How to Draft the Perfect Resume in Microsoft Word | Tips & Tricks
Microsoft Word is a great platform for any kind of writing or content creation, but one area where it thrives in particular is helping professionals on the hunt for a new job draft the perfect resume.
This can be achieved through preinstalled templates or templates that can be downloaded from source websites, but not all templates are created alike. Here’s our guide on creating the perfect resume using Microsoft Word.
Preinstalled Templates
The first and simplest way to incorporate resume templates into Microsoft Word is by using the program itself. Start by opening up Word, and on the left side you’ll see a tab labeled “New.” Click on this, and then in the search bar at the top of the page enter “Resume.”
This will return roughly 110 results, and you can decide which template will fit your style best by scrolling through and looking at all the different options. From here it’s just a matter of selecting the template you believe best exemplifies your strengths and the image you want to portray, and filling in your personal information line by line.
Online Templates
If you weren’t able to find the resume template you wanted via the internal search in Word, importing a template from the Web is your next best option. There are a number of websites which have a variety of options to choose from. A few of my favorites are listed here:
Once you’ve downloaded the template you want to use, it will come in the same format that all Word documents do: *.docx.
Simply open the document, and much the same as you would with the process above, just fill out the template with your own information!
Tips and Tricks
Here are some tips and tricks you might want to use to draft the perfect resume.
Dress for the Job You Want
Much like the advice which suggests to “dress for the job you want, not the job you have,” we recommend doing the same with your resume. Though the resume template you used to get old jobs may have been “good enough” in the past, you want to impress your potential future employer as much as possible any way you can. This includes refreshing both the information included in your resume as well as the format in which that information is displayed.
Consider Resume Writing Services
No matter how good a writer you are, oftentimes recruiters are looking for a very specific formula to decide which resumes make it to the top of the pile. This goes doubly-so if they’re using any kind of “resume reading” software, which will look for specific keywords and only return resumes that have them. Professional resume writing services (which don’t usually cost more than $150 for a draft) know all the ins and outs of this process and can give you a very quick return on your investment if used proactively during your next job hunt.
Wrapping Up
No matter if you go with a pre-installed template or download one off the Web, using an already formatted document to build your resume is the fastest and most effective way to make your work history pop off the page and set you apart from the rest of the competition!
Is this article useful?