How To Expand A Too-Short Resume
When it comes to applying for jobs, a common concern is having a resume that’s too long. However, many people—especially folks who are looking for their first full-time job or who have only worked at a few organizations—have the opposite problem: their resumes are too short. How can you expand a resume that barely takes up half a page?
The Daily Muse offers five tips on how to make a short resume longer. Our favorite tips are those we often recommend to job seekers: focus on your accomplishments and include your volunteer work.
Do: Expand Upon Accomplishments
"Once you’ve finalized your list of jobs, remember that you have a luxury more experienced job seekers don’t—space to get into more detail. Imagine that you and another candidate both held the same first job in social media. The other candidate, who’s also listing many other positions, may only have space for one bullet point—e.g., “maintained integrated online social media program”—but you can use your extra space to really flesh that experience out. List out how many thousands of fans you grew the organization’s Facebook page by, your experience editing videos for YouTube, and the monetized campaign you led on Twitter.
Or, say you were an executive assistant responsible for some event planning. Don’t just say, “Assisted with 10 events per year,” separate it into bullets explaining your expertise in designing invitations, finding venues, and overseeing set-up. Just because you’ve only held one position doesn’t mean you don’t have a variety of experiences—and when you’re starting out, being able to detail all that out will go a long way in showing the hiring manager what you have to offer."
Read the other tips on The Daily Muse.
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This post was contributed by a guest author.