How To Write a Resume in the Age of Social Media

Updated: January 18, 2020

Resume templates and design have changed over the years. And in today’s digital age where your social media account can affect the merit of your job application, it’s important to prepare not only your curriculum vitae, but also your online presence.

The information that’s included when writing a resume has changed as well. It’s now accepted to exclude personal details about you, including your gender, religion, age, and sometimes, even your photo.

Resumes nowadays highlight the core competencies and professional experiences of the applicant. As well as the skills and personal proficiencies that may come useful in the position being applied for.

Creativity is also more welcome. It’s now common to see infographic or graphical resumes. Some would even create video resumes to stand out from the crowd.

Below are some tips on how to write a resume in this age of social media. There’s also a resume template you can download for free in the end to help you get started in creating your curriculum vitae.

Basic Resume Writing Tips

Organize your information
A typical resume is just one or two pages long. So it’s important to be concise. The best way to achieve this is to first write down all relevant information about you, and organize them according to these categories.

• Core competencies. These are your most valuable skills with respect to the job you’re applying for. You may include here your greatest strengths as a person.
• Professional experiences. The jobs you’ve previously held with the list of responsibilities you had. More importantly, enumerate the various achievements you received on the job for each company.
• Personal proficiencies. These are your skills that’s not vital for the position you’re applying for, but can help you stand out from other applicants. Include in here the certifications that you may have acquired.

Customize your resume for each company
It’s tempting to submit the same resume to all the companies you’re applying for. But editing your basic template to highlight skills can give you an edge over other candidates.

For example, you can highlight your technological skills and proficiencies if you’re applying in a digital company. But highlight your sales and marketing skills in the resume that you’ll show a retail company.

Keep your design simple and clean
Employers usually pay more attention to the upper portion when scanning resumes. So not only should you put your most important information there, but you also use a font that’s easy to read.

Moreover, you must let your text breathe with ample space. And use short and simple words in your details. Additionally, you can use color psychology to your text fonts and page background.

Proofread everything twice

I have passed over resumes submitted to me because of spelling or grammar error. And I’m sure that there are others who would do the same. So proofread and review your resume.

Also, be consistent with your tone and verb tenses, especially when describing your previous job responsibilities and achievements.

Beyond the Basics

Include your social media account
Your potential employers could search your name on Facebook and see someone else’s profile. Save them the time and help them avoid this mistake by including your social media accounts in your resume.

The best one to include is your LinkedIn profile, which you should edit and update to be consistent with your resume. Moreover, review how your social media accounts, especially your Facebook, looks like to the public.

Suffice to say, you should manage your privacy settings, and make sure there’s nothing posted on your accounts that could affect your application negatively.

Create a personal nameplate website
This is like your “online business card”. A personal nameplate website is your hub where you can share more relevant information that’s not on your resume.

In here, you can showcase your hobbies, upload photos, links to your social media, and other stuff that can give your potential employers a short glimpse of who you are as a person.

Popular nameplate services include about.me, flavors.me, and Weebly. You can put the address of your website on your resume instead of, or in additional to, your social media accounts.

Free Resume Template

There are a lot of resume templates online that you can download for free. Even Microsoft Word has several templates that you can use.

But if you’re looking for one that I recommend, then you can download this one free template: RTBR Resume Sample

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