My first resume when I moved to Canada was 16 pages long! Yes you read that right and I am sure many of you are in the same boat and not surprised at all. I soon learned that standard resumes in Canada were only 1 page (front and back!). How was I supposed to compress over 10 years of achievements & experiences in just 1 page?!
I met my first mentor in Canada a few months later who guided me on what to focus on and how to tell my story in a few words but creating an impact at the same time. I was lucky to meet my mentor through a great friend and started growing my network. But that's another blog for another day ;)
Some things to keep in mind for a resume:
- Focus on the "So what" not just the "What"
- Don't assume your potential employer understands all the acronyms and abbreviations
- Font, colours & format matter!
- If submitting in print the quality of the paper matters!
- Spell check & Grammar check - Can't emphasize this enough!
- Highlight the keywords, skills, and success
Hope this helped. I am happy to bust any other myths that you may have so comment away. If you need more, schedule some time with me and lets navigate this together!