Resume Writing Tips

An easy-to-read resume accurately represents your career and is likely to get you noticed by a potential employer or recruiter. Your resume could be the difference between receiving a phone call or missing out on a job opportunity. 

Dedicated to providing recruitment services to the Health, Medical, and Social Services sectors, we see hundreds of applications and resumes each week, so we’d love to share some best practice resume tips with you: 

• Use a common program such as Microsoft Word or Google Docs to write your resume and avoid fancy layouts. We recommend opting for a simple font utilising headings and bullet points.
• While you won’t need a fancy program or design skills to format your resume, do consider the end user/recipient. Since we live in a mobile world, send your resume to yourself and check to see how it displays on your phone. Do you have too many lengthy paragraphs?
• Your employment history should be in chronological order working backwards with your most recent position at the very top of the list. Include achievements you’ve met at each stage of your career, and if you took a significant break from work to have children or to travel, be sure to include it!
• Include all credentials such as; degrees, certifications, licenses, or any specialised training programs or seminars you have completed. Starting with the most recent first and include the name of the institution, the name of qualification or seminar and the year that you graduated or completed it.
• Many of the skills you develop in your career are transferable from job to job, so remember to include them. For example, you may have developed excellent leadership skills while leading a department. Include your transferable skills!
• Remember, quality over quantity. If you’ve only been employed for 2 years, it’s okay to have a shorter resume. If you’ve been employed for longer, we expect to see more.

When your not looking for a job we recommend your resume is kept saved as an open document. Set yourself a reminder quarterly or, update your resume with achievements and changes as they happen! The next time you see a job opportunity you’re interested in, your resume will be ready to go.

Best of luck!