Portrait of a young african woman holding resume document indoors
One of the most exciting moments for college graduates is when they find a new job. However, it isn’t an easy task to search for and find the right position. Many graduates go on for months submitting their resumes in all sorts of vacancies but never hear back from any of the prospective employers. What are these job seekers missing?
There are plenty of factors that determine whether a hiring manager will get back to you. Among all factors, the quality of your resume an important one. This article will walk you through the steps to make your resume stand out.
How Can You Make Your Resume Stand Out?
Tiny details play a massive role in determining the quality of your resume. A lot of people often neglect these small details. Let’s check out nine easy tweaks to make your resume attractive and practical:
1. Right Font And Formatting
There’s a famous quote, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” But the book cover is what entices people to consider the purchase. Hiring managers are looking for professionals who can perform well. Neglecting your font selection and formatting will immediately give a negative impression.
Don’t choose colorful and stylish fonts for your resume. Some of the best fonts are Times New Roman, Calibri, and Sans Serif. Make sure your font size is the same throughout your resume. Another crucial factor is formatting. Use titles, headings, and format dates appropriately, and view the resume from your employer’s perspective.
Professional services like standardresume.co specialize in helping people to create professional resumes fast.
2. Keep It Short
No hiring manager has the time to go through every sentence of your resume. Don’t expect recruiters to go through a lengthy CV of yours. You’re not unique for any recruiter unless you stand out.
The best way to get the attention of recruiters is by keeping the resume short. Don’t include every single detail in your resume. Try to sum everything up in a single page. Including multiple pages in your CV may force recruiters to put away your resume without even looking at it.
3. Give It A Title
It’s impossible to fit in every job requirement. You know it, and hiring managers know it as well. One effective way to show managers that you’re the right person to consider is by giving a title to your resume.
If you’re applying for a digital marketing job, give your resume a title like “Digital Marketing Executive.” It’ll immediately catch the attention of recruiters and will encourage them to check out your education and experiences.
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4. Add Some Numbers
People may lie, but numbers don’t When you add your achievements in your resume, try to be specific. For instance, you can put something like you’ve managed a $100k marketing budget and got 2.5X return on investment. Another example would be saving $50k in taxes or bringing in 500 new clients to the company. Numbers make your achievements tangible and believable.
5. Don’t Add The Word “Responsible”
Often you use the word “responsible” in your resume. But you may want to stay away from using the word too much. Saying that you were responsible for managing clients or accountable for handling account tasks doesn’t say much about your skills.
You can use more powerful statements like “I worked in the credit department and handled cases related to bad loans.” Adding active sentences says a lot about what you used to do or are doing in a specific organization.
It’s also a good idea to remove the objective from your resume. Saying you aim to “reach a good position in an organization” does not add value to your resume. By removing objectives, you free up a lot of space to add more skills.
6. Highlight Your Achievements
What have you achieved during your professional career? The answer to this question matters a lot to your prospective employers. Emphasize a lot on your achievements and experiences when you’re preparing your resume. It’ll be best if you put it on the top of your resume to give an immediate signal about your knowledge and skills.
If you’re a fresher, you can add achievements like you managed to get a top position in a quiz contest or organized an event. If you’ve got internship experience, you can add how you helped your manager to save time with your skills.
You should separate general skills from technical skills. Have a separate title for technical expertise. Mention what software or tools you can use to benefit an organization.
7. Don’t Forget The Cover Letter
Many recruiters often don’t read the cover letter. But it never hurts to include a cover letter to tell your employers about yourself. This article talks about writing a top-notch cover letter for a resume.
Don’t write a lengthy cover letter. Be specific to the relevant points and ensure that your cover letter motivates your employer to go through your resume.
8. Customization Is The Key
As a job seeker, you may apply for a lot of different jobs. And it’s not a bad idea to send an application to many recruiters. The key is to customize your resume as per the requirement of the job you’re applying for.
Walking the extra mile can help you get more responses from recruiters and secure an interview. There’s no need to make a fresh resume for each job, but you can make some adjustments in the skill and title sections of your resume.
Check out templates of top resume building software and learn from them. Remember to keep a record of the CV you sent for each job.
9. Proofread Your Resume
Finally, polish your resume by letting professional editors proofread it. It’s quite challenging to master a language if you’re not a native speaker. Spend some money on getting your resume edited to ensure it looks and sounds professional.
Final Thoughts
Are you excited? Well, you must be because you’re taking the first step to increase your chances of securing an interview. Once you hear back from your recruiter, you should learn about their company, the interview process, and their negotiation tactics.
If you sincerely focus on the tweaks mentioned in this article, you’re likely to get more responses. Good luck with your future endeavors.
