Keep Your Resume Out of the Trash

You don’t judge a book by its cover, but the same doesn’t go for resumes.

So many resumes are trashed instantly because they look horrible. Recruiters get hundreds of resumes to review and will look for any reason to not have to go in depth on one.

And even if it doesn’t get trashed, a weird looking or mistake-riddled resume will hurt your chances of getting the job.

I am going to tell you what I did on my resume to make sure recruiters gave my resume as much attention as possible. These strategies helped me get offers from multiple firms.

#1) Be specific

Whenever you have the chance to be specific, do it. Say how long you did something, how many of them you did, when you did it, etc. The person reading your resume doesn’t know anything about your job. Keep that in mind. Give the details they need.

Don’t say “Filed taxes for clients.” Say “Reviewed tax positions quarterly for my 6 real estate clients.”

Don’t say “Organized meetings for the Accounting Club.” But say, “Organized 2 Accounting Club meetings per month for 6 months”

The human brain loves quantifying things so make sure to include those numbers!

#2) Action/Result/Impact

Don’t just explain what you did in your past experience, but also why it mattered. Explain what action you took and the impact/result of that action.

Don’t say “reviewed accounts payable invoices.” Say “Reviewed over 100 AP invoices to remove 3-month backlog".”

Don’t just say “processed client data.” But say “used Alteryx to process client data each quarter for substantive testing population sampling.”

Explain why your contributions matter.

#3) Keep format consistent

Double checker everything. Make sure there are no typos or random commas or anything like that.

And stay consistent. If you put periods behind a sentence, put it behind all sentences. If you write out numbers (six) instead of typing the number (6) then do that for all numbers. Switching between different formats or fonts looks unprofessional and sloppy.

#4) Key words/Research the firms

You should always do a little bit of research about a company if you are seriously interested in getting a job there. Figure out what they value. What are their core principles. Don’t be cheesy, but if you can add one or two into your resume it may help you stand out.

Also, if your role requires certain software knowledge or skills make sure to include those key words as well.

#5) Look clean

Make your resume as easy on the eyes as possible. Yes, you want to show all your great experience and qualifications. but don’t completely cover the page in words. Don’t make it too overwhelming. The appearance of your resume is almost as important as its contents. Find a good template online and mirror it. I’ll add a link below to my preferred template.

Also, keep it to 1 page!

Notes/Recommendations

• This free e-book will teach you exactly how to create, stick to, and get the most out of your study plan!

• Studies show January 12th is National Quitting Day. If you partook in this then I implore you to get back onto your New Year’s Resolution. Stick with it!

• All items are over 30% off on CPAexamplanners.com until tomorrow! Go grab your planner now!

• My preferred resume template: Link