5 Tips PRSSA Learned From A Professional Resume Editor — Khanh Nguyen from Resume with Khanh

On February 8, Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) at George Mason University had the pleasure of hosting a resume workshop with professional resume writer Khanh Nguyen, M.A.. She is a future clinical psychologist who has been reviewing and editing resumes since high school. Here are five suggestions from her workshop to refresh and revamp your resume to make you stand out to potential employers.

1.     Add your LinkedIn URL to your resume.

LinkedIn is a great place to share your career achievements, projects, and any other experience that you would want your employer to see, but not include on your resume. Yet, there may not be any way to get them to view it without contacting them first. By adding your LinkedIn URL to your resume, employers are able to access your profile and use it as an additional element to evaluate your potential as an employee. You can add your link in the heading as a third line, right under your contact information.

2.    Write your job experience in reverse chronological order.

Under the “Experience” section of your resume, make sure they are listed in reverse chronological order. In other words, your most recent experience should be at the top and your least recent experience at the bottom. Employers do not have ample time to read through every detail of a resume, so putting the position that showcases all the skills you have learned so far will give them easier access to that information. As you gain more titles, add them so that they are seen first as they are more prevalent and show off the most relevant details first.

3.    Quantify your achievements and experience.

When listing your achievements and experience on your resume, being able to describe your work is a good start. To further enhance those descriptions, try quantifying those aspects by adding numbers that show the value of your work. For example, if you have experience as a Social Media Manager, include the percentage increase (in numbers) of followers, rather than just stating that you increased follower count. This provides tangible evidence of your skills while also making your experience eye-catching and more memorable to hiring managers.

4.    Focus on including concrete skills.

While skills such as communication and problem-solving are important ones, every other applicant has them as well. In order to make your resume stand out against them, consider including more concrete skills. These abilities may include certain programs like Microsoft Suite or Adobe Creative Cloud applications or knowledge in coding or CAD. Highlighting your strengths in these areas has the potential to enhance your resume and become a more memorable applicant. The skills can reside at the bottom of your resume, just under your notable projects.

5.    Keep job descriptions to 6 bullet points or fewer.

Our final resume-enhancing suggestion is to keep job descriptions to 6 bullets at the very most. The sweet spot is 3-4 points (that are quantified), but you can add more depending on how long you held the position or how much you accomplished. As stated above, hiring managers do not have all the time in the world to read over every little detail on your resume. By including just a handful of points in your description, it is much easier for the employer to scan over and remember.

These were just a few of the valuable tips provided by Khanh Nguyen during our workshop. If you are looking for more details, or even to have your resume edited by a professional such as Nguyen, head over to her website Resume with Khanh to check out her services. We want to give a big shoutout to her for coming to speak to PRSSA and we hope to work with her again in the future.

Author: Chloe Miller