These Resume Tips Will Take Two Minutes Tops
Maybe you’ve finished writing your resume, maybe you’re just
starting.
It’s easy to overlook things when you’re worried about finding a job. The best tips help you remember the smallest details of resume writing.
1. Create a professional email address
.
Out
of all of the resume tips listed, this may seem too obvious.
But
it’s worth mentioning because the use of an unprofessional email address will get you rejected 76% of the time.
So,
if you haven’t already done so, ditch that email address you’ve been using
since high school. Choose a professional email provider like gmail or outlook.
Use your name.
Right: John.smith@gmail.com
Wrong: Johnlikesgrapes@hotmail.com
2. Update your contact information.
After you change your email address, make sure
the rest of your contact information is up to date.
- You
don’t want to miss an interview because you put the wrong phone number on
your resume.
Also, exclude information like your birth date or marital
status. You
do not have to respond to questions about religion, race, or gender on an
application. Us employers cannot take these aspects into consideration when
accessing you.
If
you’re applying for a job out of state or country, also consider omitting your
current address. That way a hiring manager won’t think you’re confused about
the location of the job.
3. Set your font size to 10-12 points.
- While
choosing a font is important, making sure that it is the right size is
paramount
Keep
your font size between 10-12 points so that a hiring manager
can easily read it without squinting.
4. Use reverse-chronological order.
- For
your education section, put your highest degree first. or
your experience section, put your current job first.
5. Align your content to the left to make it
skimmable.
- The
first thing a hiring manager is going to do is skim your resume for
relevant keywords from the job description.
6. Make strategic use of bold, caps, and
italics.
Be consistent with your choices. If you’ve
made one of your subheadings bold - make them all bold. Try not to overuse
anything. The point is to make important information easier to
find.
7. Choose an attractive and readable font.
You may think fonts are trivial in the larger
scheme of things, but the right font is going to do a lot for your
resume.
- Right Stick
to fonts that sound like the names of hipster children
:Verdana
Arial
o
Helvetica
o
WrongIf you choose a font that is hard to read or childish, a hiring
manager might toss your resume in the trash.
o
Comic sans
o
Papyrus
o
Curlz mt
8. Only add jobs you’ve had in the past 10-15
years.
- You do not need to list every job you’ve ever had on
your resume. Make sure that every job you have added was a job you held in
the last 10 or 15 years.
9. Give your sections simple subheadings.
- Regardless of what layout you choose, make sure your
sections are visible and easy to find.
You can do that by givingthemsimplesubheadings.
For
example
Right
Resume summary
Experience
o
Education
o
Skills
o
you’ll want to write simple subheadings for all sections. That
way applicant tracking system (ats) software can find them.
Wrong
o
About me
o
Accreditations
o
Professional background and work history
Pro tip: deciding what skills to put on your resume is
one of the biggest tasks that lie ahead of new resume writers. Make sure that
they are easy to find and easy to skim as well.
- 10. Include urls to social media profiles, personal
websites, and your blog.
- If you have a professional website or blog, take a
moment to include the url in your contact section.
Add
any relevant social media handles as well. For most professionals, that will
include your linkedin url and your twitter handle.
Creative
professionals could also consider adding relevant links to instagram, youtube,
or pinterest profiles.
Take
an extra couple of minutes to make sure that your urls are live and to
hyperlink them in the text so they are accessible
.
11. Choose a resume format that works for
you.
- What are the best formats for a resume? Well, that
depends
There are three types of resume formats
:
o
Reverse-chronological
o
Combination
o
Functional or skills-based
Deciding what
resume format to choose will be one of the first things you
do
.
Best Most of you will opt for the reverse-chronological
format.
It’s the most common and you can play with the layout.
Worst
In
almost every situation, the functional resume format is not a good
choice because it kills your experience section. And even if you don’t have experience,
that’s not the best way to handle it.
Pro tip: consider a format that gets your strongest information
closest to the top of your resume where hiring managers will be sure to see it
right away.
12.
Consider using a professionally designed template.
- Templates can save you a lot of time and effort.
Imagine not having to fool around with margins in word. Pick one out, and
you’re ready to go.
13. Consider putting your education section
first.
- Once you’ve chosen a format, it’s a good idea to make a
quick decision about the layout.
- How do you build a strong resume?
- After
your contact information, start your resume with either a resume
summary or a resume objective. More on that later.
But
what should come next? Your education or your experience section?
If
you’re a professional with tons of experience, your experience should
come first.
But
let’s say you’re a student and your educational background is
your strongest selling point. In that case, consider
putting your education section first.
14. Lose the phrase “references available upon
request.”
- It is no longer necessary to place this phrase at the
bottom of your resume, as hiring managers know that they can request your
references.
Adding
it only takes up valuable space that you could use for something else.
Only have five minutes? Here are the best resume tips
15. Read the job description and then read it
again.
Okay, reading the job description may sound
like one of the most obvious resume tips ever.
Of course, you’ve read the job description.
Right?
In fact, most people spend an average of 76 seconds reading a job
description. And that’s why hiring managers find that 50% of applicants are
unqualified for the job.
You’ve got to make sure you have the skills
necessary for the job in the first place.
Right:
Read the job description. Make sure you’re
qualified. Read it again. Mine it for keywords. Put it through a cloud
generator. Take it on a date. Buy it tiffany’s. Get married to it.
Because that job description is your best
friend when it comes to building a great resume.
Wrong:
Seeing a job title that sounds right, sending
your resume immediately.
Reading a job description is as close as
you’re going to get to reading the recruiter’s mind.
Pro tip: if you want to save time and find out
how to write a resume for your profession, take
a look at our guides and resume examples.
16. Make sure you’ve created margins.
Margins are important. That’s because resumes
with text crammed edge to edge look messy and unprofessional.
Do you know where messy resumes go? You know.
If you do need a little more space, it’s okay
to drop your bottom and top margins to 0.5” and your side margins to 0.75”.
Anymore and you’re resume will suffer
17. Balance your text and white space.
Balancing your text and white space is the
same thing as adding margins. It makes your resume aesthetically pleasing and
easy to read.
Do not sacrifice white space in the name of
fitting everything onto one page. There are other ways.
18. Consider adding a coursework
description.
This is one of the best resume tips for
students. If you’re learning how
to make a student resume, adding a coursework description is a
good start.
Your education is still your strongest asset.
Listing or describing courses can show recruiters that you have skills related
to the job.
Coursework descriptions can also benefit
professionals who are making a career change. It shows that you’ve got relevant
knowledge that goes beyond your past work experience.
19. Name your files properly.
It is important to name your files
properly.
Right: John_smith_resume
Wrong: Resume
Your resume could end up in an inbox with
hundreds of other resumes.
And if they’re all named “resume,” then
the chance of your resume standing out is slim tonone.
20. Match your cover letter to your
resume.
The two best cover letter tips are:
Write a cover letter.
Match the content of your cover letter
to your resume.
Yes, you still need to write cover letters. And
yes, they need to match your resume so that you’re telling the hiring manager
one cohesive story.
If there was something you feel needs an
explanation, write about it in your cover letter.
21. Draw attention to your promotions.
Make sure you’ve mentioned any promotions
you’ve received.
You don’t have to list the name of the company
more than once in the case of internal promotions.
Write the name of the company once. Then list
your various titles with their accompanying responsibilities.
Example:
Company abc
Marketing manager
Responsibilities.
Marketing assistant
·
Responsibilities.
22. Cut the fluff in your experience
section.
Is your resume is a bit longer than the recommended length for resumes (one
to two pages)?
Then an easy way to cut fluff is to start by
deleting bullet points in your experience section. Limit yourself to around six
bullet points.
Right
List responsibilities that demonstrate the
skills and experience you’ll need for your new job. Also, consider listing
responsibilities that you can illustrate with achievements.
Wrong
Don’t list every responsibility you had at
previous jobs.
23. Write explanations for large gaps in your
career history.
Address significant gaps in your career
history by writing brief explanations next to the jobs where the gaps
occur.
Gaps can happen for all sorts of reasons.
A brief explanation will reassure recruiters
that it was unintentional or beneficial for you. As in the case of a layoff or
a break to have a child or go back to school.
24. Insert action verbs wherever
possible.
Take a quick glance at your resume.
How many times have you used the phrase “responsible
for?”
A million? It’s not uncommon.
The good news is that it only takes five
minutes to replace that sad phrase with action-packed verbs.
Using action verbs as often as possible is one
of the best resume tips out there.
Remember, not all verbs are action verbs. Try
to avoid weak verbs like “managed” or “communicated.”
Here are some alternatives:
Wrong: managed
Right: orchestrated
Wrong: communicated
Right: persuaded
25. Get rid of nonsensical jargon.
The person interviewing you may not be
familiar with the technical jargon that goes with your territory. Especially
if you are in a jargon-heavy industry such as engineering, law, or medicine
Try to use layman’s terms or simplified
equivalents wherever possible
Wrong: dramatically cloudify viral
innovation.
Right: create digital backups for popular campaigns.
26. Run your job description and resume
through a cloud generator.
Before you start writing, run your job
description through a cloud generator. Which words are the most
prominent?
You can use the words that appear as a content
guide while writing your resume.
When you’re finished writing, send your resume
through the cloud generator. Do the same words appear?
A cloud generator is a quick way to check that
you’ve tailored your resume to meet the needs of the hiring manager.
27. Consider saving a copy of your resume as a
pdf.
Saving your resume as a pdf is one of those
resume tips that might not work for everyone.
Pros
The benefit of saving
your resume as a pdf is that the formatting will not change
when it’s opened.
Cons
The downside is that if a company is using
ats, a pdf might not be the best format for your resume.
Pro tip: it’s often best to save your resume in a
couple of file formats so you can send whatever is more suitable. It’s up to
you to decide.
These resume tips take 30 minutes, but they’re so worth it
28. Tailor your resume to the job
description.
Tailoring your resume is probably the
king of resume tips. If you do nothing else, tailor
your resume to the job description.
You do that by identifying keyword skills in
the offer and then add these skills throughout your resume. It sounds like a
lot of work, but these keywords are what you should put on your resumeabove
all else.
That’s because keywords are what hiring
managers are looking for when they scan your resume.
29. Add achievements to your experience
section.
If tailoring your resume to the job
description is the king, adding achievements is the queen of resume tips.
Illustrating a skill or responsibility with an
achievement puts you five steps ahead of candidates with the same skill
set.
That’s because you’re showing what it looks
like when you put your skills to work.
Right: To generate user engagement, i performed multiple a/b
tests,
resulting in a 20% decrease in bounce rates and a 15% increase in sales
conversions.
Wrong: I won an employee of the year award.
30. Add numbers and details where possible.
Adding numbers and details to emphasize skills
is by far one of the best resume tips you can follow. Anytime you can
illustrate an achievement or skill with numbers or details - do it.
Right: Increased sales by 12% over
a 5 month period.
Wrong: Responsible for sales.
Numbers draw the eye of the recruiter and
details give them a tangible sense of what it looks like when you use a
skill.
Maybe you increased sales, efficiency, or user
engagement. Maybe you slashed costs. Whatever it is that you’ve achieved try to
make it quantifiable
.
31. Make good use of the top third of your
resume.
Think of the top third of your resume and “the
penthouse.” It’s here that you want your best skills, experience, and
achievements to appear.
Try to put the best stuff at the top.
Why?
Because when a recruiter scans your resume,
they will focus on the top third of thedocument.
If they don’t find what they’re looking for in
a few seconds of scanning, they will reject your resume as irrelevant.
32. Include a resume summary or objective.
So, how do you get your best information in
the top third of your resume?
Include a resume summary or a resume
objective.
It’s three sentences of who you are, where
you’re going, and why you’ll bring value to the company.
When considering how
to write a resume summary or how
to write a resume objective, keep in mind that the old school
way is dead.
Wrong - what you want Dedicated sales
manager seeking fulfilling work in children’s retail sector.
Right - what they want
Dedicated sales
manager with 5+ years of experience in the retail industry. Wishing to decrease
returns for peapod babywear by 15%
33. Use a proofreading tool like
grammarly.
You cannot afford to have typos or grammar
errors in your resume. The majority (61%) of recruiters will throw out a resume immediately
if they see typos.
Microsoft word or google docs will do a good
job of detecting spelling errors, but the grammarly app or
language tool will catch grammar mistakes and typos.
You need to proofread your resume before
sending your resume, and an app will help you catch things you can’t see.
34. Have a human proofread your resume.
Apps are great for catching mistakes, but
another human being is priceless.
Grab whoever you can find with the patience to
read through your resume.
They can also give you feedback about your
tone and how you’re selling yourself.
35. Write a thank-you email.
Knowing how to write a thank you email after an interview is
priceless.
It’s not always enough to write a great resume
and ace an interview. The show isn’t over until you’ve also written a
thoughtful thank-you email.
36. Clean up your online presence.
When you’re just learning how
to create a resume, you may forget that hiring managers also
search for you online.
Be sure to optimize your linkedin profile so
that it resonates with your resume.
Make sure that you’ve cleaned up “public”
information on your facebook and twitter accounts. Change your facebook privacy
settings to “friends” to keep future posts from becoming public.
And do a quick sweep to make sure nothing else
unsavory is lurking out there on the internet. Enter your name into google and
see what turns up in the results.
You can ask google to remove sensitive or sexual content from
the web.
37. Create a professional persona for
yourself.
A professional persona is a two or three-word
description of yourself that should stick in the head of the recruiter when
your name doesn’t.
It’s like when you try to describe someone
from last night’s party.
Remember the girl who graduated from harvard
and talked about goat cheese for an hour?
It’s like that except less goat cheese.
38. Reinforce your professional titles by
showing career progression.
Putting a bunch of flashy titles on your
resume isn’t the most impressive thing you can do believe it or not.
What is impressive is the telling the
story of your career progression.
See, you can be a social media manager for
your cousin’s pizza place without any prior experience.
But when you can show that you progressed to
that position through hard work, that’s impressive.
The trick is trying to make each past role
reinforce your place in the next one.
Marketing manager
Manage a team of 10+ employees.
·
Prepare annual marketing plans.
Marketing specialist
·
Planned and implemented promotional campaigns.
·
Cooperated with interactive agencies.
·
Marketing intern
·
Conducted market research.
·
Assisted during promotional campaigns.
39. Consider adding a hobbies and interest
section to your resume.
If you have space, hobbies and interests can be great additions to your
resume.
That’s because companies are beginning
to emphasize work culture. Which makes finding a candidate with a
fitting personality increasingly important.
Just be sure to research your company.
Choosing hobbies and interests that match the company’s culture is a good
strategy.
Right:
Work culture: corporation
participates in charity marathons.
Hobbies and interests: volunteer work
and athletics
Wrong:
Religious,political,orsexualhobbies.
If the person reading your resume has an
opposite opinion, it could hurt your chances of getting an interview.
40. Trim any unnecessary fat from your
resume.
Having problems keeping the length of your
resume in check?
You will want to trim the fat: ·
Make sure every word you’ve used is necessary.
·
Keep your bullet points to six at most. ·
Trim your resume summary or your skills section without killing
the value. ·
And kill any extra sections that aren’t mandatory
. 41. Try to find the personal email address of
the hiring manager.
You can always attach your resume to a generic
email and send it to a generic inbox.
Or you can attach your resume to a
personalized email and send it to your hiring manager.
Some hiring managers may not appreciate
receiving unsolicited resumes
At the same time, if you know how
to send an email to a hiring manager you know that you
aren’t sending it unannounced.
Right:
You establish contact via a referral or
linkedin before sending your resume.
Wrong:
Sending a cold-call email to an unknown hiring
manager.
42. Track your resume.
Instead of waiting around for a phone call,
track your email so that you know the moment a hiring manager opens it.
You can use a free tool like mixmax to
see if a hiring manager has read your resume. That give you a better idea of
when to send follow-up or thank you emails.
Key takeaway
It can be easy to forget small details when
you’re trying to figure out how to write a great resume. But if you follow
these resume tips and tricks you can rest assured that you’re on the right
track
1. Create a professional email address
.
Out
of all of the resume tips listed, this may seem too obvious.
But
it’s worth mentioning because the use of an unprofessional email address will get you rejected 76% of the time.
So,
if you haven’t already done so, ditch that email address you’ve been using
since high school. Choose a professional email provider like gmail or outlook.
Use your name.
Right: John.smith@gmail.com
Wrong: Johnlikesgrapes@hotmail.com
2. Update your contact information.
After you change your email address, make sure
the rest of your contact information is up to date.
- You
don’t want to miss an interview because you put the wrong phone number on
your resume.
Also, exclude information like your birth date or marital
status. You
do not have to respond to questions about religion, race, or gender on an
application. Us employers cannot take these aspects into consideration when
accessing you.
If
you’re applying for a job out of state or country, also consider omitting your
current address. That way a hiring manager won’t think you’re confused about
the location of the job.
3. Set your font size to 10-12 points.
- While
choosing a font is important, making sure that it is the right size is
paramount
Keep
your font size between 10-12 points so that a hiring manager
can easily read it without squinting.
4. Use reverse-chronological order.
- For your education section, put your highest degree first. or your experience section, put your current job first.
5. Align your content to the left to make it
skimmable.
- The first thing a hiring manager is going to do is skim your resume for relevant keywords from the job description.
6. Make strategic use of bold, caps, and
italics.
Be consistent with your choices. If you’ve
made one of your subheadings bold - make them all bold. Try not to overuse
anything. The point is to make important information easier to
find.
7. Choose an attractive and readable font.
You may think fonts are trivial in the larger
scheme of things, but the right font is going to do a lot for your
resume.
- Right Stick
to fonts that sound like the names of hipster children
:Verdana
Arial
o
Helvetica
o
WrongIf you choose a font that is hard to read or childish, a hiring
manager might toss your resume in the trash.
o
Comic sans
o
Papyrus
o
Curlz mt
8. Only add jobs you’ve had in the past 10-15
years.
- You do not need to list every job you’ve ever had on your resume. Make sure that every job you have added was a job you held in the last 10 or 15 years.
9. Give your sections simple subheadings.
- Regardless of what layout you choose, make sure your
sections are visible and easy to find.
You can do that by givingthemsimplesubheadings.
For
example
Right
Resume summary
Experience
o
Education
o
Skills
o
you’ll want to write simple subheadings for all sections. That
way applicant tracking system (ats) software can find them.
Wrong
o
About me
o
Accreditations
o
Professional background and work history
Pro tip: deciding what skills to put on your resume is
one of the biggest tasks that lie ahead of new resume writers. Make sure that
they are easy to find and easy to skim as well.
- 10. Include urls to social media profiles, personal websites, and your blog.
- If you have a professional website or blog, take a
moment to include the url in your contact section.
Add
any relevant social media handles as well. For most professionals, that will
include your linkedin url and your twitter handle.
Creative
professionals could also consider adding relevant links to instagram, youtube,
or pinterest profiles.
Take
an extra couple of minutes to make sure that your urls are live and to
hyperlink them in the text so they are accessible
.
11. Choose a resume format that works for
you.
- What are the best formats for a resume? Well, that depends
There are three types of resume formats
:
o
Reverse-chronological
o
Combination
o
Functional or skills-based
Deciding what
resume format to choose will be one of the first things you
do
.
Best Most of you will opt for the reverse-chronological
format.
It’s the most common and you can play with the layout.
Worst
In
almost every situation, the functional resume format is not a good
choice because it kills your experience section. And even if you don’t have experience,
that’s not the best way to handle it.
Pro tip: consider a format that gets your strongest information
closest to the top of your resume where hiring managers will be sure to see it
right away.
12.
Consider using a professionally designed template.
- Templates can save you a lot of time and effort. Imagine not having to fool around with margins in word. Pick one out, and you’re ready to go.
13. Consider putting your education section
first.
- Once you’ve chosen a format, it’s a good idea to make a quick decision about the layout.
- How do you build a strong resume?
- After your contact information, start your resume with either a resume summary or a resume objective. More on that later.
But
what should come next? Your education or your experience section?
If
you’re a professional with tons of experience, your experience should
come first.
But
let’s say you’re a student and your educational background is
your strongest selling point. In that case, consider
putting your education section first.
14. Lose the phrase “references available upon
request.”
- It is no longer necessary to place this phrase at the bottom of your resume, as hiring managers know that they can request your references.
Adding
it only takes up valuable space that you could use for something else.
Only have five minutes? Here are the best resume tips
15. Read the job description and then read it
again.
Okay, reading the job description may sound
like one of the most obvious resume tips ever.
Of course, you’ve read the job description.
Right?
In fact, most people spend an average of 76 seconds reading a job
description. And that’s why hiring managers find that 50% of applicants are
unqualified for the job.
You’ve got to make sure you have the skills
necessary for the job in the first place.
Right:
Read the job description. Make sure you’re
qualified. Read it again. Mine it for keywords. Put it through a cloud
generator. Take it on a date. Buy it tiffany’s. Get married to it.
Because that job description is your best
friend when it comes to building a great resume.
Wrong:
Seeing a job title that sounds right, sending
your resume immediately.
Reading a job description is as close as
you’re going to get to reading the recruiter’s mind.
Pro tip: if you want to save time and find out
how to write a resume for your profession, take
a look at our guides and resume examples.
16. Make sure you’ve created margins.
Margins are important. That’s because resumes
with text crammed edge to edge look messy and unprofessional.
Do you know where messy resumes go? You know.
If you do need a little more space, it’s okay
to drop your bottom and top margins to 0.5” and your side margins to 0.75”.
Anymore and you’re resume will suffer
17. Balance your text and white space.
Balancing your text and white space is the
same thing as adding margins. It makes your resume aesthetically pleasing and
easy to read.
Do not sacrifice white space in the name of
fitting everything onto one page. There are other ways.
18. Consider adding a coursework
description.
This is one of the best resume tips for
students. If you’re learning how
to make a student resume, adding a coursework description is a
good start.
Your education is still your strongest asset.
Listing or describing courses can show recruiters that you have skills related
to the job.
Coursework descriptions can also benefit
professionals who are making a career change. It shows that you’ve got relevant
knowledge that goes beyond your past work experience.
19. Name your files properly.
It is important to name your files
properly.
Right: John_smith_resume
Wrong: Resume
Your resume could end up in an inbox with
hundreds of other resumes.
And if they’re all named “resume,” then
the chance of your resume standing out is slim tonone.
20. Match your cover letter to your
resume.
The two best cover letter tips are:
Write a cover letter.
Match the content of your cover letter
to your resume.
Yes, you still need to write cover letters. And
yes, they need to match your resume so that you’re telling the hiring manager
one cohesive story.
If there was something you feel needs an
explanation, write about it in your cover letter.
21. Draw attention to your promotions.
Make sure you’ve mentioned any promotions
you’ve received.
You don’t have to list the name of the company
more than once in the case of internal promotions.
Write the name of the company once. Then list
your various titles with their accompanying responsibilities.
Example:
Company abc
Marketing manager
Responsibilities.
Marketing assistant
·
Responsibilities.
22. Cut the fluff in your experience
section.
Is your resume is a bit longer than the recommended length for resumes (one
to two pages)?
Then an easy way to cut fluff is to start by
deleting bullet points in your experience section. Limit yourself to around six
bullet points.
Right
List responsibilities that demonstrate the
skills and experience you’ll need for your new job. Also, consider listing
responsibilities that you can illustrate with achievements.
Wrong
Don’t list every responsibility you had at
previous jobs.
23. Write explanations for large gaps in your
career history.
Address significant gaps in your career
history by writing brief explanations next to the jobs where the gaps
occur.
Gaps can happen for all sorts of reasons.
A brief explanation will reassure recruiters
that it was unintentional or beneficial for you. As in the case of a layoff or
a break to have a child or go back to school.
24. Insert action verbs wherever
possible.
Take a quick glance at your resume.
How many times have you used the phrase “responsible
for?”
A million? It’s not uncommon.
The good news is that it only takes five
minutes to replace that sad phrase with action-packed verbs.
Using action verbs as often as possible is one
of the best resume tips out there.
Remember, not all verbs are action verbs. Try
to avoid weak verbs like “managed” or “communicated.”
Here are some alternatives:
Wrong: managed
Right: orchestrated
Wrong: communicated
Right: persuaded
25. Get rid of nonsensical jargon.
The person interviewing you may not be
familiar with the technical jargon that goes with your territory. Especially
if you are in a jargon-heavy industry such as engineering, law, or medicine
Try to use layman’s terms or simplified
equivalents wherever possible
Wrong: dramatically cloudify viral
innovation.
Right: create digital backups for popular campaigns.
26. Run your job description and resume
through a cloud generator.
Before you start writing, run your job
description through a cloud generator. Which words are the most
prominent?
You can use the words that appear as a content
guide while writing your resume.
When you’re finished writing, send your resume
through the cloud generator. Do the same words appear?
A cloud generator is a quick way to check that
you’ve tailored your resume to meet the needs of the hiring manager.
27. Consider saving a copy of your resume as a
pdf.
Saving your resume as a pdf is one of those
resume tips that might not work for everyone.
Pros
The benefit of saving
your resume as a pdf is that the formatting will not change
when it’s opened.
Cons
The downside is that if a company is using
ats, a pdf might not be the best format for your resume.
Pro tip: it’s often best to save your resume in a
couple of file formats so you can send whatever is more suitable. It’s up to
you to decide.
These resume tips take 30 minutes, but they’re so worth it
28. Tailor your resume to the job
description.
Tailoring your resume is probably the
king of resume tips. If you do nothing else, tailor
your resume to the job description.
You do that by identifying keyword skills in
the offer and then add these skills throughout your resume. It sounds like a
lot of work, but these keywords are what you should put on your resumeabove
all else.
That’s because keywords are what hiring
managers are looking for when they scan your resume.
29. Add achievements to your experience
section.
If tailoring your resume to the job
description is the king, adding achievements is the queen of resume tips.
Illustrating a skill or responsibility with an
achievement puts you five steps ahead of candidates with the same skill
set.
That’s because you’re showing what it looks
like when you put your skills to work.
Right: To generate user engagement, i performed multiple a/b
tests,
resulting in a 20% decrease in bounce rates and a 15% increase in sales
conversions.
Wrong: I won an employee of the year award.
30. Add numbers and details where possible.
Adding numbers and details to emphasize skills
is by far one of the best resume tips you can follow. Anytime you can
illustrate an achievement or skill with numbers or details - do it.
Right: Increased sales by 12% over
a 5 month period.
Wrong: Responsible for sales.
Numbers draw the eye of the recruiter and
details give them a tangible sense of what it looks like when you use a
skill.
Maybe you increased sales, efficiency, or user
engagement. Maybe you slashed costs. Whatever it is that you’ve achieved try to
make it quantifiable
.
31. Make good use of the top third of your
resume.
Think of the top third of your resume and “the
penthouse.” It’s here that you want your best skills, experience, and
achievements to appear.
Try to put the best stuff at the top.
Why?
Because when a recruiter scans your resume,
they will focus on the top third of thedocument.
If they don’t find what they’re looking for in
a few seconds of scanning, they will reject your resume as irrelevant.
32. Include a resume summary or objective.
So, how do you get your best information in
the top third of your resume?
Include a resume summary or a resume
objective.
It’s three sentences of who you are, where
you’re going, and why you’ll bring value to the company.
When considering how
to write a resume summary or how
to write a resume objective, keep in mind that the old school
way is dead.
Wrong - what you want Dedicated sales
manager seeking fulfilling work in children’s retail sector.
Right - what they want
Dedicated sales
manager with 5+ years of experience in the retail industry. Wishing to decrease
returns for peapod babywear by 15%
33. Use a proofreading tool like
grammarly.
You cannot afford to have typos or grammar
errors in your resume. The majority (61%) of recruiters will throw out a resume immediately
if they see typos.
Microsoft word or google docs will do a good
job of detecting spelling errors, but the grammarly app or
language tool will catch grammar mistakes and typos.
You need to proofread your resume before
sending your resume, and an app will help you catch things you can’t see.
34. Have a human proofread your resume.
Apps are great for catching mistakes, but
another human being is priceless.
Grab whoever you can find with the patience to
read through your resume.
They can also give you feedback about your
tone and how you’re selling yourself.
35. Write a thank-you email.
Knowing how to write a thank you email after an interview is
priceless.
It’s not always enough to write a great resume
and ace an interview. The show isn’t over until you’ve also written a
thoughtful thank-you email.
36. Clean up your online presence.
When you’re just learning how
to create a resume, you may forget that hiring managers also
search for you online.
Be sure to optimize your linkedin profile so
that it resonates with your resume.
Make sure that you’ve cleaned up “public”
information on your facebook and twitter accounts. Change your facebook privacy
settings to “friends” to keep future posts from becoming public.
And do a quick sweep to make sure nothing else
unsavory is lurking out there on the internet. Enter your name into google and
see what turns up in the results.
You can ask google to remove sensitive or sexual content from
the web.
37. Create a professional persona for
yourself.
A professional persona is a two or three-word
description of yourself that should stick in the head of the recruiter when
your name doesn’t.
It’s like when you try to describe someone
from last night’s party.
Remember the girl who graduated from harvard
and talked about goat cheese for an hour?
It’s like that except less goat cheese.
38. Reinforce your professional titles by
showing career progression.
Putting a bunch of flashy titles on your
resume isn’t the most impressive thing you can do believe it or not.
What is impressive is the telling the
story of your career progression.
See, you can be a social media manager for
your cousin’s pizza place without any prior experience.
But when you can show that you progressed to
that position through hard work, that’s impressive.
The trick is trying to make each past role
reinforce your place in the next one.
Marketing manager
Manage a team of 10+ employees.
·
Prepare annual marketing plans.
Marketing specialist
·
Planned and implemented promotional campaigns.
·
Cooperated with interactive agencies.
·
Marketing intern
·
Conducted market research.
·
Assisted during promotional campaigns.
39. Consider adding a hobbies and interest
section to your resume.
If you have space, hobbies and interests can be great additions to your
resume.
That’s because companies are beginning
to emphasize work culture. Which makes finding a candidate with a
fitting personality increasingly important.
Just be sure to research your company.
Choosing hobbies and interests that match the company’s culture is a good
strategy.
Right:
Work culture: corporation
participates in charity marathons.
Hobbies and interests: volunteer work
and athletics
Wrong:
Religious,political,orsexualhobbies.
If the person reading your resume has an
opposite opinion, it could hurt your chances of getting an interview.
40. Trim any unnecessary fat from your
resume.
Having problems keeping the length of your
resume in check?
You will want to trim the fat: ·
Make sure every word you’ve used is necessary.
·
Keep your bullet points to six at most. ·
Trim your resume summary or your skills section without killing
the value. ·
And kill any extra sections that aren’t mandatory
. 41. Try to find the personal email address of
the hiring manager.
You can always attach your resume to a generic
email and send it to a generic inbox.
Or you can attach your resume to a
personalized email and send it to your hiring manager.
Some hiring managers may not appreciate
receiving unsolicited resumes
At the same time, if you know how
to send an email to a hiring manager you know that you
aren’t sending it unannounced.
Right:
You establish contact via a referral or
linkedin before sending your resume.
Wrong:
Sending a cold-call email to an unknown hiring
manager.
42. Track your resume.
Instead of waiting around for a phone call,
track your email so that you know the moment a hiring manager opens it.
You can use a free tool like mixmax to
see if a hiring manager has read your resume. That give you a better idea of
when to send follow-up or thank you emails.
Key takeaway
It can be easy to forget small details when
you’re trying to figure out how to write a great resume. But if you follow
these resume tips and tricks you can rest assured that you’re on the right
track
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