How to Write a Clear and Concise One-page Resume
Your resume can usually be up to two pages long. However, the business sector tends to prefer one page, especially if you are early in your professional career. So how do you make everything fit onto a single page?
The one thing you surely shouldn’t do is reduce your margins and font sizes to make everything fit — you’ll only be compromising the readability of your resume.
What you must do instead is cut some of the fluff — the filler words, the unnecessary prepositions, wordy phrases, and so on. This will make the impactful words (such as your keywords and action verbs) in your resume pop, captivating the hiring manager’s attention.
The incidental benefit is that your resume will also gain in conciseness and clarity. The shorter and least wordy it is, the easier it is to read, and the more likely to get you an interview!
Eight grammar tips to gain clarity and conciseness on your resume
1. Use the Active Voice
Start each bullet point describing an experience with a skills-based action verb. Don’t say “In charge of the department’s accounting.” It’s not action-oriented and doesn’t highlight what you accomplished.
Instead, say “Calculated monthly overhead. Targeted variable expenses for cost containment. Reduced office expenditure by 71%. Overall, achieved a profit increase of 61%.”
Or
“Established the company’s balance sheet, and income and cash flow statements. Analyzed them and projected activity. Restructured liabilities and equity.”
When you read these, don’t you feel like you know so much more about the applicant, than you did before? That’s the clarity you want to give the people who read your application.
2. Avoid Wordy Phrases
Use simple words to construct your sentences. Words such as:
- because
- since
- why
- although
- even
- though
- if
- when
- about
- must
- should
- can
- could
- may
- might
- before
- after
- as
Avoid lengthier expressions that say the same thing, such as “prior to,” “with regard to,” and “despite the fact that.” If it means the same, but has fewer letters, use it. By the way, this is good life advice in general.
3. Avoid Inflated Words
On the same note, also avoid inflated words. Having a large vocabulary can be impressive, but don’t make it difficult for your recruiter to understand what you’re saying. Most times, simpler phrases work equally well, if not better.
It’s tempting to use words like “facilitate,” “impact on,” “implement,” “subsequent to,” and “utilise,” but try to stick with the simpler “help,” “affect,” “start/create/begin,” “after,” and “use.”
Tip:
By the way, OneLook is the best free writing software for finding the perfect word. It works like any other thesaurus, but you can also enter more than a single word.
Enter a phrase or even an entire sentence. For example, if can’t think of a word that means “hard to remember,” enter the phrase, and it returns multiple options like “elusive,” “hazy,” and “mnemonic.”
4. Reduce Prepositional Phrases
Use apostrophe + s, instead of “of” to denote possession of an object. So instead of writing “The approval of the manager” write “The manager’s approval.”
“The obvious effect of such a range of reference is to assure the audience of the author’s range of learning and intellect.”
Confused? So are we and so will be the employer.
Here’s how to correct it: “The wide-ranging references in this talk assure the audience that the author is intelligent and well-read.”
5. Don’t Use Expletive Constructions (“it is”, “there is,” “there are”).
“It is inevitable that oil prices will rise.” Instead, say “Oil prices will inevitably rise.”
6. Forget Vague Nouns
Vague nouns are all-purpose nouns, such as “factor,” “aspect,” “area,” “situation,” “consideration,” “degree,” “case.” They make your sentences sound generic, eating valuable space on your CV without adding anything.
Don’t say “Consumer demand is rising in the area of services,” say “Consumers are demanding more services.”
In fact, don’t say “more.” Avoid using vague nouns to quantify results.
For the example above, don’t say “Consumers are demanding more services,” say “Consumers are demanding 15% more services than in the previous quarter.”
Similarly, don’t say “Employees were trained faster,” say “Shortened onboarding period by 3 days with new training program.”
Instead of “Workflow was more efficient,” say “Implemented new software to automate 105 daily tasks. Optimized administrative workflow, saving 2 hours daily.”
Also forget overused, vague denominations. Hiring managers are tired of vague words like “team player,” “enthusiastic student,” “results-driven,” “strategic thinker,” “detail-oriented,” “self-motivated,” and “hard worker.” These don’t necessarily demonstrate how you add value in the workforce.
7. Use Only Noun Strings From the Company’s Terminology
Phrases with many consecutive nouns are difficult to follow, unless you are familiar with the industry and company jargon. Use long noun strings such as “store employee relations improvement program” only if they are well defined in your field, and your targeted company also uses them.
Not sure what the company jargon is? Carefully read the job posting, company website, and public materials for clues.
8. Clarify Your Thoughts
When you’re having a hard time describing your responsibilities in a role, using the right vocabulary and outlining your achievements, all the grammar in the world won’t save you.
Clarify your thoughts using the STAR formula — Situation, Task, Action, Result. Before writing your experience, ask yourself the following questions:
Situation — What situations or problems did I fix for my previous employer?
Task — What did I do to solve their problem?
Action — How did I do it? What action did I take? What tools did I use to perform that action?
Result — How did my action impact my previous employer? What was a direct result of my action? What did I accomplish?
Now it’s your turn!
Proofread, and proofread so more
At every stage of your resume writing process, measure the relevance and effect of each word. Does every word count? Does it make a difference in the sentence?
Usually, getting a few (ideally) more experienced friends or an independent (experienced) party like your university’s career center to proofread your resume will help reduce your verbosity and ensure you’re communicating your skills effectively.
This will also help make sure your format is clear and consistent!
Is your styling consistent throughout the document? Make sure your titles, sections, paragraphs, and bullet points have the same fonts, size, and alignment.
Believe it or not, hundreds of resumes are discarded because of the inconsistency of their styling. So, double check, and even triple check. Use online resume builders if you’re not good with Microsoft Word. This will tell your recruiter that you’re professional and meticulous.
Once you’ve triple checked that your styling is consistent, does the structure of your document make sense? Ask yourself:
- Is the organization of my sections clear?
- If my reader wanted to find out something about me right away, would it be clear where they need to look?
Finally, to ensure that your content is consistent and clear, ask yourself:
- Is my tone consistent throughout the document?
- Are my sentences clear?
- Are my skills obvious?
Cheat Sheet: Make every word count
- Start every bullet point with a dynamic action-oriented verb
- Edit wordy sentences to make keywords and action verbs pop
- Replace inflated words with simpler synonyms
- Transform prepositional sentences, by eliminating the preposition “of”
- Delete expletive constructions (“it is”, “there is,” “there are”
- Specify vague nouns with focused information or metrics
- Match noun strings to company terminology
- Clarify your stories with the STAR formula: Situation, Task, Action, Result
- Get feedback from more experienced individuals
- Ensure styling is consistent and organization is clear throughout
Let us end here for now, with a tip we think you’ll love: use Hemingway Editor.
It is the best free writing software for helping you clarify all those thoughts you spilled onto the page. Paste your resume content into Hemingway, and it highlights areas of concern, such as:
- use of adverbs
- use of passive voice
- overly complex words and phrases
- overly complex sentences
Scroll through your writing to look for highlighted items, then make the necessary changes to remove adverbs, use active verbs, and simplify complex sentences.
If you like what you just read, please hit the green “Recommend” button below so that others might stumble upon this article. For more career development advice, scroll down and follow myCareer or find us on Instagram @mycareer.university
