19th April, 2024
Writing about yourself shouldn’t be as hard as it is, given you’re the only expert in the field. But even the most boastful and experienced writers struggle with it. As the title suggests, I’ve recently written my Resume site. It wasn’t easy, and it took a lot longer than I’d hoped, but I picked up on some tips & tricks along the way. We all have to do it at some point, so here are a few ways to make your journey more quick and comfortable than mine was.
Call in a guest speaker.
Get someone close to you to write something about you or list off positive attributes. Sometimes it can be hard to identify your most prominent and employable traits. You know too much about yourself, and you might take particular virtues of yours for granted, given you’re so used to it. This tactic can also boost your ego and help give you the confidence to positively talk about yourself, which is necessary when writing a resume.
Search for examples.
There’s a million great articles and websites out there. Go through them and pick out which skills & qualities apply to you. There’s heaps of templates and guides that you can follow, or at least look at for inspiration. It’ll give you some assurance that you’re on the right track.
Start with dot-points.
It’s easy to develop 5 or 6 one-word descriptions of your employable skills and characteristics and work from there. Make an entire sentence from something like “people skills”. Where did you acquire and develop your people skills? How would they be of value in a work setting? What has this skill enabled you to achieve in the past? What potential does it show for the future? Start simple and ask yourself questions until you have something more substantial written. Remember that sentences are just a bunch of words thrown together. Write your key words down and then arrange them into something that makes sense.
Have someone look over it more than once.
It’s hard to edit your own work because you’re familiar with it. You’ll read straight through incorrect spelling or grammar. You’ll stubbornly defend an incorrect sentence structure because you know what you’re trying to say, and you know how much effort went into it. But YOU aren’t the audience for your resume. Someone else is. You need to make sure that it makes sense to someone else, that all the information is valuable and relevant, and that it’s easy to read.
You don’t need to be an expert at something to include it on your resume.
Remember that there is always someone better than you. If you know how to use Facebook, you don’t need to be Mark Zuckerberg to put “social media skills” on your resume. Imperfect skills that you’re practising and unpaid work experience are still relevant to an employer and worth mentioning.
So, there you have it! It’s always going to be hard talking about yourself, and selling yourself to a possible employer, so be patient with yourself. There are so many great tips out there and people willing to help you out. Never be afraid to ask for advice and ALWAYS ask for feedback.
Please have a look at my fresh new resume, and let me know your thoughts!
