A resume has many roles, but most importantly, it is an introductory overview of you before your recruiter meets you. The document and its contents tell them who you are in your absence. Often when employers post job vacancies, they receive numerous resumes and are faced with sorting out the best. Employers are all concerned about finding those who are suitable for the advertised positions and doing this fast. This means that if the reader is not impressed in a few seconds, it gets thrown aside. Therefore, you have the opportunity to give a lasting impression to your potential employer in just six seconds of holding your resume. One very essential way to do this is to keep the contents of your resume simple, precise, and engaging. Simply put, the contents of your resume should fit into one page.
The following steps will guide you to make a one page simple and attention-grabbing resume.
Decrease the spaces
There is default margin measurement on word documents, but the goal is to fit your content into a single page. Render margins in measurement lesser than the default measurement. The smaller the margins, the more space you have for writing your resume. The document, however, should not be too clumsy and uneasy to read. Keep a margin of between 0.5 and 0.7 inches. Little blank spaces should be created for neatness and readability.
Avoid formatting mistakes
Do not allow single words or short phrases to exceed a line. Avoid the mistake of excess formatting, mainly because you don’t want to tamper with the aim of a one-page document. Compress your responsibilities and experience into words that talk about your impacts and results rather than listing your duties. Express them in strong verbs and bullet points. As earlier said, hiring managers have limited time to go through your resume; they do not give a thorough read but skim through the resume, hence the need to write with strong and confident words. When beginning your bullet points, use words like, ‘implemented,’ ‘generated’ to introduce your points. If this is not your strength better use professional resume services. This way you could be sure in the quality and will save a lot of time and nerves.
Input up-to-date and pertinent information
Your resume is your professional brand, and it should speak that to your potential employer. It should promote your proficiency to the employer. Write your resume to feature the company’s descriptions in the advertisement. This way, irrelevant and unnecessary information is removed from your resume.
Consider the role you are applying to, the relevant past experiences you have in the field, and include them in your writing. Also, include in your resume only information that will give you privilege over others applying for the same role. Any other information will merely exhaust the space you have and should not be added.
Shortening content of a resume to fit into a page is crucial, and even professionals fail this most times. No matter how complicated it might be, with concentration and understanding, one can have it done in no time.