resume design Archives - RDH Resumes and Career Guidance

Dental Hygienist Resume that Gets You Noticed

December 3, 2014 By Doug Perry, Dental Hygiene Resume Coach

“Why am I not getting dental hygienist job interviews?” is the question (mixed with an emotional/frustrated tone) I most frequently get.

While there could be a myriad of reasons, it all boils down to you not doing enough to appear different to employers. We share lots of ways to do this at GetHiredRDH.com.

But I am convinced one of the most important and fundamental ways is by creating a more visual resume – one that goes beyond black text on white paper in 12 point Times New Roman font.

Here are four simple tips to make your dental hygienist resume stand out, and thus lead to more interviews.

[Resume Service]

Color
Very few dental hygienist resumes have color on them. I’ve probably looked at nearly a thousand different dental hygienist resumes at this point, and while I have not kept track, I would estimate that only five percent have any color (besides black and white).

Why is that? Probably because it wasn’t too long ago that that was the only option and few people have bothered to change because they think it breaks from tradition.

Is there a rule or etiquette against it for resumes? Definitely not! So do it, just don’t over-do it. Use color to accentuate, not dominate your resume. This will add a quiet, yet significant confident professionalism to your resume.

I recommend using color in the following elements:

Picture of you
Lines, boxes and other “graphics”
Headlines (your name)

Avoid color in the main body of text – bullets (the actual element) is optional. I also recommend not using more than one color.

Picture of You
Everyone has an opinion on adding a picture of themselves to their resume. My advice is simple – if you don’t feel comfortable with it for any reason then don’t do it. However, it factually does make your resume stand out and get noticed.

Your picture is like your own personal logo. It’s a valuable part of marketing you because it helps identify your brand similar to how the swoosh helps to identify Nike. Your “logo” coupled with your personal brand statement or promise is a powerful tool in helping employers connect with you which ultimately leads to them building a relationship of trust with you.

Still not convinced?

Consider this, 94% of employers admit they Google the names of job applicants they are interested in hiring. Why? Because they want to know more about you than what your resume has, including what you look like.

Wouldn’t it be better to display a professional head shot on your resume – a picture that you approve of and feel represents you well? The Internet may serve up something less flattering of you from your past (Google your name and see for yourself). Or, even worse, it could show a picture of someone else that an employer may assume is you.

Again, it’s a personal decision that everyone has to make for their own unique situation, but if you are on the fence, hopefully I have helped you jump to one side or the other.

A final word on this – sign up for a LinkedIn.com account. When people do Google names, often what will come up at the top of the results is your LinkedIn profile. You can also post your professional picture and resume information there for people to see.

And LinkedIn is a great networking tool. We co-manage a LinkedIn user group called Dental Hygienists that I encourage you to join – this will link you to thousands of other professional hygienists across the world, where you can share ideas, ask questions and discuss issues.

Other Graphics
Lines, boxes, interesting icons, and even bullets are considered accents to your resume and they aren’t pointless window dressing – they give your eyes a rest. Reading is work. It requires intense levels of concentration and thinking so a reader can understand what’s being communicated.

Graphics are like seeing a bench after hiking through a mall all day. When placed strategically, they give your reader’s eyes a quick break to rejuvenate. And after reading 40-50 resumes, an employer’s eyes not only enjoy seeing these little benches, they long for them.

What this all means, of course, is the more visually-pleasing breaks you can offer, the more time they will spend with your resume and more favorable they will be toward it. It’s that simple.

White Space
The absence of graphics and text is really just an extension of what we were talking about with other graphics. It’s a break for the eyes and in general gives you a more organized-, professional-, clean-feel. Try it out – take a page of single-spaced text and compare it to a page of 1.5 or double-spaced text and see which you think looks easier/faster to navigate and read.

I think it’s also nice for the person screening you, to give them room to make notes right on your page.

Four Big Cautions in Designing a Dental Hygiene Resume

October 22, 2014 By Doug Perry, Dental Hygiene Resume Coach

There’s a lot to consider when you sit down and start designing a dental hygiene resume. So today I want to give you four of the biggest cautions or things to think about and consider when you begin.

Spoiler Alert: A resume by itself is not going to win you a dental hygiene job. It’s sole purpose is to get you from point A to point B so that you can win the job with your personality and interview kills.

But as it turns out, that barrier of just getting an interview is huge in dental hygiene right now. And so the greatness of your resume really does matter!

[Resume Snippet]

Caution 1: Wrong Format
There are three types of resume formats – chronological, functional, and a hybrid of those two. For most hygienists I strongly recommend the Functional format.

The functional and chronological formats are only different in one key way and that is where you place your accomplishments, skills, and experiences. In a chronological you list them beneath each job you’ve had and the job section is near the top, whereas in a functional you place them in their own section near the top. And then beneath that section you create a simple listing of jobs you’ve held.

Because most dental hygiene jobs require a very similar skill set and perform many of the same duties, it makes more sense to place all of that within its own dedicated section at the top, as opposed to the repetition of putting the same information under each dental hygiene job you’ve held.

The only exception is if you have some very specific accomplishments – unique to each job – that you can highlight. Even then, I recommend a hybrid of the two types because it gives you best of both worlds – a little bit of room to include your skills at the top and a little bit of room to emphasize some specific accomplishments beneath each job.

Caution 2. Too Lengthy
The main purpose of a resume is to get an interview. You want the resume to stand out but not in negative ways. Arguably, one slightly negative way could be the length. Generally, keep it to one page. I have done resumes for hygienists who have no experience on up to 40-plus years and they all fit fine on a one-page resume.

In most cases, there isn’t much up-side to making it longer than a page – no one ever got hired because of what they had on the second page of a resume. As an employer reviews 30-40 resumes (or more) for one job opening, there simply isn’t much time spent on each one.

The only exception I recommend is if you have lots of dental industry leadership experiences beyond clinical dental hygiene. For example, if you have made lots of presentations, written lots of articles, performed lots of research, participated in lots of local or national association leadership positions, then you really do have a great case for needing the extra space.

Caution 3. Boring or No Flare
There’s one guaranteed way to make your resume boring and that’s to make it look and read like everyone else’s. You don’t have to get crazy, in fact I would caution against that, too. Instead add small touches of flare. This could include adding a little bit of color, increasing the font size on your name, using a font different than Times New Roman, adding your picture to the resume, using lines or other graphic touches to create sections, using bullets and columns instead of large blocks of text, and also using bold or italics here and there to create emphasis.

Caution 4. Difficult Navigation
Resumes that are packed with single-spaced blocks of text are intimidating for human eyes that are already not enjoying their review of dozens of applicants. Moreover it makes it challenging to navigate and find the key words or information an employer is looking for. One big thing you can do to improve the readability of your resume is to include extra white spacing and markers.

I love white space on any document – it points to two great attributes we all hygienists should seek to showcase – clean and organized. Try to include line spacing settings of 1.1 to 1.5. It’s okay to pull the margins out a bit (to .4 or .5) to help achieve that.

Markings are related to what I was talking about it Caution 3 above. You want to include things like larger fonts in key places, bold, bullet points, and graphics not just to keep your resume from looking boring, but also because those signals that help guide the employer to finding specific things they are looking for. Think of it like a map – if you were in a city you have never seen before and looking at a map, you would want for there to be lots of signs and landmarks to help you find where to go.

Give Your RDH Resume a Design that Grabs Eyeballs

July 9, 2014 By Doug Perry, Dental Hygiene Resume Coach

There are lots of things you learn in dental hygiene school – techniques, instrumentation, treatments, oral anatomy, to name just a few categories.

By and large, I think schools do a good job of teaching the trade of dental hygiene. But in my experience and informal research, they don’t teach much a lot about putting that education to work (once you are licensed).

Which is both ironic and unfortunate, when you think about it.

One of the specific things they don’t teach in dental hygiene school is the anatomy of resume design (nor would you expect it). So here’s 10 things that make up a great resume design:

One Page
Most employers don’t read through entire resumes. They would tell you the real value is in meeting with a candidate, hearing what others say about them, or seeing them in action.

Furthermore, everyone knows the length of one’s resume does not equate to the quality of a candidate – not even how long they’ve been a hygienist. I’ve seen two-pagers from hygienists with no experience and one-pagers from those with 30+ years.

Keep it simple and less intimidating – give employers at least a chance to get through it all. There are exceptions, but usually for those that have decades of experience in non-clinical settings.

Overall Chemistry
Create elements (graphics, columns, color, bullets, font treatments, sections, white space) that compliment one another, grab attention, are consistent and allow an employer to easily navigate the resume and find the key things they are searching for.

Bullets
Bullets play an important role in resumes, allowing you to present large blocks of information in short succinct lines. A person can quickly read a line, skip another, or pick up where they left off. Plus, the bullet itself is a graphic of sorts, almost like an arrow that indicates a starting point.

Columns of Text
Instead of creating long single columns of text for bullet points, you can often create a more read-able feel by putting sections of text into columns. I find that this can sometimes save you space and create a more balanced, interesting look.

Graphics
Think of graphics as a visual tour guide to your resume, accentuating key sections and places of emphasis. But also as a way to show creativity and flare, while at the same time drawing in attention. People are attracted to visuals and can absorb them hundreds of times faster than actual text.

I advise my clients to add a professional picture of themselves (sorry, selfies don’t work as well) to help strengthen the visual affect and help create a visual connection with your employer before you even meet them.

Color
Similar to graphics (and often as part of the graphics) add some color highlights to your resume. I’m not talking lots of colors – in fact, no more than one (maybe two). And choose a color that has a look of professionalism and strength, and that maybe compliments your personal brand (ie your personality).

Increased Font Sizes
The most important text on your resume is your name. It needs to stand out in a large and/or bold font that is clear and readable – something strong. How big? I would say in the 24-36 point size range – depending on spacing you have available.

The only other place I would suggest using a larger font is your section headers. For those I would keep them in the 14-18 point range (or roughly half the size of your name).

Bold
Use bold sparingly, but do use it. I typically bold text that is either sub-header in nature or that needs specific emphasis. Often that means bold for the names of the offices you worked for or maybe the schools you graduated from.

White Space
Add some white space to your resume. Don’t settle for the sometimes-stuffy single spacing between lines of text. Open things up where possible to (from 1.15 to 1.5). This gives you a more clean look and feel, that looks sharp and is less intimidating to read.

Thicker Paper
Finally, invest in a nice stock of paper that has a weight somewhere between standard copy paper and card stock. This, too, adds a touch of professionalism conveys an air of strength. Avoid stocks with lots of texture as they tend to no re-produce photos and other graphics very well.

And one final note, never send your resume in Microsoft Word format. Create a PDF file of your resume and send that. The problem with sending a Word document is that it can look all messed up if the receiver doesn’t have the same fonts installed on their computer as you do.

A PDF file, on the other hand, is simply a snap-shot of your resume and fonts don’t matter – what you see is what you get when you create a PDF file.

4 Simple Strategies to Design Your Dental Hygiene Resume Like a Rockstar!

September 27, 2013 By Doug Perry, Dental Hygiene Resume Coach

Question: If a picture is worth a thousand words – and it is – what’s it worth on a resume?
Answer: A lot more!

But this discussion doesn’t end with you inserting a picture of you on your resume. We also touch on color, graphics, and, ironically, the absence of everything.

These four simple elements are easy to include in your resume, yet 75% of resumes don’t have them, giving you a great opportunity to stand out and look sharp.

Color
There’s a whole psychology to choosing colors that say something. We won’t get into that, but here’s a resource on that you may want to review because it is worth considering. Author Margaret Feinberg gives you some really fast and simple definitions for what colors communicate. Click here to review those.

What should you color? Well, how about this rule of thumb: don’t color everything. Besides looking like you ran out of black ink (which looks tacky), it loses its effect and can be (depending on the color) borderline annoying to the eyes.

We recommend using color in one, two or some of the following elements:

Picture of you
Lines, boxes and other “graphics”
Headlines

Avoid color in the main body of text – bullets (the actual element) is optional.

Picture of You
For a long time, putting a photo in a resume was taboo – partly because of tradition (just wasn’t easy to do in the past) and later born out of fears that resume-scanning machines would get confused and reject them.

Neither of those hold up today or apply to the dental hygiene field. Business has completely embraced the digital age and it’s human nature to want to know what people look like before you meet them.

Here’s our recommendation, if you don’t feel comfortable including a photo of yourself, then don’t include it. If you are okay with it, then do it. Who will have the advantage? Probably the latter because it’s one more way to stand out. This is changing, but most people still won’t include one – and that gives you a leg up if you do.

Consider this, studies show that most employers will search you out on the Internet anyway. They’ll look for you on Facebook and other social platforms to see who you are beyond the resume – and chances are they’ll find you. Wouldn’t you rather include a picture of your choosing than some of the ones you may not like as much that might be floating around?

LinkedIn, considered the social media platform for the business world, and basically an extension of your resume, gives everyone a chance to include a profile picture of themselves. Those profiles that include one always standout, look more professional, more complete, more trusted than those that don’t. We’ll be talking more about your online presence in October.

Other Graphics
Lines, boxes, interesting icons, even bullets are considered accents to your resume and they aren’t pointless window dressing – they give your eyes a rest. Reading is work. It requires intense levels of concentration and thinking so a reader can understand what’s being communicated.

Graphics are like seeing a bench after hiking through a mall all day. When placed strategically, they give your reader’s eyes a quick break to rejuvinate. And after reading 15-25 resumes a person’s eyes not only enjoy seeing these little benches, they long for them.

What this all means, of course, is the more visually-pleasing breaks you can offer, the more time they will spend with your resume and more favorable they will be toward it. It’s that simple.

I think it’s also nice for the person screening you, to give them room to make notes right on your page.

Your Turn: If you like these tips, share the love – make a comment and pass them along to a friend. Good things come your way when you share. Also, follow us on Facebook, Pinterest or even LinkedIn, where you can get additional postings of things interesting to hygienists.

Dental Hygienist Resume that Gets You Noticed

[Resume Service]

Four Big Cautions in Designing a Dental Hygiene Resume

Give Your RDH Resume a Design that Grabs Eyeballs

4 Simple Strategies to Design Your Dental Hygiene Resume Like a Rockstar!

Creating a Transitional Resume for a Dental Hygienist

Contact GetHiredRDH Now

Positive Resume Action Words

Passive vs. Active Writing

Positive Personality Adjectives

[Resume Service]

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