Maybe it’s because I’m a “big picture” person, but I wasn’t very worried about the details. Once I began crafting my resume, however, I noticed how worried my “detail-oriented” friends were over things like font size, paper thickness, and margin spacing. Soon another thought came to mind: “Maybe I should be more concerned.”
I became even more worried, however, when I realized something else. The bulk of any resume was devoted to work experience. And for a young college graduate who didn’t have much experience, fleshing out this section seemed daunting.
All the same, there are steps you can take to make any resume stand out. Yes, HR directors will be looking for details, work experience, and professionalism when scanning your resume. However, with a few simple guidelines, you’ll be well on your way to crafting an eye-catching and job-snatching resume that any HR director would be eager to read.
When Writing an HR Resume, Always Pay Attention to Detail
It’s all in the details. True, this isn’t everything, but you don’t want to give an HR director any reason to trash your resume.
During college, I met with a counselor to revamp my resume, and she couldn’t emphasize enough how important it was for it to appear uniform and neat. She helped me settle on a font, a font size, and even margin spaces.
At first I doubted whether these things would actually make a difference; however, after I aligned everything accordingly, my resume appeared legible and neat. The right-sized font, I realized, kept an HR manager from having to strain his or her eyes to read the words. Correct spacing made it easier to separate sections. Excited, I knew I was a step closer to creating the perfect resume.
However, along with perfecting fonts and margins, adding headings was also an important detail I discovered when crafting my resume. One way to do that is by adding key words, words that will jump out at a human resources manager, letting him or her know immediately that you’re qualified for the job. Strong key words include: HR, HR assistant, HR director, human resources manager, human resources generalist, staffing manager, human resource specialist, HR benefits analyst, etc.
Effective HR Resume Tools Include Highlighting Your Strengths and Listing Any Awards
As I continued creating my resume, I made sure to add details about my interests that highlighted my strengths. Ideally, this shows an HR director how your personality may mesh well with his or her company. For example, if you love working with people and enjoy leading a book club or taking a scrapbook making class, write it down! After all, these things will show an HR director that you enjoy working with people and know how to lead others, which are two important traits when working in HR.
Awards, too, are good things to add to your resume. If you’ve won awards for leadership at school, or you were “manager of the month” at your job, be sure to note it. Such awards show your abilities and how you might apply those abilities to your HR position.
How to Find Work Experience to Add to Your HR Resume: HR Experience Can be Found Everywhere
Here’s where it got tricky for me. I didn’t have much work experience to put on my resume; however, with help from my college counselor, I discovered that volunteer experience can be included as well.
I thought about areas where I worked well with others, trained individuals, came up with creative solutions, and boosted morale. Then, I created my list. Surprisingly, I came up with five experiences, ranging from volunteering at church to helping out at school.
Next, I added two to three sentences under each experience about what I did that could relate to an HR position. For example, if one of my experiences was being a secretary at school, one of my sentences would be, “I trained other secretaries to perform tasks efficiently and effectively.”
If, however, you’ve had years of HR experience, and you’re looking to add more to your resume, then great! Be sure to list the most recent job you’ve had (or still have) at the top and proceed accordingly. Include your company’s name, your position in human resources, and your responsibilities that relate to HR.
Conclusion
The more time you put into creating your resume, the better you’ll get at it: after all my efforts, I finally created a resume I was proud of. Soon, you too will be proud of your HR resume, and you’ll find yourself where you want to be — at the top.
