5 Tips to get your Resume to the Top of the Stack

5 Quick Resume Tips For The Lab Industry

There are tons of articles out there detailing what to include and what not to include on your resume, what you should detail, how you should format it, whether to add or to omit your references, so on and so on. I look at hundreds of resumes daily, and sort through many different types of resumes, ones that are formatted with tables, some that have catchy objectives or titles, some with cursive font, some with all capital letters, some with extremely long cover letters, and some even have pictures and graphics on them. This details the top 5 tips that I live by for resume building. I know this might not work for some industries, like say, Internet Technology (IT), or Web Designing Jobs, or you know, those jobs that require you to be artistic and savvy with all the formatting and table building within a document, but I am speaking for the Medical Field, the Laboratory field to be specific. This is just from my experience, what my clients respond to, and what resumes that I have referred obtain the most positive feedback.

1) NO TABLES. IT IS A WASTE OF TIME. I can go on and on about this. But I will just name a couple reasons why there should not be any tables. 1.) It is hard to read, when you do tables you have your job title at the left of the page, then the dates at the right of the page five spaces down, then the name of the company at the left of the page in the middle of the page, you get it, It is just all over the place and hard to read. 2.) When you submit your resume to a job, your resume will most likely go in to the recruiter’s or human resources manager’s candidate tracking database systems. When your resume has been formatted with tables, usually there will be issues in uploading into these candidate-tracking systems, and most of us do not have the time to type your entire resume into the system since we review hundreds of resumes/day, so it will most likely be overlooked and not kept in a tracking system to contact you for future job openings 3.) The FIRST thing a hiring manger looks at is “experiences” so keep it basic, truthful, and easy to read, then bullet every bit of your job, and job tasks that relate to the position you are applying for. For Example:

Job Title

Dates of Employment

Title of Company

· Job Duty 1

· Job Duty 2

· Job Duty 3

**When sifting though hundreds of resumes a day to find a qualified candidate, this makes it quick and easy to read and will put your resume at the top of the list for a prospective job opportunity and interview.

2) Do not make your resume in all capital letters. Generally, when you type in capital letters it means that you are screaming. There is not need to scream on your resume. That is pretty self-explanatory. Moving On….

3) When typing out words on your resume. Rather then make words abbreviated, type the entire word out, unless you are abbreviating your type of degree (Bachelor’s Degree, Master’s Degree), or when you are abbreviating your type of certification. Other then those two things you should write the entire words. For instance, University should not be abbreviated as Univ. Or, in my industry, Lab should be written out as Laboratory. Another one, Supervisor should not be written Supv. Just write out the word, it shows that you did not just slap your resume together and rush through it.

4) Do Not “Forget” the dates of employment. Always, always put the dates of employment on your resume in the work history section of your resume. It doesn’t matter why you omit the dates of employment from your resume: Because you have been out of the field for a while, because you have a very long job history since you have been in the field for a very long time, because you have short job stays, because you retired and want to come back into the field, because you are a entry level job seeker. It doesn’t matter the reason because either way, the hiring manager will ask for them and they will find out at some point. And when they have to ask for them and wait on them, then your resume may get lost in the mix of the other hundred resumes while the hiring manager waits on your omitted dates of employment.

5) Cover letters. Whether you write a cover letter or not is up to you. What I will tell you is that 1) NONE of my clients ask me for my referred candidate’s cover letter. 2.) You should rather spend time putting together an amazing reference sheet. You do not have to add your references to your resume, but if you get further along in the interview process, then you will 99% of the time, be asked for about 3 professional references. Be sure to keep your reference sheet up to date. Meaning, make sure your references know they are your reference, take the time to call ahead of time to give them a heads up. Also, try to put the reference’s personal phone number on there rather then their general work number where it will be hard to get in touch with them during their work day, unless you can provide a specific extension or direct line for the work number. Be sure to include their email address. For most of us, email is the best way to get in touch.

-Melissa Phelan

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