3 Secrets to Creating a Perfectly Polished Resume
Updated March 2021
Let me start by clarifying that I am not a recruiter. I do not “get” people jobs. What I do is help people do what they personally need to do, to be able to get a job themselves! It’s very rewarding generally, but it’s also very frustrating some days. This article also will not teach you how to create a basic resume, I’m hoping if you’re here, you already have one.
“The Hardest Work in the World is Being Out of Work”
– Whitney M. Young
It’s frustrating mainly because I know there are things that job seekers don’t know or understand. And they REALLY need to know these things in order to increase their chances of getting the job they want.
First of all, I’m betting that nearly every single person that ever reads this article has been out of a job at some point in their lives. (When they would have preferred to be employed)
It’s a scary place to be, right? You’re likely terrified about how you’re going to pay the bills, support yourself, your family, and/or just keep food on the table. You’re stressed out, probably not sleeping well, and potentially feeling ashamed or even filled with self-doubt and fear.
Which is why I’m SO glad you’re reading this article! Because I’d rather you focus more of your time on your interviewing skills, rather than worry about your resume. So let’s begin and get you all fixed up with the best resume ever!
The New Resume Rules
As a professional Employment Specialist I see hundreds of resumes every month. And let me just say that almost every single one I see has HUGE problems that are probably squelching their possibilities.
There’s some new “rules” you really need to know about, in order to even get your resume to a human. Because it has to get through the robot screener or what we call the ATS (applicant tracking system) first. Then it usually goes to an HR person, who also must pass it through their screening, before it finally makes it to the actual decision maker. Crazy huh?
Here’s what you need to do to increase your chances of that happening…
Secret #1
Your resume needs updating — All. The. Time.
To start, if you have just left or been let go from a job, you undoubtedly have new skills. You can and should add these new skills to your resume. What I typically see is that most people severely undervalue themselves, severely. You have so many more skills and knowledge than you are touting my friend!
When I first meet with someone, I ask them to try really hard to think about their last job. We work to dissect everything they can remember about what they did in that job.
I’m talking everything, you need to consider all the day-to-day activities, quarterly tasks, annual responsibilities you had, and especially any special projects. And lastly consider any new training you received.
For instance, I ask, “did you learn any new software you hadn’t used before?” Or, “did you receive any additional education in order to do your job while you were there?”
It’s important to note here, that you’re not going to add every single detail you come up with, this is brainstorming to try to remember what you did, so you know what new info you have to work with as a starting point.
Next, consider any skills you may have honed, like leadership or project management, spreadsheets, budgeting, or whatever it might be. Try to uncover those forgotten details of what you painstakingly did on the job every day, and then figure out how to condense those things down, quantify them if possible, then add just the finer points in your master resume.
When you’re doing this, some of my favorite resources online are Thesaurus.com, and ONetOnline.com. Between these two sites you can look for the perfect adjectives or verbs to describe what you actually did at your last job, in professional lingo.
And then you need to try to figure out how what you did (the tasks) made a difference or helped your employer in some way (the improvements or results).
The key here is to focus on the: Situation, Action, and Result.
You do not just want your resume to be a list of the “tasks” you did. It needs to be more than that.
You need to explain how those tasks affected (benefited) the company or employer- what was the benefit of what you did?
Think of it as if you were the owner of the company. And try to format your bullet points in such a way that they show not only what you did, but maybe how, and definitely what happened when you did those tasks, that helped the company grow or improve in some way.
For example- instead of just writing: “Managed all travel and schedules for executive team.” What would be better is: “Managed all schedules for executive team to ensure accurate, efficient, and cost effective travel occurred 100% of the time”
Always put numbers in when you can! When you can quantify what you did, it’s even better. Your new employers wants to know about what results you have gotten in the past, in the hopes you can do the same or better for them.
Related Reading: How to Become a Real Influencer
This is also what I tell people they need to work on when they’re preparing for interviews. When going over potential interview questions, you’ve got to come up with a mini “story” or example of how something you’ve done in the past shows how you’ve successfully used that skill or talent, in a tangible way.
So, to put this in terms of giving an answer in an interview, an example of the situation would be:
Question: “Do you have experience in managing calendars and travel for executives?”
Answer: “Yes, I’m actually very experienced in this. For instance, at a previous job, I managed the meeting and travel schedules for 3 high-ranking attorneys. It was my duty to make sure all travel arrangements were prepared and booked on time. I worked to secure the best rates to save the firm money wherever possible. And, I specifically worked very hard to communicate the itineraries so each lawyer consistently had all of their travel information in advance so that they were well-prepared. In doing this, my team was always on time for meetings and events, and perfectly adapted to the situation for which they were traveling for.”
I know, that’s a very formal response. It doesn’t have to be that rehearsed and “perfect” sounding. But do just keep the “story” tactic in mind.
That is what employers want to know — they want you to show and tell them how you have the skills that they need for you to do the job they are interviewing you for.
But I digress — I’ll go further into depth about interviewing in another post soon!
Secret #2
Your resume gets a first look by a human for about 6 seconds.
So if you’ve actually made it through the ATS, your next obstacle is the HR Rep. And no joke, HR managers have literally told me they only spend about 6 seconds when they are first sorting through resumes. This is to initially determine if it is going in the “take another look” pile or the “not a match” pile.
Thus, you want to make sure your resume is well designed, easy to read, with enough words to show you are qualified, but not so many as to be so overwhelming to read. And remember that white space is good!
Because I’ll be honest here — again, they don’t really care that much about your past. They’re more interested in your future, and how you can help them now.
They really don’t want to know about every job you’ve ever had or every project under the sun that you’ve ever done. They just want to know that you have the skills to do the job you’re applying for today.
I mentioned O-NetOnline.org above, this is a website managed by the US Department of Labor. They’ve tried to categorize and define every type of job there is that possibly exists. You can likely type in just about any job title you might ever want to apply for (or have ever had), and find out the “standard” explanation of what the job typically entails.
This can help you in a few ways. First, you use it to help you define, for your resume, the tasks you did or skills you used in any previous job. Especially if you’re not sure how to put it into words for a written document. You can get a lot of tips of the formatting in their descriptions.
And second, look at the skills and knowledge necessary for each particular job you think you might be interested in doing. It can be really helpful for you to get an idea if something you’re considering is even what you want to do!
Secret #3
Your resume formatting is probably sabotaging your chances.
I’m talking about the AI based Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) that companies now use as the first “gate” for applicants to get through.
This one seriously upsets me, the fact that people don’t know that this is how it is and they have absolutely no idea! (Which is why I want to disseminate the info far and wide!)
These automated computer systems are still sort of new so they’re not super accurate or advanced yet. Meaning they have a hard time reading or “seeing” certain things on a resume. And when they can’t read it, they automatically reject it ! So it never even has a chance to get to a human’s hands, right from the start. Can you believe that?
These are the tips I’ve heard directly from a very large aerospace manufacturer’s lead HR manager (as well as many sources online)- so you’re not just taking my word for it. (Well, you still sort of are if you’re reading this, but do your own research and you’ll find it’s true!)
Here’s the no-no’s you want to change or remove from your resume ASAP because the ATS’s can’t read them:
· Lines and Underlines
· Words in Italics
· Custom Fonts
· Serif Fonts
· Pictures or Images
· Tables
· Headers and Footers
So just to be clear, you will need to use only font size and bold options to make transitions and differentiations on your resume- not underlines and not italics. Preferably use a sans serif font as well, as it’s easier for people to read.
And please, do not put any pictures or graphics on your resume! It’s cheesy and not applicable and can work against you personally. (unless you’re a model and they want to see your mug!)
Also don’t insert tables or headers and footers. You can make columns and use bullets, just not formatted in tables. And even bullets might be questionable, so use them sparingly.
And these are some things you also want to leave out because they can influence bias toward or against you.
· Your address- your neighborhood shouldn’t matter, but you could be judged by where you live, so leave it out. If you must put something, just put your city and state.
· Dates on your education (unless required per the job description)- this can create potential age discrimination, toward both older and younger
· Hobbies & Interests- not professionally relevant usually, discuss this in your interview, not on your resume
· Volunteer work- save this info for your interview too, that’s where you talk yourself up
I know in the past those types of things were appreciated on resumes. But not so much anymore. Your resume should be completely professional, and speak to only what you have done as work experience.
The cover letter and interview are where you’ll use all those other pieces to help you stand out and shine. That’s where you will talk-up about all the amazing things you’ve done or are doing outside of work. And it’s where you’ll discuss what makes you the best candidate for the job.
I kind of like to think of it like a label on a bottle of medication or food. Your resume is like the FDA mandated ingredient list — (or the Drug Facts inside that little box on the label) it’s gotta be exactly what’s in there, nothing more, nothing less.
Whereas your cover letter and/or interview are like the “marketing” paragraph on the label. That’s the part where it tells you how those ingredients are going to be good for you. The claims about what the product will do to make your life better, and how it’s the best in the world. Make sense?
Also, make sure you’re including only jobs which are applicable or related to what you are applying for now. You need to tailor your skills and keywords to each specific position you’re applying for. So read the Job Requisition carefully!
Lastly, here are some things that you definitely want to make sure ARE included. And hopefully you already know this, but you really do need to adjust your resume for every job you apply for!
· Use the Keywords listed in the job description you’re applying for in your work history if possible.
· Include necessary education or training requirements, and always list this last on the resume (You can go to 2 pages, but that’s the max).
· Do include your Name, Phone, Email.
· Do include your LinkedIn Profile address if you have one (and you really should in most industries). You can also edit this to just be your name, so look for that feature.
One last thing on formatting- please make sure to list your job titles first, then the company you worked for. They want to know what you did, they don’t really care that much about where you worked, most of the time.
Hopefully that all makes sense! If not, please comment and ask me any questions!
Conclusion
The very last recommendation I have for you is to please, for the sake of Pete, make sure you edit, proofread, and then probably edit again — at least 4–5 times. Seriously!
And after that, please have someone else read over it again for you, to catch any last errors you might have made. That’s the biggest killer on the resume, besides ATS formatting mistakes, errors and typos are death knells.
A real life example I recently saw on a Resume was this sentence: “Exceptional attntion to detail”
Really? Yeah…don’t be that person.
Now you know my 3 resume secrets, so get out there and apply for some jobs! And check back in soon, as I’ll be sharing more tips about getting a job in today’s market.
Good luck and PLEASE let me know how your job search goes! I’d love to hear what your biggest takeaways are from this post? What’s your biggest struggle in looking for a new job today?
This article first appeared on Medium.com on February 27, 2019.
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