There’s nothing more confusing than putting your heart and soul into perfecting your resume and receiving no response after applying for hundreds of jobs. There are some outdated resume tips that people still recommend, but as I said, they’re outdated and no longer attract potential employers.
So, you want to treat your resume the same way you’d treat a sales pitch – which means that you have a few seconds to grab the employer’s attention. Your resume should be clear and straight to the point: you want the reader to be able to reach the information they want without having to look for it. If you want to level up in your career and land job interviews, follow these golden resume tips.
1. Keep it short
When you’re thinking about what you want to include in your resume, it’s tempting to provide lists and lists of your highlights and positive attributes. But, to an employer going through a number of resumes all at once, it’s not the brightest idea.
According to Career Blog, your resume shouldn’t be more than one page long, unless you have more than a decade of work experience, you can break the rule and go for two pages. That’s because employers don’t have that much time to go through irrelevant information, so you want to ensure that you’re keeping it short, relevant, and pretty much straightforward.
2. Never underestimate the power of proper spelling and grammar
It might seem clear as the sun that you shouldn’t mispronounce words, or use incorrect grammar, but it’s still a critical point worth mentioning. If an employer spots language mistakes, they will most likely disregard your resume and proceed with the rest. You can use language checking websites such as Grammarly, or ask friends to revise your resume.
Language mistakes in your resume communicate to the employer that you’re not serious about the work you do, and your resume is the first piece of work they have seen. It shows that you don’t double-check your work before submitting, it and simply rush through it without stressing over the details – which is of course an automatic no-go for employers.
3. Do your research
Before you apply for any job, you want to research the company, potential employers, and the employees working there. You want an insight into the company’s culture and what they appreciate most in their employees. You want to try to spot what the employees working in the company have in common, and try to include something relevant in your resume.
Also, researching the company’s values is very insightful. If the company is focused on sustainability, you’d want to include the sustainability project you worked on in your last job, or during your university years. It doesn’t have to be the exact same focus, but find something you can relate to and include it in your resume. The information you gather after doing your research will be very useful in highlighting your attributes and skills.
4. Ditch the references
I know you’ve probably heard that the best thing you can do is write “References available upon request”, but even that is outdated advice. Because you want to keep your resume as short and relevant as possible, there’s no need to take up space for phrases that are useless. Your employer certainly knows that they can request references if they need them.
5. Adjust your resume to the job you’re applying for
I understand that it’s much more convenient for you to have a one size fits all resume and apply with it everywhere, but believe me on that one, that’s a very common and huge mistake. Potential employers are looking for information that proves that you’re fit for the specific role you’re applying for, not looking for a resume of a good employee or someone who seems to have worked hard on themselves.
They simply do not care about your extracurricular activities or hobbies if they’re not relevant to the job. The information needed for a financial analyst role is very different from that needed for a marketeer role, so make sure you tailor your resume to the job to make sure that you stand out among others.
6. Prove it with numbers
We human beings believe in numbers more than words. Numbers and statistics are more credible measures than unquantifiable words. For instance, a real estate agent stating that they’re among the most successful agents in their company is different from when they say that they’ve sold over 100 properties in a month. The latter seems more credible and convincing, right?
So, you want to quantify the information you provide as much as possible. This communicates to potential employers that you’re precise, know what you’re saying, and have solid information. On the other hand, words are just words, being ‘good’ at multitasking for one employer can look very different from the ‘good’ of another.
7. Fixate on the hard skills, not the soft ones
There’s this section on your resume dedicated to your skills. You want this section to be as short and relevant as possible. This means that you should ditch the long list of soft skills, and focus on hard skills instead.
As mentioned in rule #6, people respond better to quantifiable information, and hard skills are measurable, unlike soft ones. Soft skills are more related to the individual himself and don’t serve much of a purpose to employers. If they want to know more about you, they’ll ask you in the interview. However, resumes ensuring that you secure an interview in the first place.
Being diverse, hard-working, a multi-tasker, and able to work under pressure are all great things that will surely benefit you when you start a job, but that’s not what an employer wants to know. To them, there’s no ground proof for this information. So instead, you want to highlight how proficient you are in Microsoft, SAP, or any hard skills the job might require.
8. Explain gaps in your resume
Brushing it off in hopes that potential employers don’t notice might seem like an intriguing thought, but unfortunately, that’s not how things work. Having gaps in your resume doesn’t make you less qualified unless you leave them without explanation.
Because there are so many resources on the internet to help you grow and work on your skills, having a gap in your resume is justifiable. Even if that’s not the reason, the best thing you can do about them is, to be honest, and straightforward.
Write a cover letter explaining that you needed some time off to figure out what you want to do, spend some time with family, or travel for some time. Whatever it is, don’t be embarrassed to explain it in a cover letter. It communicates that you’re honest and don’t like spinning around.