over a few minor, avoidable errors.
Save and Submit As a PDF
Unless the employer asks for a specific file type, such as a Word document, it’s smart to save your resume as a pdf file. This will ensure your formatting stays in place and all fonts you use show up correctly.
Now that your resume is ready to go, it’s time to start applying to jobs that appeal to you. If you’re interested in starting or continuing a career in the hospitality and service industry, Brittain Resorts & Hotels is currently hiring. Check out our open job positions here.
Brittain Resorts & Hotels is a hospitality management brand located in the Southeast. With decades of proven experience, we offer expertise in daily operations, food & beverage, accounting, human resources, revenue management, sales & marketing, and call center services. Our defined processes and guest satisfaction skills ensure the best positioning in the ever-changing hospitality market.