Some recruiters spend as little as six seconds scanning your resume.
That’s not a lot of time to make a positive impression on a recruiter. This section will show you how to use your resume as your sales pitch in order to win over a recruiter and get the interview. The tips below will increase the likelihood of your resume falling into the short stack of “yes” candidates.
Why a high-quality resume is important?
Though recruiters and hiring managers will study your LinkedIn profile, blog or recent tweets when considering your candidacy for a job, your resume will often be the very first item they review. It may be the deciding factor that either rules you in or out of the running. You need to have a high-quality resume that tells your story—with a focus on how you will add value to your future employer.
1. Think like a recruiter. When writing your resume, think through the lens of the recruiter. They are busy with many resumes to scan weekly. Ensure your resume is easy to navigate and doesn’t try to be too fancy. Stick to commonly used fonts, use bullets instead of long sentences and include easily understandable language.
2. Tailor your resume to the job you’re applying to. Instead of casting a wide net and applying to multiple jobs at once, narrow your selection to focus on the jobs you truly want. Then, tailor your resume to that specific job. Include real examples of past experiences and accomplishments that align with every bullet on the job description.
3. Consider a video resume. In addition to your print resume, create a short video to stand out to prospective employers. Target the video to each position or company you are applying to. Show off your personality, highlight your experiences and market why you are the best candidate for the job. You may be allowed to upload the video resume directly to your job profile.
4. Develop a keyword strategy. Before applying for a job, carefully dissect the job posting and create a list of skills, knowledge, etc. required. Hiring managers spend a good deal of time skimming through resumes to identify keywords that match the job description. We recommend including keywords and phrases 2-3 times in your resume to ensure it is found when employers use applicant tracking systems.
5. Organize your resume. Make your resume easy to read by including header sections, concise information and simple lists. Order your resume by the information that you want to spotlight first. This will allow hiring managers to quickly scan your resume and find the qualifications they are looking for.
6. Include only relevant information. Don’t waste time including unnecessary details or jobs on your resume that don’t illustrate skills needed for the role. Avoid overused words that don’t differentiate yourself from your competitors, like “energetic” or “good communicator.”
7. Validate your experience. Show the impact you had in your previous roles by detailing your accomplishments, quantifiable metrics and context. Give credibility to your work experience and skill set by providing links to relevant resources, including personal websites, your LinkedIn profile and digital portfolios. It’s best to hyperlink words, instead of including a long, ugly link on your resume. If you plan on having a printed version of your resume, use a link shortener like Bitly for a cleaner look.
8. Check for spelling and grammar. Before submitting a resume, always conduct a spelling and grammar check. Your resume is your first impression with a prospective employer. And, we can’t forget the age-old adage—first impressions matter! Enlist the help of free online grammar tools to avoid mistakes.
9. Be honest. Always be truthful about your past work experience, including what you did in a role and how long you were there. Hiring managers and recruiters can spot inconsistencies in resumes. According to a CareerBuilder study of about 2,000 hiring managers, 57% of respondents said the most common lie they catch on a resume is an embellished skill set.
10. Show career progression. Your resume is prime real estate for sharing your story. Hiring managers are looking for someone who has grown in their career. Outline the key responsibilities you’ve held in each position and how they’ve contributed to your overall career success.
11. Think holistically about your professional brand. Most hiring managers want to understand you as a total package—in and out of the office. Demonstrate your understanding of the company and share how your volunteer experiences, passions and hobbies align with the company’s purpose.
Suggested Reading:
Here's How to Highlight STEM Experience on a Resume
The Ultimate Guide to Resumes
How to Get Your Resume Noticed by Employers
How long should my resume be?
Resume length has been a hot debate for years. Those who believe resumes should be on a single page typically claim that recruiters and hiring managers will lose patience when reading an unnecessarily long resume. Proponents of longer resumes say they want more details about a candidate’s work experiences, accomplishments and skills.
Professional resume writing service ResumeGo conducted a study to discover the optimal length for a resume.
Out of the 7,712 resumes that participants chose in the simulated hiring process, a whopping 5,375 of these resumes were two pages in length. This means that recruiters were 2.3x as likely to prefer two-page resumes over one-page resumes.
The study also found that the benefits of including a second page increased the more senior the role. Candidates with longer resumes were hired more than 70% of the time for mid-level or managerial-level roles.
We don’t recommend that you stuff your resume with irrelevant information to span two pages. As you’re creating your resume, ensure you are including the experiences and skills pertinent to the job you are applying for. But, don’t cut out necessary information. Embrace the second page if you need it.
What is a master resume?
You’ve got tons of work experience with plenty of awards and accomplishments to match. However, when compiled, your extensive 4-page resume exceeds the recommended 1-2 pages. While listing all your accomplishments may seem like a good idea, employers are looking for candidates with specific skill sets.
Enter the master resume.
A master resume is a chronological record of your entire work history. It is used as a springboard to create tailored resumes to submit for each job you apply to.
How to create a master resume
1. First, gather job descriptions for jobs that interest you—regardless of whether you are going to apply to those jobs. Good sites to try:
2. Compile the keywords and phrases from the job descriptions into one long list.
3. Combine your long list with descriptions of your past experiences, education, certifications, etc. to create one long master resume. Compile the keywords and phrases from the job descriptions into one long list.
Don’t submit your master resume when applying to jobs. Instead, take your most relevant job experiences from your master resume and tailor it to each job you’re applying to.
Writing your resume for applicant tracking systems
Thanks to technology, applying online is easy and fast. The result for employers is a mountain of job applications for every open role. On average, large corporate companies receive up to 250 resumes for each job they post, according to Zety.
Recruiters and hiring managers utilize artificial intelligence, automation and machine learning to sort through thousands of applications they receive. Software known as an ATS, short for applicant tracking system, scans and filters submitted resumes based on specified criteria before being viewed by an actual human. These systems automatically filter out candidates who aren't a close match for a role.
If you haven’t been contacted after submitting a resume, an ATS may have something to do with it. Your resume should be crafted to attract a robot recruiter to increase your chances of landing an interview in 2020.
How to create a bot-friendly resume
- Use standard fonts like Times, Arial, Georgia, Tahoma and Verdana.
- When using lists in your resume, stick to bullets. Avoid symbols like arrows, check marks and hyphens to prevent information scrambling.
- Use header sections like Summary, Professional Skills, Experience and Education.
- Do not include pertinent information such as skills, contact information or links in the header or footer. Not every ATS can read information in these document sections.
- Save your resume in a compatible format: .doc, .docx or .txt.
- Avoid PDFs. Some older ATS software interprets PDF information as one single image.
- Spell out all terms alongside abbreviations and acronyms [i.e., project manager (PM)].
- Use relevant, targeted keywords and phrases.
- Keep graphics and design elements to a minimum.
How to test your resume for ATS compliance
Convert your resume to a plain-text document
We recommend checking your resume for ATS compliance before submitting it to an ATS. Copy content from your resume and paste it into a plain-text document. Missing information, scrambled characters and unorganized information can signal that your resume needs some refinement to best suit an ATS. For example, the dates of your employment might appear next to the wrong job entry or your summary section appears in the middle of your education. These are easy fixes—but you need to discover these issues first in order to resolve them.
Use a web-based software to score your resume
There are some fantastic tools that predict your resume’s likelihood of being viewed by a human through an ATS. Check out online software systems such as Resunate and Jobscan to score your resume like an applicant tracking system would. These features can take your resume from zero to hero, giving you recommendations to fix your resume and improve your overall score.
Writing your resume for SEO
A crucial step in getting your resume into a recruiter’s “yes” pile is making it search engine optimized. SEO works by implementing a keyword strategy including words and phrases that help get your resume found—whether it is online or in an ATS.
In resume writing for SEO, you’ll need to include industry keywords that show you’re the right person for the job. Not sure which keywords to use? Review the descriptions of the positions you want. Create a list of common keywords and phrases used throughout. The right keyword can be a defining factor in an employer finding your resume.
During your research, keep the following questions in mind when building your keyword strategy:
- Job titles: What relevant job titles are being used that describe your skill set? What are all the variant titles used for similar roles?
- Skills: What are the specific skills required for the job(s) you seek?
- Industry: Is the employer looking for a candidate with a specific background?
- Location: Does your address match the location of the position you’re applying for?
- Technologies: Which technologies should you be proficient in?
- Certifications: Are there any specific certifications or education requirements?
Why context always trumps keywords
Most applicant tracking systems ignore extra instances of keywords. Avoid stuffing your resume with repetitive keywords, and only use them where they make logical sense.
Also, don’t forget that keywords are nothing without context. You’ll need to provide relevant experience and compelling details that illustrate your abilities around these keywords. Make sure your resume answers the who, what, where and why to convince hiring managers and employers that your skills can “walk the talk.”
Pro Tip: Visit LinkedIn and research other professionals who have the job you’re trying to land. It doesn’t matter if they are at your current company or in an entirely different industry. Study how they communicate their skill sets and experiences and take note when crafting your resume. Sometimes, the best inspiration can be found by exemplary professionals in your field!
How to write a career change resume
There are many reasons some of us make mid-career transitions. Whether it’s due to changes to our industry, the economy, or a shift in our professional interests, we may need to change course.
Trying new jobs is becoming the norm in today’s gig economy. Some say the career ladder has been replaced by career scaffolding.
So how do you write a resume for a role that is different than your current and past work?
Searching for a job outside of your industry requires more leg work on your part. But you’ve got this! Start by creating a career change resume that highlights your transferrable skills, uses the right keywords and showcases relevant educational experiences.
Highlight your transferable skills
A career change resume tells the story of your transferable skills to a recruiter and/or a hiring manager. Your goal is to explain how your qualifications from previous jobs are applicable to the new position you’re seeking.
Start by thinking outside of your current and past job titles. Highlight your transferable skills and areas of competence on your resume to downplay your work titles. Skills such as training, customer service and project management can position you for a wide variety of jobs in an array of industries. When writing your work experience section, focus less on the job duties and more on the hard and soft skills you’ve developed that are likely most appealing to the hiring manager.
Use the right keywords on your resume
This is when your master resume will help. Pay close attention to how a responsibility, requirement or qualification is described by the employer. Take the exact words and phrases used in the job descriptions for roles you are applying to and weave them into your resume. Keywords are your chance to show the recruiter and hiring manager that you are a match for the position. They also help applicant tracking systems identify your resume out of the pack as a possible match.
Emphasize your education, skills, trade programs, certifications and more
Hiring managers sometimes prefer to hire people outside of their industry. They seek fresh perspectives and ideas from their new hires. When considering applicants, hiring managers look for specific hard and soft skills, which can be acquired across a wide range of industries.
When switching industries, it’s important to highlight what you’ve learned over the course of your career that is relevant to what you’ll be doing in your next role. Listing previous coursework, certifications, workshops, etc. demonstrate your focus on continued education—which will be quite appealing to your future boss.
We also learn outside of the classroom and the office. Think through your volunteer experiences. What skills did you pick up that are relevant to the job you’re applying to? Highlight what you’ve learned and what you’ve accomplished as a volunteer on your resume wherever applicable.
Suggested Reading:
Resume Writing Tips for Changing Careers
Functional Resume Tips and Examples