Upgrade Your Resume
Disclaimer: I am not a Human Resources professional. My recommendations are solely based on personal experience, professional consultations, and internet research.
Are you applying to 50+ jobs and not getting an interview?
Wondering what a successful resume is like? Well, not anymore my friend.
Use this guide religiously and watch your interview-to-applications success rate spike!
Note, these tips will mainly help you in applying for jobs within your scope and field. It’s never bad to aim high. However, consider your professional portfolio and experience to determine if this is the job you would be able to get in the “perfect” world.
1. Keep it One Page ONLY
I know many may try and argue with me on this one. I get it, you have a lot of experience.
Trust me, no recruiter wants to read more than a page. Put yourself in the recruiter’s shoes, realistically:
Would you want to read over one-page to see if a candidate is a good fit for the role? Your response should be no. If they don’t stand out within the first page, they won’t even bother to read the second.
As a professional, you should be able to pitch yourself within one page by highlighting your career accomplishments and relevant experience. If are unable to “tell your tale” on one sheet of paper, it will rather show your inability to be concise.
To make your resume one page, take out experiences that are not relevant to the job you’re applying for. This brings me to my next tip.
2. ALWAYS Tailor Your Resume to the Job Description & Company
You’ve probably heard this one over a hundred times.
But how many times have you actually implemented this tip?
To make your job applications go smoothly, let me tell you the easiest and most efficient way to do this.
First, scan through your job description/posting. Pick up keywords and use them in your resume. You can sneak them into your summary of qualifications, profile, and work experience descriptions. This should be super easy if the job you’re applying for matches your field and industry. Replace synonyms to match the keywords from the job posting.
Second, push the most important and relevant experiences to the top. If you would like to and need to include further experiences, create a section and call it “Other Experience” vs. the “Relevant Experience” section you are highlighting.
Put your relevant experience in the spotlight and delete irrelevant experience if it is not adding value to your resume. This will help with cutting your resume down to one page.
3. Quantify Your Skills & Experience
Show them the numbers!
Did you increase revenues? Reduce operational costs? Negotiate deals? That’s fantastic, but only impressive if you can quantify it.
For example, consider this:
“Identified key revenue drivers and increased revenues”
Yes, it’s okay. But, how about this:
“Identified key revenue drivers and increased revenues by 30% in FY2019.”
See? It sounds much better and adds value to your experience.
Did you know many companies select candidates by scanning resumes to identify keywords and numbers? Get your resume past the machine and to the recruiter.
4. Make the S.T.A.R. Method Your BFF
The S.T.A.R. method is widely used to provide a comprehensive overview of your role and the greater impact you had on your company to drive results.
What is the S.T.A.R. method?
Situation. Task. Action. Result.
Situation – what was the situation/problem?
Task – what was your role? What did you need to do?
Action – how did you do this? What was your course of action?
Result – what was the outcome of your action? How did your “action” contribute to the success of your company?
Use the S.T.A.R. method in your summary of qualifications and your experience details. How do you do this? Well, we make our own version of the S.T.A.R. method by rearranging a little bit.
Here’s an example to help you visualize.
“Prepared market research reports for executive decision-making by identifying the total addressable market to expand the target market, creating 3 new revenue streams.”
Let me break this down for you.
Situation – expand the target market
Task – identifying the total addressable market
Action – prepared market research reports for executive decision-making
Result – creating 3 new revenue streams
Ensure you have all four variables to make this formula work! Be concise while expressing: what you did, why you did, how you did and what your work resulted in. Remember to read it out loud, don’t overcomplicate it.
I know it is easier said than done. But don’t worry, it will get better as you update your resume.
Let give you a mini-tip: differentiate your action words! Using the same 3 action words all over your resume will make your experience seem overly redundant. Burst the boring bubble and click here for 182 action words to upgrade your resume!
5. Keep it Simple, Stupid.
(Relax, it’s an expression)
Listen to Bruce Lee, “Simplicity is the key to brilliance.” Apply this to your resume by always keeping legibility and professionalism in mind.
Lucky for you, simplicity can be attained, easily.
Save the “Fancy-Schmancy” for your PowerPoints. You don’t know the preference nor the personality of the person reviewing your resume. Play it safe using neutral colours and fonts (Calibri, Arial or Times New Roman). Your resume must be visually appealing, organized and subtle all at the same time.
Even if you are in a creative industry, try and keep it simple. You want to impress, not overwhelm – organization is key here.
This way, you can radiate brilliance and highlight your qualities and experience. The focus should be you, not the piece of paper.
That’s all for this post. I hope you are able to attract some interviews using these tips and let me know what worked for you. Please don’t be shy and comment down below! Which tip helped you the most?
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