It doesn’t have to be if you take it step-by-step
I’ll be the first to admit it. I am a writer, a technical writer, an author — basically, I write a lot. Yet, whenever I have to put together a short bio, write an About Me, or update my resume, I freeze. Writing about ourselves is quite a challenge for various reasons.
If you have several years of experience, you wonder what to include and what to leave out. Who knows what the hiring manager is looking for?
If you are a fresher or have very few years of experience, you wonder how you can make your profile look substantial. You don’t want too much white space to stare at the recruiter.
A resume feels like a space to brag. Your cultural upbringing prevents you from being a braggart. Or maybe you are simply unable to articulate all the great work you have done over the years.
Overall, creating or updating your resume is fraught with fear, confusion, and writer’s block.
Does this happen to you? The good news is you are not alone. The really good news is you can chip away at this task methodically and be done in no time.
Follow these simple steps to break that mental block and craft your resume.
Get a template
Tons of sample resumes and templates are available online begging to be downloaded. Pick one or two that look good to you. Choose simple designs with one or two colors, a clean font, and not too many columns.
Be warned though that this could quickly become a rabbit hole. There are so many options that you could easily spend hours shopping for the right template. Quickly pick the first two that seem right and exit the search.
Go through job descriptions
You are crafting your profile to apply to certain types of roles. Make sure to read the job descriptions for these roles carefully. Pick out keywords and required skills and experiences. Map them to your own experience and include relevant details in your profile.
Wear the hiring manager’s shoes
At each step of your resume work, take a step back and look at it from the hiring manager’s perspective. If you were to hire for the role, what information would you like to see in an ideal resume?
Define sections
Decide what major sections you want on your resume. For example — Experience, Education, Rewards, Social Work, Skills, and Career objectives. You need not include all these sections. Depending on the roles you want to apply for, include sections you think the hiring manager might be most interested in.
Set the page count
This is not exactly a step, it is a mental exercise. Imprint into your mind that your resume will not cross two pages. An uncrowded and well-crafted one-page resume is a work of art. Not everyone can achieve that. Two pages work best. Anything more than that will help lose your recruiter’s interest quickly.
Think back to the times you were going through candidate profiles. Did you read through 3 or 4 page resumes or did your eyes glaze over after the second page?
Summarize your career
Give recruiters a quick snapshot of who you are and what you stand for in your career. Place this at the top of your profile and keep it within 4–5 sentences. Less, if you can manage that.
This part is hard. Don’t try to make it short and crisp right away. Write down everything you want to say and include all keywords that represent your work. Take several passes and prune down the text until you feel it encapsulates who you are. Think of yourself as an artist carving something out of wood.
Here’s a tip — copy what you have written into an AI tool such as ChatGPT and ask it to make it more precise. You can even specify that you want it to be crunched into 4 sentences. Examine the output and make changes as needed until it sounds like you wrote it. Remember that your resume should sound like you and not some machine-generated boilerplate text.
Catalog your experiences
Note down everything you remember about every role you have held at each company. Don’t worry about the page count at this point.
Next, bring your biggest pair of scissors or a sharp axe. Ruthlessly hack away anything that seems repetitive or rudimentary. Keep the role you are aiming for in mind while you do this. Does a line item make you look like a good candidate for the new role? No? Off with that sentence!
Chop and hack until you have no more leeway to cut anything out. Be brutal.
List the latest first
This seems so obvious, but I’ve seen so many resumes where people list experiences, education, courses, and other details in random order. Or worse, in the order in which they completed them. The golden rule is to always list the latest item first. For example, list your post-graduate degree first and then your graduate degree. Recruiters are not too interested in what you did in the early stages of your career or life. They want the most recent information.
Fill in all the other sections
Include other necessary details such as education, initiatives, and industry affiliations. List only the most important ones. For example, don’t add every course you completed. If a course adds value to the role you are pursuing, include that one.
Ask for feedback
This step is super hard. But it helps to get a third-party perspective. You are too close to your resume to spot flaws or gaping holes. A neutral opinion will open your eyes and help cut unnecessary stuff out while making space for details that matter. Pick people you trust and respect for this activity. You don’t have to accept all suggestions but be open to their feedback.
Almost there!
Make sure you meet the under 2 pages goal. Check that the fonts and font sizes are uniform and readable. Carry out a spellcheck — this step is mandatory.
That’s it. Your resume is ready to be sent off into the world. Good luck!
Need help with your resume? Reach out to me at anuanniahwrites@outlook.com.
Anu Anniah Writes 