Your resume is your brand. What is needed in a resume is everything that helps you present yourself as a brand. It should include valuable content that covers important professional information and the main highlights of your career path.
Tired of painstakingly writing, editing and rewriting your resume, only to send it across and never receive a response again?
We must tell you that you are not alone. The reality is that it is highly probable that no one actually ever looked at your resume at all.
Here are a few tips to help you understand what is needed in your resume to help you stand out.
Be yourself and put your best foot forward. You need not hesitate in showing who you really are – your likes and interests, your personality, what makes you unique and so on.
The people who are hiring you would probably prefer to work with someone who is a good cultural fit. The recruiters would want to get a glimpse of your personality and consider if you are the right fit for the job and the workplace.
“People make hiring decisions based 60% on skills and talents and 40% on likability. They want to know that they’re going to get along with you and that you’re going to get along with others.”
It is important to communicate to the recruiters that you are the perfect fit for the job. For this, you must read the job description and list out the key phrases in your resume. What is needed in a resume is that when you are writing or editing it, those words and phrases must be incorporated from the desired job description into your resume. Be it a machine or a human recruiter skimming through it – this can be extremely helpful.
The average time spent reading a resume is 6 seconds. Make them matter.
About six seconds, that is the average time employers spend in reading a resume. In these six seconds, you have to convince a complete stranger to arrive at the decision to call you for an interview.
There is a high probability that the hiring manager might not even get to the second page. A one page resume is a widely accepted best practice unless you are not applying for the position of an executive or a partner at some organization.
What is needed in a resume is a real purpose. Everything that you write or edit must make you ask yourself, “Will this sentence help me get the job I want?” If not, you shouldn’t think twice about editing that sentence or removing it from your resume.
The objective of the resume is not to showcase everything you have ever done, but rather to show that you have the background, skills, and experience for the job at hand.
Recognized as “The Employment Therapist”, Ladino Bryson has some valuable suggestions for the candidates. She says that adopting the LinkedIn style headline under the candidates’ names, giving a short description of who they are and their best qualities as an employee, can make a huge difference.
While applying for job roles, the words used in the headline should align with the keywords for those positions. You have the hiring manager’s attention when you put those keywords right at the top of the resume. What is needed in a resume is impact and relevant keywords help you create that impact.
“When we look for those filtered words, there’s a yellow highlighter that shows every time the words shows up in your resume. If [the keywords are] in your title, it is going to pop immediately.”
Bryson further describes keywords as an effective tool which help the recruiters find the right candidates for a particular job profile. Thus, it is important that the candidates
prepare their resumes by carefully going through the terminology used to describe the job role and requirements they wish to apply for. Following this, the same terminology should be used to describe their own professional experience.
What is needed in a resume is that it should clearly and concisely tell the story of “You”. The entire purpose is to help the hiring managers understand why you are the right person for the job.
While re-reading and editing your resume, the story of your background, the skills you gained along the way, the experiences that you have had, must be highlighted well. Most importantly, the story should reflect in a crystal clear way why you have ended up where you are today and why the job role you are applying for is the perfect next step for you in your professional journey.
While keeping the spelling and grammar in check, be careful about the language used in your resume. Avoid using fancy words or jargons, they are nothing but fluff.
What is needed in a resume is a simple yet impactful presentation of your professional experience. From the language to the format used in the resume, it is the substantial information that gets the attention, not the fancy fonts or words.
In order to succeed, you need to build a resume of substance. Fancy design and content obscure that substance. Applicant tracking systems (ATS) are used by companies to electronically filter out hundreds, and sometimes thousands of applicants. Over formatting can only spoil things for you as it would affect the way the ATS reads your resume. Even if you clear the ATS, a “pretty” resume is usually really difficult to read for employers.
As far the content is concerned, keep it simple and easy to read. Do not give your hiring managers a hard time figuring out what is it that you really wish to express. Describe your duties and accomplishments to present yourself as an achiever by using action words.
“The ATS works very similar to Google search of late. Every aspect of the resume offers you the opportunity to feature important words or accomplishments that facilitate your resume score higher with the system.”
Whether you are actively searching for jobs or not, you should keep your resume up to date. When you haven’t updated your resume in a long time, there is nothing worse than trying to recall all that you have done in your jobs so far. Make it a habit to update your resume at least twice a year or when you receive a promotion.
With an updated resume, you are poised for anything that comes your way.
What is needed in a resume is that all the irrelevant information and experience are removed from it. Listing the irrelevant experiences is one of the most common mistakes made by the candidates.
“Anything that is over 10 years ago, unless it is completely relevant to the position you’re applying for and shows a natural progression, I would take off.”
If you have established a strong presence on social media, do not hesitate in linking your social media accounts to your resume. What is needed in a resume is a glimpse of your personality. The first question is: What social media accounts should be included in the resume?
LinkedIn, a social media platform designed exclusively for professionals, should certainly be included in your resume. Your personal branding is effectively demonstrated by your LinkedIn profile. With a professional photo, an impactful and well-articulated professional summary, and a concise work experience – your LinkedIn profile can introduce you properly.
Apart from LinkedIn, the next best personal branding tool is Twitter. Through your Twitter account, you can demonstrate a variety of interests and attributes via your feed. Help the hiring managers take a quick glance at your interesting persona.
Nothing else matters if the contact information you provided is incorrect. We are sure that you don’t wish to be that person who has everything a recruiter is looking for but is just impossible to contact. What is needed in a resume is accuracy. You must check, double check, and test your contact information.
Typing errors are always bad and the ones in your contact information are probably as bad as misrepresentation of your identity. It’s a real disappointment to notice an incorrect email address or phone number after a couple of months into your job search.
Would you want to be that person?
Nobody likes being rejected. It takes courage to go out into the world and pitch yourself as a brand.
With the help of the tips mentioned above, you can build a resume that highlights your skills, expertise, and experience in the best way possible. Even the most perfect resume would not get you the job you really want but it can surely help you land the interviews. That is the first step.
What is needed in your resume is your persona, your true self. In the modern professional world, your individuality is the competitive differentiating factor. Make it matter.
(This disclaimer informs readers that the views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author, and not necessarily to the author’s employer, organization, committee or any other group or individual.)
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