HELPFUL HINTS

Source: Amanda Inman, CVPM

Writing a great veterinary resume?

◗ Length. Don’t go over a single one-sided page. Multi-page resumes make it look like you can’t edit yourself or think every little de-tail is important (nine times out of 10 it’s not).

◗ Too much information. Focus on the skills and previous experience related to the position you’re applying for. Sum up unrelated experience in a separate section or write in your cover letter that you’re willing to discuss other experiences and gaps in employment.

◗ Rigid templates. Feel free to use a resume template from your software, but don’t feel trapped by it. Make changes when you need to.

◗ Formatting errors. Watch for tabbing or line spacing errors. These give the impression you don’t know how to work with common software, which so many busi-nesses—including practices—use in one way or another.

◗ Fancy fonts. Don’t go overboard. They can make you seem immature or eccentric before anyone even gets a chance to meet you.

◗ Too many font size changes. Keep sizing uniform. Exceptions are for your name and header and section titles. Make these consistent with each other. Instead of getting crazy with font sizes, use bold or italicized type as appropriate highlighting.

◗ Handwritten corrections. Never, ever cross out an error and handwrite the correction (even for something that just changed—like your address, phone number or email address). You might as well scream at the prospective employer that you’re lazy.

◗ Too many big words. Don’t go thesaurus crazy. Describe your qualities with pride and enthusiasm, but don’t go wild with the big words. Too many profession-ally descriptive words used in such a small document make prospective employers wonder if you’re overcom-pensating or just trying to feed them what you thought they wanted to read. Be yourself when you write. Then choose a few choice words to pack a verbal “punch” in the right places.

Super tip!If you’ve whittled down your skills and experi-ence to the most important things and they still won’t all fit, don’t forget to adjust margins and spacing in the word processor or online template you’re using.

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