Once you've finally finished putting together all of the sections of your resume and tweaked your bullet points more times than you can count, the thought of having someone give you feedback on it can be demoralizing.

We promise it's worth it. This last step in the process of creating your resume is what separates the top candidates from the rest!

Polish Your Resume 💅

To get truly valuable feedback (and avoid spinning your wheels on applications), we recommend:

• Reach out to the 1-2 people you know that are the most knowledgeable about hiring and recruiting, plus 1-2 people you know who give you great, honest feedback.

• Ask if they’ll hop on the phone with you for 30 minutes. Offer a favor in return if appropriate.

• Send them a job description or two that you’re really excited about right before you’re about to hop on the call.

• On the phone, send them your resume. Ask them to please give you stream-of-consciousness feedback as they are seeing your resume for the first time. Let them know they won’t hurt your feelings and that you want them to be as honest as possible.

• Take notes!

• Repeat with 3+ people you trust.

Of course, you can also sign up for Placement, and we’ll make all this happen for you!

Proofread Your Resume

Some recruiters literally throw out any resume with a typo. This might sound harsh, but recruiters are looking for reasons to say ‘no’ so they can whittle down the pile. You’re probably sitting there thinking, “I wouldn’t send in a resume with typos”. But it happens way more often than you think.

The more times you read a resume, the harder it is to spot errors. We use a process leveraged by professional copywriters to find errors. You can use it too:

• Read your resume out loud. Check for any awkward wording. If it doesn’t sound clear, crisp, and succinct out loud, it probably won’t sound that way on a first read, either.

• Export as a PDF. Look at the PDF in Preview. You’ll probably catch an error or two.

• Print out your resume. Yes, on a printer. Look at it physically on paper and read every bit of content very slowly, holding a pen atop each word as you go.

• Take a break from your resume and get a great night of sleep. Look at it first thing in the morning. 80% of people catch at least 1 typo this way.

• Read the words backward. We’re serious. Start from the bottom left of your resume and proofread every word in backward order. You’ll find hard-to-catch errors this way.

• Install Grammarly. It’s like spellcheck on steroids. It will help you catch grammatical errors that you might overlook otherwise.

• Enlist help. Better yet, enlist help from 3 people. Let them know you’re looking for them to help proofread. It’s best to have someone do this that’s never seen your resume before.

By following these steps to put the finishing touches on your resume, you'll make sure your resume gets put at the top of the proverbial pile as recruiters sift through candidates to interview. We can't wait to see where your resume takes you!