The Recipe For A Great Admin Resume
Hello my angels! 😇
Resumes are hard to navigate, period. On top of that, opinions on a what makes resumes great tend to rely solely on personal preference, which means there's no right answer. (Super unhelpful, I know!)
The way I see it, there are only 2 versions of resumes:
Creative resumes with colors & funky formats that are multiple pages long, and
Plain, clean, straightforward resumes that all fit on 1 page
I have had both in my career & I have never been offered a role with the latter. Just being honest.
Of course, if you're in a creative field like fashion, design, marketing, etc, these kinds of resumes can be extremely beneficial for self-marketing. I, however, have been a consistent admin & speaking from experience, straightforward resumes are most beneficial for us. Now that we've gotten the painful convo out of the way, let's talk about what makes a resume great.
Have a consistent format!
🍎 Consistency is key, y'all. Your header should include:
Your name
Your e-mail
Your phone number
Maybe a city & zip code if you want to be 🔥spicy🔥
(Sometimes, but not needed) - A professional summary that's 1-2 sentences
🍎 Your indents should all align. Roles, cities, and dates should all match up perfectly. across the whole resume.
🍎 Spelling/grammar errors are a BIG "no". Proofread! Or have me do it! 😉
🍎 Bullets should all refer to your roles in the past-tense, even if you're still there!
Content Matters
🍎 The whole point of your resume is to tell a robust story about your corporate journey. People like stories- even hiring managers- so don't take that for granted! Make your bullets a bit more detailed & maybe a bit more fun than you might think... Here's an example:
Instead of: Worked on the floor and assisted customers
Say: Experienced 50+ customer interactions per day, giving detailed, personalized, friendly & polite service to ensure customer retention
It may not seem like a big difference, but it shows a lot to be able to spin something so simple! This leads me to my next point:
🍎 Quantify, quantify, quantify!
You might say:
"Designed and spearheaded corporate events to ensure employee retention and satisfaction."
But you should say:
Designed and spearheaded 3 corporate events monthly, leading to a 75% increase in employee retention during my tenure.
How would you quantify something like that? Easy! Take the number of employees the company had when you started vs when you left & calculate the difference! You can also monitor how many folx left the company on a monthly basis before and after you started the corporate events, which would give you a more applicable figure.
🍎 Begin every bullet with a verb and make each verb different where you can.
** Shameless plug: My blog next Sunday will provide a "cheat sheet" of 60 cool verbs for your resume, so I hope you'll sign up for my email list to get these pings directly!
🍎 Don't overdo (or under-do) the bullets! Make each role consistent with the next. If you have 8 bullets for 1 job & 3 bullets for another, it could make your resume look a bit wonky and unbalanced. Something to consider.
The Stuff No One Tells You
🍎 Fill ALL the empty spaces.
Even if you have 1 past role, you can fill the spaces with education, skills, competencies (programs you're proficient in), internships, volunteer work, awards you may have won, pieces you may have published, side-hustles... I've even seen someone put "hobbies" on their resume! These tricks not only make you look like a more robust & active person, but it also gives your resume more depth and less white space. Down with white space!
🍎 When submitting applications, it's more effective to include key words from the job description in your resume rather than sending out the same template. I know it's a lot. I know it's annoying. It's an algorithm thing and trust me, it works.
🍎 Sometimes, resumes aren't everything. Even if you do all the right things, there will always be a chance a hiring manager tosses it, just because they don't like a font you used! Try not to be discouraged. Everyone is looking for a job right now & aside from digital applications, you can always work with recruiters instead who have the capability to fight for you... That's another post for another day!
If you can use targeted help with the tips I shared, visit me on adminandeve.com! If not, no biggie, I post blogs every Sunday about being an admin & navigating the corporate world. Hope you stick around!
xo
Eve