How to Create a Great Resume

Resume writing tips to help you stand out

Your resume is the most important document you’ll submit in your job search. It’s your front-line fighter, so to speak, as it’s your first opportunity to present yourself to a potential employer. A strong resume can help you stand out from the crowd, but a weak resume can remove you from the running, so you want to do all you can to make sure your resume is the best it can be.

It can be difficult to succinctly present all of your experiences and qualifications, but there are many ways to spruce up your resume without going overboard. To help you land an interview.

Keep your resume short and direct.

The first rule is to keep it short and straight to the point. The general rule is no more than one page unless you have a very good reason for it to be longer, like an extensive career or many highly applicable work experiences.

Your resume should target the specific job you are applying for. Sending the same resume off to every job you apply for will be a detriment.

An easy way to keep your resume trim is to only include recent, relevant experience. While that yearlong first or second job might have taught you a lot about the field, it’s not always necessary to include every detail from your entire career history.

Create an original resume template.

While it’s helpful to refer to a professional resume template, don’t follow it rigidly. Employers appreciate originality. Format your resume in ways that make you look good. For instance, if you advanced in a company quickly, draw attention to that growth; if you excessively job-hopped, bullet those jobs without providing specifics, and detail more applicable positions. This will play to your assets.

Choose three or four former positions or experiences that best highlight the skills required for the position you are applying for. Employers value brevity; this is not the time to list every position you have ever held. For example, if you are applying for a marketing position, you could include your former retail experience and bullet the communication, branding, and interpersonal skills you learned in that position.

Craft a career snapshot or summary.

More recently, career experts have urged job seekers to do away with the old “objective” statement and instead consider including a brief summary, called a “career snapshot,” at the top of their resumes. With the career snapshot, you present a branding statement that briefly explains your unique value as well as your skills and qualifications.

Think of your career snapshot as an answer to the question “how would you describe your work experience in one sentence?” The summary is an opportunity to sum up your most relevant and important skills, experience, or assets right off the bat.

Optimize your text.

If a company uses an https://www.chokalresume.com (ATS) to collect and scan resumes, a human hiring manager may never even glance at any application that doesn’t fit the job criteria they’ve entered. Trish O’Brien, vice president of human resources at Caliper, emphasized adapting your resume to the position to increase your likelihood of passing the first level.

Make sure you’ve carefully reviewed the posting and … [used] the appropriate keywords in your resume to get past the screener. “Be truthful, but understand that the first pass on your resume is likely via an ATS.”

A helpful tip is to make sure you include keywords from the job post in your resume. Chokalresume suggests copying and pasting the job description into a word-cloud generator to identify the most frequently used terms, and making sure the terms that apply to you are used in your resume. You can also create a “core competencies” or “areas of expertise” section of your resume to list all of your hard and soft skills, and then reiterate those skills when you bullet your experience.

Think beyond your job duties.

Hiring managers don’t want to read a list of your job duties. They want concrete examples of your accomplishments in previous positions that show how you can make a difference in this new position. For example, “I reduced operating expenses by 23% in six months” is far more interesting to an employer than “I have 30 years of sales experience,” she said.

When deciding what information to keep or cut out of your resume, focus on striking abstract traits and qualifications in favor of concrete, quantifiable results. The best resumes highlight a job candidate’s actions and results. Employers want employees who get things done, and who take great joy and pride in what they do. Rather than a laundry list of your qualifications, your resume should reflect your accomplishments and enthusiasm for your career.

You shouldn’t ignore your skills section either. Sade reminded job seekers to list any industry-relevant apps or programs they’re familiar with, and find ways to incorporate examples of their soft skills (e.g., work ethic, reliability) into their job descriptions.

List your social media profiles.

Many hiring managers today screen candidates on social networks. Save them a step by providing your profile links on your resume. Seasoned applicants with a professional social presence would do well to include URLs for their LinkedIn profile, Twitter account and blog, if applicable.

If, and only if, your social media accounts are filled with professional posts pertaining to your industry, listing them on your resume can be advantageous

Note: If your social profiles are not professionally applicable, do not list them on your resume, and make sure they are set to private.

Check for errors.

Triple-check your own work, and then have someone else look over your resume to ensure it’s 100% clean. There is no room for sloppiness on your resume, said Obeid – a hiring manager will likely automatically dismiss your application if they spot a typo or grammatical error.

However, typos aren’t the only type of mistake to watch out for. Review formatting very closely, including font, alignment and spacing. Related issues can often be perceived as a sign of lacking technical skills and/or attention to detail.”

Follow instructions.

Yet another reason not to use generic, cookie-cutter job applications is that some companies have very specific instructions as to what they want to see in your resume, cover letter and work samples. Failing to