Supercharge your resume in 30 minutes or less

Supercharge your resume in 30 minutes or lessOkay, so you already know you should spend lots of quality time honing your resume, lovingly crafting the masterpiece that will get you your next job. Resumes benefit from time and editing. But reality doesnt always give us the time wed like, and sometimes you need to produce a great resume on short bedrngnisice. Maybe its been a while since you updated and an awesome new job opening has popped up, or maybe someone in your network has mentioned that hey, theres this new job that would be perfect for youcan you submit you resume today? Whatever the time crunch is, it means you have to produce something solid without much notice. googletag.cmd.push(function() googletag.display(div-gpt-ad-1467144145037-0) ) So what do you do when you want to spruce up your resume but you dont have much time at all? Dont panicits doable Lets walk through some of the best things you can do to supercharge your resume in no time flat.Choose a formatand stick to it.If you had more time, you could play with different formats and see what works best for your skills and experience. No time for that today, so choose your path quickly.If you have a lot of work experience in your field Go with the traditional reverse-chronological format, where you put your work experience section prominently up front and work backwards through your jobs.Heres an example of how your resume can look if you want your experience to be the fruchtwein prominent featureJenny Smith21 Jump StreetEvanston, IL 12121JSmith45emaildomain.comExperienced Store ManagerQUALIFICATIONS SUMMARYStore manager with more than 10 years experience.Creative, innovative team leader with proven results.Exceeded sales goals by more than 15%, three years in a row.WORK EXPERIENCEBig Box Store R Us, 2013 presentStore ManagerManage a busy Chicago branch of a national department store chain.Lead a team of 60+ employees.Improved in-store sales by 10% in 2017, 9% in 2016, and 8.5% in 2015.In this example, Jenny goes straight for the emphasis on her work history, and her results.If you are inexperienced, or just starting out in the field Go with a skills-based format, where you lead right into a skills summary that relates directly to the job youre applying for.Heres an example of how your resume can look if you want your experience to be the most prominent featureKai Burns1 Main StreetLos Angeles, CA 12312KaiBurnsemaildomain.comDisciplined, enthusiastic recent rang seeking a marketing role at X Corp.SKILLS SUMMARYSocial media expertise (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook)Demonstrated leadership on team projectsStrong written and verbal communication skillsIn this example, Kai leads with her skills, because shes a recent grad and doesnt yet have a ton of work experience or concrete professional results she can call out.Dont reinvent the wheel.Youve only got 30 minutes, so unless youre really attached to the idea of creating a resume from scratch at breakneck speed, work with someth ing that already exists. That may be your current resume, but if its really outdated or not great then there are lots of pre-existing templates where you can drop in your information and go from there. Using a resume library template can be a major time-saver, especially when youve only got a few minutes.Focus on the short, sweet elements.You dont have a lot of time to pore over your experience bullets, but you can spend your time making sure that some of the shorter, punchier parts of the resume are in good shape. For example, make sure you have an effective, attention-grabbing headline. Your headline helps you set the narrative yourself. And this is where having less time can work in your favor you want to focus on the most important, relevant parts of yourself as an applicant for this particular job, without overthinking it too much.Similarly, a good summary can help you really focus on your most important strengths as a candidate and what you want to say in your resume.Use bold action words.You want your supercharged resume to be potent, not wordy, so its all about the word choice. Instead of using long bullet points to develop a point, use a targeted action verb to get the point across faster. Its not only more effective, but also cuts down on your writing and editing time. Some examples of strong action verbs that look good on your resumeChairedCoordinatedExecutedHeadedImplementedMaximizedOperatedOrchestratedOrganizedOutperformedOverhauledOversawPlannedProducedRedesignedStreamlinedSaying more by taking up less space is something you can do pretty quickly that has a big impact on the quality of your resume. Youre using your limited time to make sure that parts of your resume pop instead of using the saatkorn old verbs that pass unnoticed as a reader skims your resume.For more on how to punch up your verbs5 Action Verbs That Will Energize Your ResumeHow to Create a Resume Packed with Action WordsPowerful Action Verbs That Will Make Your Resume Look Like a Million BucksDont skimp on editing.The final proofread can be the first thing to go when youre in a rush. Its done, it needs to be out the doorits probably fine, right? Not so fast. If youre only taking half an hour with your resume, make sure you slot five minutes at the end to do a careful read of the final doc before you hit send. Ideally, youd have someone else look at it to make sure everything reads well and there are no glaring errors, but if you truly dont have enough time to do that, use your own critical eye. You may only have half an hour to work on your resume, but you dont want your resume to look like it.Make it look nice.Again, since you dont have time for the deep resume dive, focus on as many of the aesthetics as you can. Is your layout clean and easy to read? Are there blocks of uninterrupted text that could be broken into reader-friendly chunks? Is your resume free of odd formatting that might not work on a computer or device screen? A quick pass to make sure your resume looks appealing should be one of the last things you do before you send.Whether youve got 30 minutes or 300, you want to put out the best resume possible. After all, it can be your first step to a new job, and you want to make sure youre presenting yourself in the best possible way. If youre crunched for time, its important to accept that you dont have time to finesse every detailbut you do have time to zupflmmel the most important points and shine them up so the reader never knows you had such a tight timeline.