9 Tips: Writing a Resume That Stands Out
Introduction:
On the professional side of my blog, I’m working to provide tools that allow young adults to confidently face common professional milestones such as career fairs, internships, interviews, their first jobs, etc!
Your resume is one of the first chances you get to make a good impression when looking for a new job, so a well-written resume can make all the difference in terms of getting noticed and landing that first interview. Let’s jump right into it! Here are 9 tips for writing a standout resume:
1. Tailor Your Resume to the Job
Make sure your resume is relevant to the job you are applying for by studying the job description from the posting/application. Reflect on your own skills and experiences that match the description and make sure to include those on your resume!
2. Highlight Your Achievements:
Once you know which of your skills and experiences you want to include in your resume, make sure to highlight your achievements instead of simply listing your responsibilities. You should also quantify your accomplishments when you can! Do this with numbers or any applicable statistic to showcase your impact. I like to use this sentence structure as a rough template: “Responsible for _(what you did)_ in support of _(people/project you helped)_ resulting in _(value you provided to company)_.”
3. Keep it Concise:
A resume should be clear, concise, and to the point — about a page or two long. If your resume is longer than that, you likely either have 15+ years of experience or you need to reevaluate if you tailored your resume to the position enough. Also, after you graduate college (at the latest), you can remove most high school experiences from your resume. Use bullet points to make it easy to read, and use your text editor to make the margins smaller if needed.
4. Use Keywords:
Many companies, especially ones that get lots of applicants, will use software to help them scan resumes for given keywords and experiences to help them narrow down and expedite their hiring process. I wish they wouldn’t, because other than speeding up their search, I don’t really see a benefit to these. (Please let me know if there is another benefit!) The ability to learn and adapt quickly as well as an eagerness to learn are both hard to communicate on a resume, yet they can make or break a candidate’s performance in a role. Anyway, use relevant keywords from the job description in your resume to increase your chances of getting past those automatic resume scanners.
5. Use Active Language:
Use strong action verbs to describe your accomplishments and responsibilities. This makes your resume more engaging and shows that you are proactive — especially if a human being is looking at your resume instead of an ATS.
6. Make it Visually Appealing:
But also be careful how you apply it! Formatting that looks visually appealing to me might be unappealing to someone else. With this in mind, avoid crazy colors and fonts. On the other hand, if your resume looks generic and your keywords/experiences are the same as everyone else’s, it might be hard to stand out. Use a clean and modern design with consistent formatting. Keep the overall vibe professional by using well-suited fonts and white space for legibility. Use your judgment based on your industry, stand out where you can in ways that make the most sense for you (and maybe even the hiring manager if you know a bit about them), but never exchange legibility for design. They don’t know what you can do for them if they can’t read your resume!
7. Include Relevant Education and Certifications:
Similar to choosing the previous skills and roles that cater to a given role description, you’ll also want to make sure to include any non-role-specific experiences such as relevant education or certifications. This can help to further emphasize your knowledge and qualifications for the job!
8. Include Your Contact Information:
Make sure to include your contact information (phone number and email address are usually perfect!). This will help potential employers get in touch with you, and I personally think those look nice in the top corner of a resume!
9. Proofread and Edit:
Finally, once you have your content organized on your resume, make sure to carefully proofread! Check for typos, grammar errors, formatting issues, etc. Grammarly is a free tool that can be super helpful here! An error-free and well-written resume is a really important part of your first impression. My dad was a recruiter a while back and he said typos can be a big red flag. Even if their experiences match the position, a typo can worry a recruiter about a candidate’s diligence.
Final Thoughts:
By following these tactics, you will help your resume stand out, demonstrate your skills and qualifications, and help you make a strong first impression on your journey to landing your dream job! You’ll do great!
What is the biggest hurdle/question you have about writing resumes? What is your favorite tactic in wiring a resume that stands out? Share your ideas in the comments — let’s work together to get closer to our dream jobs!
Feel free to email me directly at problog@apartfromblonde.com if you have any other questions!
Check out this and other posts on my Medium account HERE!