It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to write what is arguably, the most important document of your professional life. Your resume is not only your meal ticket, but the determinant for a better position, career, company, etc. As a Rehab Professional, it is probable that the extent of your resume writing education was comprised of borrowing an existing one and replicating it. Whatever the case, here are a few tips for updating your resume.

Cover Letter:

Applying for a job is and always will be a numbers game and HR managers are limited to the time they spend reviewing candidates. In cases where 100’s of candidates apply, it’s not probable that all candidates will be reviewed. Before you have the chance to wow them with your experience and verbal arsenal, you need to get in the door.

This is where a lot of applicants lose sight of what’s important, standing out. It’s easy to email your resume to 40 potential suitors. However, the difficulty (and what actually makes you stand out) is writing an effective cover letter that is catered to the specific position and the company itself. How does HR differentiate between 200 applicants? In some cases, they start with a stack of those applicant’s that have a cover letter. Your job is to make sure you make it into that pile.

Aesthetics:

The overall presentation of your resume speaks volumes to who you are as a professional. Do you care about detail? Are your thoughts organized and communicated effectively? From a purely aesthetic standpoint get comfortable with changing font types, while utilizing serif and sans serif fonts. Serif fonts, because of the horizontal lines, which are good for bulleted sentences and sans-serifs which can be useful for titled sections. Instead of paragraphs use bullets, be concise, and avoid overused buzz words.

Is your resume visually symmetrical? By nature we are creatures that value symmetry, thus this notion should be reflected in your resume. For example, if you have a job title emboldened to the left then having your time of employment, on the same line, justified right, would add symmetrical value.  Also, is your resume longer than one page? If it is, try and get it to one page, while still showcasing your experiences.

Resume Layout:

How you present your education, skill sets, and professional experiences should come from a logical place. Your education should always be last, unless you are a new graduate. Skip over the dated, Objective Section,€which is about as played out as Vanilla Ice and his repeated attempts at relevancy. You obviously want a job in a progressive organization. Don’t waste valuable real estate on your page with something that your potential suitor already knows. Besides, your cover letter should already state the objective in it. In an effort to maintain brevity, try to keep your professional experiences to your last three jobs, keeping in mind that a lapse in work is a red flag.

It’s also helpful to have a section called Experience Summary€ or Skill Set€ that showcases skills that aren’t represented in your professional experiences or cover letter.The application process should be organic, in that you optimize the process by testing a few variations of your resume. This is a proactive approach to the reactive thought of hoping and waiting. By creating a cover letter and making simple adjustments to the aesthetics, as well as the layout of your resume, you can increase the likelihood that your time spent looking for a job is short and successful.

At Centra Healthcare Solutions, our Strategic Search Consultants would be more than happy to go over your current resume, so contact us today.