5 Ways to Improve Your Resume In One Hour

If you’re anything like me, quite often you wish for more time. More time to finish a project, go to the movies, take a vacation, go to the gym, or spend time with family and friends.

You might say “falling back” with Daylight Savings Time is like receiving the gift of an extra hour. Despite my desire for more time, I have a love-hate relationship with this particular extra hour.

Love it because I get an extra hour once a year and the sun shines earlier in the morning so I’m not trying to pry myself out of bed in the dark. Hate it because it’s dark by five o’clock and it feels like midnight when I’m eating dinner at my usual hour.

Honestly, I will spend the next five months counting the days until we switch back and I lose an hour. I love the daylight that much. Not to mention I love warm weather. Hate the cold.

Right now, we’ve got an extra hour and we should use it to our advantage. Here are five ways to improve your resume in one hour:

1. Add Social Media Links. Include a link to your LinkedIn page, as well as your website and other relevant social media accounts.  This is a good time to personalize your LinkedIn address too – www.linkedin.com/firstnamelastname. Reminder: make sure any links are live and connect to the correct page.
2. Update Your Personal Statement. At the top of your resume should be your personal statement that tells the hiring manager who you are and what you can do to solve their problems.  If the top of your resume still says, “Seeking a job in X industry”, it’s time to start over.
3. Highlight Career Wins. Show hiring managers what you bring to the table by sharing quantifiable success stories from each of your jobs. “Reduced operating expenses by eight percent in first quarter” or, “Developed and executed consumer program resulting in ten percent sales increase”. Show the hiring manager you mean business.
4. Add New Skills or Awards. Did you take a course? Earn a certificate? Receive an award or other recognition?  Be sure to include any new skills, education or awards.  Remember, though, it must be relevant to your career.
5. Out With the Old. There comes a time when our first job(s) need to be removed from our resumes. Same for irrelevant information such as street address (list only city and state), the words “cell phone” or “home phone” (simply list the number, preferably your cell phone), hobbies, personal information (age, height, political affiliation, etc.), anything related to high school, and the phrase, “references available upon request”.