Tips For Cleaning Up Your Resum by Lauren Devine (NAPSA)—Landing a job these days can be a challenge. Start yourjob search by dusting off your old resum. You can give it a thorough clean-up job with these helpful tips: Be Careful Not to Miss a Spot In comparing two candidates with the sameskills side by side, most employers will be inclined to interview the candidate whose resum does not have spelling and grammatical errors. These gaffes give the impression that you are lax on detail, so after you run a spell check, have a friend give your resume the white-glove treatment to make sure you haven’t “missed a spot.” A Fresh Coat of Paint This is especially important for graduating seniors who don’t have a rich work history yet. In addition to listing your job duties, your resum should include a summary of your accomplishments. Don’t forget that your activities in college clubs and other organizations count as experience, too. Don’t Be a Pack Rat Toss out those extra words cluttering up your resum. Wherever possible, avoid using complete sentences. Bulleted phrases often impart a greater impact and make your resum easier to read. Don’t Dress Up a Mess While creative formatting may work for some positions such as marketing or advertising, most resums should rely more on substance than style. Besides, too many headlines oritalicized statements can be confusing, so capitalize or bold only your mostcritical information. Cleaning up your resume can help make a good impression. Use the Right Product Tailoring a resum to specific industries or jobs is always a good idea, as you may wish to highlight different skill sets and work experience. If you have time, consider creating a new resum for each position. Don’t Sweep Gaps Under the Rug If your work history contains gaps in employment, don’t simply sweep them off your resumin the hopethat no onewill notice. If you took a break from the workforce, offer a brief explanation in your cover letter or in a short section on your resum. Find an Expert to Help You If you need further assistance, visit www.usadecco.com, where you will find a profile template for creating a well-structured resum. You can also search thesite for thousands of job listings. If you need help finding a temporary or full-time position, recruiters at a nearby Adeccooffice will be happy to meet with you. Lauren Devine is the senior vice president of operations for Adecco USA, the nation’s largest staffing and human resource solutions company.
