How to Make the Ultimate Professional Resume Part 1: The Basics

Are you looking to create an amazing resume, but don't know where to even start? This comprehensive set of guides will cover everything you need to know about making the ultimate professional resume. Whether you are looking for a job, career change or just to update your resume, Join us with a step by step tutorial for creating a resume from scratch. If you are looking to skip the basic steps and enhance your resume further or create an industry specific resume, we will be releasing more in-depth guides soon. So check back or follow us on Facebook to stay updated with your latest posts!

Introducing Our Jane Doe

We will create a sample using Mariya (based off me), a character who is probably a lot like you. A fresh graduate with limited experience looking to enter the job market. The sample resume created should only be used as inspiration and should not be directly copied. Remember that the resume should reflect you! Even if you don't relate directly to our character, you can still follow our guide. However the examples we use may not directly apply to you. This tutorial will assume you either have no resume or are looking to create a new one from scratch. If the following step doesn't apply to you, feel free to skip steps to catch up to your current progress on your resume. The resume guide is for general resumes, industry specific resumes will be covered in the future. So without further ado, let's start making your resume!

1. Ignore the Layout: Collect all Information

Basically, a brainstorm! And that's right, ignore the layout of the information. If you're a perfectionist like me, this step will cause discomfort because you'll be tempted to design your resume first. However, we will make everything look great at the end, I promise. Open up a document and list every qualification, hard skill and soft skill you can think of. Think about everything you've ever done and learned that you can remember. Don't worry if it's relevant or not, the process of elimination will come later. It's going to be ugly, it's going to be tl;dr (too long, didn't read), but it will make modifying and updating your resume an easier job in the future. This is going to be your ultimate resume and CV information database. It should look something like this:

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You may see some 'unusual' or 'strange' items on the list.

For example, []

However keep in mind that your career path down the line may change.

Relevancy is all based on context, so until you have a vague idea about where you are applying for there is no reason to begin the process of elimination just yet.

Now that you've made the ultimate resume and CV database, you can also update it with new skills, qualifications whenever you like as well!

2. Make your Resume Relevant: Organize the Information into Order

As you may have guessed from earlier, some if this information won't make it onto your resume. However, there are two things you absolutely must put on your resume.

1. Your full name
2. Your contact information

That's it? Well, yes. Everything else is subjective and depends entirely on context. So before any elimination can begin, the first thing you need to do is give your resume a general purpose. Who is going to read this resume? What general field am I going to be applying with this resume? Where is this resume being sent?

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Resume saying I have x skill! Person saying I don't care!

If you aren't applying to work with developing people's fine motor skills, or a circus, chances are your unique ability to juggle oranges will be ignored at best or reason you don't get called for an interview at worst. If your resume doesn't have what interests the recruiters, it's going to the bin. So how do you decide what they want to see? This is where a little research comes in handy. Go to a job portal site and look at job listings that are related to one of the positions you will be sending applications to. Now you're going to reverse engineer what they're looking for.

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Read the descriptions carefully! If the job listing is legitimate, they will describe what they want in detail. Job responsibilities will list tasks you will be in charge of. An example of what might be on a job listing is: "Manage and update the company event calendar". In order to do that job effectively, you need to be organized and meticulous. So those would be ideal traits to somehow include in your resume. Qualifications and skills are usually more straight-forward. Are you a fluent English speaker? Can you use Microsoft Office? Qualifications/Skills Though you can embellish, you should not ever lie on your resume.    

3. Create your Resume Layout Design: Make it Skim Proof

You have less than 1 minute to catch the reader's eye in a resume.   Even if you have every single qualification they need It's like having bad handwriting in an exam. If your answer isn't legible, you aren't going to be rewarded marks for being correct.     There is no reason for a fresh graduate with little working experience to have a resume longer than 1 page. However, if you are older or experienced, you can use 2 pages.

4. Check, Edit and Double-Check

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• Layout
• Content
• Graphic

Final headline?? Keep Your Resume Updated