“Your Resume Says a Lot About You, It Determines Whether You Will Be Called in For an Interview or Not. “
Industry research states that recruiters spend an average of 6-8 seconds on a resume to decide whether you are suitable for the vacancy or not. This means you got to put your best foot forward. Perfecting your resume will help you get an interview call from that coveted company you have been eyeballing for months.
Here are the best resume writing tips to help you get noticed and shortlisted for your dream job. Check them out!
1. Highlight Remote Work Accomplishments
Covid-19 has impacted the world. People lost jobs, started working remotely for the first time in their careers, juggled work and household responsibilities. This was also the time when people underwent training and picked up new skills for professional development. You can mention all these skills and amplify your resume.
2. Make your Resume ATS Friendly
Design your resume for the Applicant Tracking System, it is one of the essential tips for resume writing 2022. Here are a few things to keep in mind –
A – Use keywords in your resume. Scan the job description to see the words that are most often used, add them to your resume. This will ensure you get noticed in applicant tracking systems.
B – Applicant Tracking Systems can’t read text placed in text boxes. So, avoid putting relevant information in text boxes.
C – ATS does not recognize photos, graphs, or charts embedded in your resume. Do not add important information to them.
D – ATS also does care about bold, underlined, italicized, colored, or color-filled text, so you can use these design elements strategically in your resume.
E – Avoid heavily-formatted and graphically-designed PDF resumes.
3. Include Resume Summary
The summary of your resume is the first section that will get noticed, make it count. You can create a short paragraph to add the most impressive professional information between 3-5 lines.
4. Include Positions You Held in the Past 15 Years
One of the important resume tips for experienced professionals is to remove jobs older than 2005. Age bias and discriminations are serious issues that impact candidates. There are other reasons too – like your vast work experience can be a threat to a younger manager. Also, managers think the younger candidate is a safer bet when it comes to training and culture fit. Extended years of experience also give the impression that you are fixated on outdated methodologies.
5. Remove Short-Term Positions that Don’t Align
Streamline your work history timeline and remove all the short-term positions and irrelevant experience. Your resume should highlight your most relevant skills & experience. It is your marketing document selling you as the perfect person for the job. Your comprehensive work history is not required.
6. Include Social Media Profiles, Websites & Blog
Another resume writing tip is to add links to your social media profiles, especially LinkedIn, as it helps recruiters to validate your work history and speed up the background check. Ensure to keep your LinkedIn profile updated. Also include links to your website and blog, if any.
7. Use Numbers to Emphasize Your Accomplishments
Quantify your achievements. Measurable achievements matter more than anything else on your resume and present the unique value you offer to employers.
8. Update your Resume Regularly
Update your resume every six months to highlight your changing responsibilities and achievements or to add online courses or skills you picked up. This will keep your resume fresh and relevant and keep you prepared to apply for any job opportunity that comes your way.
9. Use a Professional Email Address
This is another one of the important resume writing tips for job seekers. Though this tip looks too obvious, if not used can get you rejected 76% of the time. Ditch that email address that you have been using since your school days. Create an account on Gmail or Outlook and use that email for sharing your resume.
10. Use a Reverse Chronological Resume Format
Use a revere chronological format, which means, mention your most recent job first and work your way back. For the experience section – add your current job first, and for the education section – add your highest degree first. Though there are plenty of ways to present information on a resume, the good old reverse chronological is still your best bet.
11. Ditch “References Available Upon Request”
This is not required. Once you get selected, hiring managers will ask you for the same. Adding this would only take up valuable space that could be used for adding something relevant.
12. Save Resume as PDF File
Save your resume in PDF format so that formatting does not get changed when opened. The downside is that – PDF is not the best format for ATS.
The best resume writing tip is to save your resume in multiple formats, so you can send whatever is required. Hiring managers prefer pdf formats, and third-party recruiters ask you for word format so that they can remove contact details to ensure candidates aren’t approached before they get their commission.
13. Design for Skimmability
Align your content to the left to improve readability. Using digits when writing about numbers improves readability and saves space. Keep your resume formatting consistent throughout the document, as consistency helps with skimming. Also, use clearly defined section headers and an easy-to-read font, and keep font size between 10 -12.
14. Don’t Make your Resume Too Long
Ensure your resume has the perfect length, don’t make it too long. Though the suggested length is a single page. The important resume writing tip for experienced professionals is to keep it two pages long by removing irrelevant information.
15. Proofread Your Resume
Proofread your resume to ensure it’s free of typos. Read it and reread it to avoid any errors. And if possible, ask your family members or friends also to have a look at it.
16. Make Your Contact Information Prominent
Ensure your contact information is featured near your name and include your location/city, phone number, and email address. Make sure this information is accurate and up-to-date.
17. Name Your File Smartly
It is important to name your file smartly. If you save it as ‘Resume,’ there are chances your resume will get lost in the inbox of a hiring manager, as there are plenty of resumes already. Save your resume as – Joseph Merchant Resume instead of saving it as – Resume. Use these tips for resume writing 2022 to get a call from your dream company.
