Résumé Help: Editing for Content, Flow, & Accuracy
Eva wrote to me because she has not had a response to her résumé. After reviewing Eva’s history, it is clear that she is an accomplished leader. However, most recruiters and hiring employers will not forgive her for her many errors. Eva’s résumé appears to be a good rough draft. If you click on the image below, you will see the many edits we made - - and that is just in the first editing round. Likely, we would work with Eva through at least one more round of edits to fortify her résumé.
When editing, review for content, flow, and accuracy. All of these items were issues for Eva. She had fine examples of achievements. However, there were a couple of achievements that were lacking in measured results or that may not have been understandable to a reader. After editing for content, we want to be sure the language flows properly. That is just another way of saying that the English is proper and the desired message is communicated. One particular issue with Eva’s flow is that she did not always start her sentences with the result. In a résumé, we start strong with the result and follow with how it was done. In some instances Eva had that in the reverse. Lastly, we edit for accuracy. Punctuation, spelling, and grammar must be perfect! Eva had quite a few typos.
I compliment Eva for identifying her accomplishments. She really went beyond the job description to show what she achieved. My recommendation to Eva is to ask a friend with strong writing skills to help her in the editing process. Of course, she can always hire a professional résumé writing service to be sure her résumé is picture perfect. For more reading on this subject, check out the links below:
Reasons to Leave Your Résumé to Professional Résumé Writers
Résumé Help: English Skills Are Essential
To see additional résumé suggestions that will help you as you create your own résumé, please click on the image below.
If you would like a résumé critique, please contact Debra Wheatman at debra@careersdonewrite.com or visit us at http://careersdonewrite.com. The Résumé Help blog appears weekly on Mondays.
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