Why You Need A Professional, Ready-To-Go Resume

In today’s job market, an attractive, comprehensive resume is key to advancing in your career. In the first 2-3 seconds of being perused by a hiring manager, its crisp, professional appearance must create a visually appealing experience for the viewer to give the document’s contents serious consideration.

A ready-to-go document is also a must. Imagine this scenario. You connect with a recruiter concerning a promising position, but your resume is in a less-than-presentable state. So, valuable time and energy must be spent getting it ready to go.

“When working with a recruiter, you want them advocating on your behalf, helping you to get the position, not spending time reformatting and redoing your resume,” shares Nicole Harding, LeaderStat Healthcare Recruiter. “Recruiters love working with candidates who are ready to go, and that means having a great-looking resume.”

Professional in content and appearance, up-to-date, and ready at a moment’s notice to make a fabulous first impression. That should always be your resume status. So, let’s tackle each of these goals.

Professional—

What will hamper that sought-after positive first impression?

• A photocopied resume or even worse, a picture of a resume
• A crumpled or tattered-edged resume
• Smudged, faint, or faded ink
• A “crammed” look that offers too little white space

Create an eye-pleasing resume with attention to these formatting and appearance issues.

• Choose an easy-to-read font between 10 and 12 pt. Suggested choices include Cambria, Calibri, Helvetica, and Bookman Old Style. Utilize the same font throughout the resume and in the cover letter, if including one.
• Use one-inch margins and opt for single or 1.15 line-pacing. Stick to double spaces before and after headings and between entries in both the experience and education sections.

Up to date—

As an interim consultant or a travel nurse, your most recent work experience changes regularly. As an essential aspect of what you can bring to future positions, including these additions should also become part of your routine. Before leaving an assignment, be sure to add the relevant aspects of it to your resume.

The goal of an up-to-date resume also refers to the issue of following current trends. For instance, while a picture of the candidate used to be standard on a resume, that is no longer recommended. The name of the game for resume success is FRESH, as detailed in our post “Tips to Refresh Your Resume”

Ready at a moment’s notice—

This goal references two aspects of accessibility: the ease with which a resume can be updated and the ease of producing a copy of one’s resume. Ideally, travel nurses should carry an electronic copy of their resume on their phones, which is easy to update with each assignment. And this convenience factor can apply to interim consultants as well.

A variety of apps can help with these accessibility concerns, including Resume Star and CV Writer. Check out 8 Cheap or Free Resume Builder Apps for a compilation of apps with many helpful features for maintaining a ready-at-a-moment’s notice resume.

When time is of the essence, and you want that next assignment, you will be glad for the time spent whipping your resume into shape.