Crafting a standout resume: Tips and tricks for catching the hiring manager’s attention
To boost your odds of landing a good job, you should start by creating a compelling resume. It will enable you to stand out from the other applicants and accentuate your professionalism. Read this article to find out what exactly you should do!
Tailor your resume for each position that you apply for
Prioritize your skills and achievements according to each employer’s demands. Try to imitate the tone of the job description, which can be more or less formal as well as more or less technical.
Use the keywords that are relevant for each particular position. Take these keywords right from the job description. Many organizations employ applicant tracking systems that automatically glance through resumes. If they detect keywords in your document, they will be likely to label it as suitable — and if they fail to, a human HR manager might never have a look at your resume.
You can skip this recommendation only if you rely on an HR services company. A recruitment agency will ask you to provide a generic resume and will fine-tune it to the individual demands of each employer without your assistance.
Focus on the top of the resume
When the HR manager will open your resume, they will assess its upper part in a few seconds. Based on the first impression, they will decide whether to scroll it down or not. To hit the nail on the head, start by mentioning your name and contact details, including the links to your social network profiles.
Then, in a few sentences, prove that you’re the right fit for this position. Mention your most outstanding accomplishments that are relevant to this job opening and format them with bullet points. Add an objective — that is, explain in a couple of sentences your career goals and the benefits that you can bring to the hiring company. The HR manager will understand that you know how to prioritize things and organize the information.
Use numbers
Numbers speak louder than words. Here are a few examples of how you can use them:
- Tell the employer how many projects you’ve completed when working for your previous companies
- Boast your most impressive KPIs
- Reveal how much you enabled your previous employer to earn thanks to the products that you delivered
- Brag about the conversion rate that the products that you built help to achieve
Numbers are indispensable for keeping the text concise. They nicely visualize the data and grasp the reader’s attention. You’ll prove that you’re result-oriented and know how to measure your performance with quantitative metrics.
List soft skills
The significance of soft skills has been increasing even for the most technical occupations. Make sure to mention the abilities that you genuinely have — but avoid overestimating yourself. To make the list short and convincing, speak about the soft skills that were mentioned in the job description.
Keep it short
An ideal resume occupies one page. If you’ve been working in the industry for over a decade, it’s not necessary to describe your first jobs in detail. If you switched industries, focus only on the one that the vacancy that you apply for refers to.
When applying for a senior position, you might need to list many tools and techniques that you can use as well as a lot of your skills and accomplishments. In this case, try to make the document two full pages long. A resume that occupies just one page and has only one or two short passages on the second page won’t look visually appealing.
Format it nicely
A good resume should look neat and uncluttered. Unless you apply for an opening in a creative industry, it’s not necessary to turn the document into a visual piece of art. Here are the most universal formatting tips:
- Let the background be white. HR managers who love to print out resumes will especially appreciate that.
- Let the text color be black. To highlight the most important details, consider using a bright color, such as green. Avoid adding a fourth color to the document because it might look a bit messy.
- Georgia, Times New Roman, Calibri and Helvetica are the optimal fonts. If you prefer another one, make sure it will be easy to read regardless of the size of the letters.
- Size 12 is the golden standard for letters.
- Feel free to use resume templates. You may easily find dozens of them online and they’re available at no cost. The more minimalistic and well-structured a template looks, the better.
After you finish editing your resume, save it in PDF format. PDF makes it impossible for third parties to edit the document.
Before submitting your resume, check how it looks on the screens of various devices, including mobile ones.
Make it clickable
Probably, you have a portfolio on your website, GitHub or any other web resources. Add links to it in your resume. You can also provide links to customers’ and colleagues’ testimonials about your work, research that you carried out and interviews that you gave.
Proofread
Read your resume out to yourself, slowly and loudly. Use automated spell-checking tools to detect and correct mistakes. Ask your friends and family members to read the text and tell you what they like and dislike about it.
Submit a cover letter
Some employers straightforwardly ask for a cover letter while others don’t. Even in the latter case, it would be smart to attach a cover letter. It will emphasize the fact that you’re genuinely interested in the job and have strong communication skills. Make sure the visual style of your cover letter and your tone of voice are identical to the contents of your resume.
Special advice for candidates with limited experience
When composing a resume for your first or second job, focus on your training, volunteering projects and awards. Speak about your unpaid internships and summer jobs that had something to do with the vacancies that you’re applying for. Mention the research that you carried out at the university if its theme is relevant to the job.
Final thoughts
To craft a standout resume, you should start by tailoring the document for each position that you apply for. Focus on the top of the resume, use numbers and list soft skills. Keep it short, format it nicely and make it clickable. Proofread and submit a cover letter. If you lack experience, speak about your internships, training and research. Pay equal attention to both the looks and the contents.
