This article was originally posted at New Grad Life.

A common misconception about resumes is that they are meant to describe what you did in your past jobs. In actuality, the most effective resumes are written from a FUTURE perspective. In other words, your resume will work if you think about what a potential employer would want to know about how you WILL perform. What experience do you have that will make you a contribution to their firm or organization?

Photo by Ed Brambley, CC-BY-SA 2.0

If you are writing a resume from the perspective of the FUTURE, here’s what will happen:

1. Measurable Results. You will write detailed bullets that demonstrate your capability to achieve measurable results. That means: include numbers as often as possible. Don’t just say you tutored students; say how many and by how much their grades improved. Don’t say you were successful; tell us exactly what results you achieved. Don’t just say “increased;” tell us by what percentage. Your readers will imply that you can produce similar results for them.

2. Finding Relevance. You will think about the purpose and priority of each item on your resume. Does it matter that you worked as a bartender if you are now applying for marketing positions? Maybe, if you you were a student working 20 hours/week and still maintained a 3.8 GPA, or if you were the highest-tipped bartender at the establishment. Additionally, bartending demonstrates your ability to multitask and interact with a wide variety of people. But it does not need to take up three lines on your resume, just because it’s what you did; you can make it a short bullet under your “Education” section to show you were doing it while in school full time.

3. Deleting Irrelevant Items. You will delete anything that is irrelevant or of minimal importance to your future. These things include stuff you did in high school. High school activities are no longer relevant – you had 4 years of college to become who you are now, and if you did less in college than you did in high school, looking into the future, the logical conclusion is that you will do less and less as time goes on.

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In this article written for New Grad Life, I cover the absolute golden rule of resumes:  Write them for your FUTURE.  These tips apply to everyone, not just recent grads.  The article is short and sweet, and contains crucial resume advice.  Resumes for Recent Grads:  The Purpose of a Resume

I wrote this article for New Grad Life, so it’s catered to new grads, but a lot of the advice is relevant to anyone who has significant items to include under “Education.”  Of course, if you’ve been out of school for 10 years, do NOT put the Education section first (that advice is for new grads only)!  A possible exception is if you are applying for a job at a university where the name of your undergraduate or graduate institution is the most important credential you have on your resume. 

Read here: 5 Great Tips to Organize Your “Education” Section