It’s a challenge to get your resume noticed by an employer, or even a recruiting firm, in a normal market, but when the market is saturated with candidates due to mass layoffs, it’s even harder. There are a few simple tips and tricks to help your resume get more visibility and ensure you won’t be ghosted after submission.
Tip 1: The Fit
The first thing you want to do, which may seem obvious to some, is make sure you are a good fit for the role and meet the qualifications.
Once you’ve established that you meet the minimum qualifications (or more), highlight and show the hiring manager you do so. Customize and tailor your resume to highlight those minimum qualifications and include your most relevant skills.
Create multiple resumes that highlight different areas of your experience depending on relevancy to the role.
Tip 2: The Content
Use brief, action-oriented sentences that describe your role at each position you’ve held.
Include a professional summary above your work experience, but avoid very long summaries with everything you’ve ever worked on or assisted with. Hiring managers don’t read these and it will make it hard to see your most relevant skills.
Highlight your work experience in reverse-chronological order, with your education at the bottom.
You only have so much space on your resume to fill with relevant experience and accomplishments. Do not waste this space on irrelevant roles or past experiences that do not relate to the role in which you’re applying for.
Highlight your promotions within a company, showing how your job responsibilities changed with a new role. Find a few examples of how to do so here.
Non-essential information such as personal hobbies, interests, etc. should be left off your resume. This is a professional representation of yourself, not a personal one.
Remove your address as this may deter recruiters if you’re not already local.
Add your LinkedIn profile link. Want to take it a step further and customize your link? Check out how to do so here.
If switching industries / job functions, remove industry specific jargon and rewrite the sentences to show the relevant, transferable skills.
Tip 3: The Detail
Resume errors matter. Spell Check is your best friend. If you’re highlighting a specific tool or application you’ve used and you spell it wrong, unfortunately this mistake will jump off the page and be one of the first things the eyes see. Try Grammarly, a free online writing assistant that will help with spelling, punctuation and grammatical errors.
Use consistent verb tense throughout the resume.
Keep it simple and use an easy to read font such as Times New Roman, Calibri or Arial in size 10 to 12. Using bold and italics to highlight past employers and job titles.
Save your resume as FirstLastNameResume, to ensure it’s easily recognizable.
All in all, your resume should be a brief look into your relevant skills, experiences, and accomplishments. An effective resume grabs immediate attention with a summary of qualifications and explains, as concisely as possible, what you bring to the table and how you can add value to their organization.