4 Ways to Make Your Resume Shine
In today’s competitive job market, your resume is an opportunity to put your best foot forward before meeting the employer. Make your resume stand out amongst hundreds of applicants to lead a great first impression, summarizing why you are the best choice for the position by taking the time to customize your resume with relevant keywords for each role, prior to applying. You’ll not only improve your interview responses but will increase your chances of landing a job.
Use a professional, eye-capturing, and most importantly ATS compatible format.
Remember, when hiring managers are reviewing hundreds of resumes, they want to be able to easily locate your information and relevant work experience as it pertains to the position. Ensure your resume is in an easy-to-follow format, no more than 2 pages long, and highlights relevant skills and experience.
Now as far as verbiage and appearance, cluttering the resume or being too fancy with the fonts can also have a negative effect on the acceptance rate in the job market. Since resumes are being filtered through keyword-integrated software (ATS), it needs to be able to properly read and transcribe the information in your resume in comparison with the job you are applying for to increase the overall scoring of the resume. Some recommended fonts for your resume include Times New Roman, Arial, Calibri, and Cambria. You can also enlarge the font size or bolded style to create headers and section breaks.
Highlight and specify your accomplishments.
Don’t just tell the hiring manager that you “Increased productivity”, but that you “Increased productivity by 27% over 6 months resulting in a $100K increase in revenue.” Paint a picture of what you can positively contribute to their organization. Point out how you had an active hand in improving processes, impacting revenue, or increasing scored metrics to give some context to your accomplishments using the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result).
Tailor your resume to the job you’re applying for.
A resume is not a one-size-fits-all document anymore. Each resume that you send out should be tailored to the specific role you’re applying for to increase ATS compatibility. Include keywords from the job description and highlight the hard and soft skills that are required for the role. Check out the company’s website and mirror their language style and tone to align yourself with their brand.
Not every experience you’ve collected along the way needs to be mentioned on the resume. If it isn’t relevant to the job you’re applying for, either reduce it or eliminate it. The hiring managers reviewing your resume for a senior management position are not necessarily concerned that you were a Cashier or Customer Service Associate 16 years ago. They want to see what you’ve done recently and your relevant experience.
Proofread, proofread, proofread.
We’ve all heard horror stories of applicants applying to dozens of jobs, only to realize that they’ve been sending out a resume with glaring errors on it. So much for attention to detail. Allow yourself time to review and edit your resume prior to submitting the application. Additionally, there are tons of available online resources to check your documents to detect grammatical errors such as Microsoft ABC check and Grammarly. It’s also encouraged to invite friends or family to review your resume for initial impressions before sending it out.
Crafting a resume that stands out can seem like a shot in the dark, but with some proactive planning and resume writing help from your friends at Creative Resumes, you’ll soon be sending out your best resume ever. Reach out to schedule a complementary evaluation of your resume.
