The 20 best tips and tricks for your resume

A recent Glassdoor study indicated that 97.8 percent of applicants are rejected based on their resumes alone.

That's ridiculous. And frankly, unfair. How can a company judge all its skills, achievements and experiences on a single sheet of paper?

That is why we wrote this article.

Over the past week, we've reached out to various hiring managers, recruiters, and professional trainers to find out exactly what they're looking for when they flip through your resume. After reading this article, you will know exactly what your future employers are looking for when they read your resume.

At Undertaking Employment Solutions, we believe that content is the most important element of your resume, so that's the focus of these resume tips and tricks. If you are looking for a resume template that is ATS compliant.

Resume Tip 1: Use short bullets. No paragraphs.

If a recruiter were to pick up your resume right now, how easy would it be for him or her to skim through it in 30 seconds and get a feel for your experiences and accomplishments? This is what we call "30-second skimming," and your resume should be optimized for it.

Short, concise bullets are key to the readability of your resume. Text blobs, that is, bullets or paragraphs of three lines or more, may not be read.

Score My Resume checks that the content of your resume is the correct length.

Resume Tip 2: for the resume

All recruiters agree that a goal is superfluous on a resume. The company already knows what you are looking for because you applied for a specific position. Having a personal objective section can even exclude you from other similar positions that might be of interest to you.

Resume Tip 3: Just add a summary section if you need it!

With a few exceptions, a Summary section generally does little for your resume, other than duplicating your accomplishments and wasting space.

Your resume is already meant to be a concise summary of your accomplishments.

It is not necessary to re-summarize it in paragraph form. The only exception to this rule is if you need to add important information that is not in another section of your resume.

For example, if you are looking to completely change your career and role (for example, moving from software engineering to marketing), you can use 1-2 lines to direct a recruiter to the specific roles you are looking for. If you decide to include a summary, make sure it's not full of fluffy, subjective buzzwords like "teamwork" or "worker under pressure."

Resume Tip 4: Sort Your Resume Sections Based on Job Requirements

Recruiters review your resume from top to bottom, so be smart about positioning your sections.

"You must ask, is there something that can automatically disqualify me from the contest and does not include it or move it?

For example, if a specific title is required and you have another title or no title, move the Education section to the bottom of your resume. "

Resume Tip 5: tailor your resume to include relevant achievements

Gabriel Saaba, says 

"Never submit a generic resume for a job. Even if you are applying for multiple jobs in rapid succession, it is well worth the time it takes to tailor your resume to each and every position you are applying for .

Don't just include everything you've done; Make sure all the space on your resume is used to tell the recruiter why you are perfect for that particular job. If you have education or skills that are not relevant to the position, think about leaving them out or explain succinctly why they show relevant transferable skills. "

Resume Tip 6: Add keywords from the job description to your resume

When writing a resume that is initially being reviewed by an automated screening process, the absolutely most critical step you can take to ensure you get through the initial phase is to add keywords that are in the job description to your resume.

Why? The vast majority of these selection processes are unsophisticated and simply scan your resume for keywords that are relevant to the job. If they are in sufficient quantity, your resume will be passed to a human for further review. Otherwise, you will be rejected instantly, regardless of whether you are qualified for the position. While this may seem like a sneaky move, I can assure you that it will make your success rate skyrocket.

You can assess whether your resume is well oriented to the job you are applying for by testing the targeted resume. It is an ATS resume keyword scanner that tests if your resume is well geared towards the job description.

Resume Tip 7: Achievement-Oriented, Not Responsibility-Oriented

"Your resume should be achievement-based. Simply regurgitating your job description into multiple bullets is no longer effective. This strategy doesn't show if you've done your job well. Nor does it give employers much context on how you can help them. I always recommend that you My clients investigate pain points and tap into those needs directly with relevant achievements. For example, a business may be looking for an experienced administrative assistant on Instagram. Who are they most likely to request an interview between these two?

Option 1: run departmental social media pages.

Option 2: Increased Instagram following by 58% by developing engaging content, attending the Instagram for Business online course, and staying up-to-date on emerging marketing trends. "

Resume Tip 8: Quantify your resume!

"Instead of writing your resume to read like a job description (current or former positions), use it as a guide to identify what is most important in relation to the position you are looking for. At those points, add keywords and details that reflect your success. Performance metrics and KPIs all come into play here.

If you have contributed to reduce, increase or change something in your work, mention it. Don't wait until the fifth bullet to notice that you were instrumental in modifying a process that saved the company $ 50K, or is 250% above sales.

Whatever it is, bring it up to substantiate how you impact the bottom line. And don't be shy. If you were part of a team that supported these efforts, you still had something to do with it. Too many people say, "well, I didn't do it all by myself," and don't mention it, instead claiming that you were part of a team that was made. If you don't know where to start, go through your vignettes and ask the question " Why is this important?" or "well, so what?" to help you. Whether it's your performance reviews or other documentation, review it to support your claims.

Resume Tip 9: use an easy-to-understand job title

"One of the first things I look at as a recruiter is the candidates' current job title. Then I look at the company, tenure, and past jobs. Education comes second."

"It's common to have nifty job titles, which makes it unclear who someone is really responsible for. Equally, it's common to see someone's title as your level, for example vice president or director. be immediately apparent. It's important to be honest, so don't make up a title. However, if your job is a waitress, call yourself a waitress and not a customer satisfaction representative or customer service specialist. "

" Your resume will likely get less than 30 seconds of attention and you probably have 5 seconds to make an impact. You need to make this easy for someone. To do so, make it clear that it is relevant to the work you are doing."

Resume Tip 10: make sure applicant tracking systems can read your resume

Companies get hundreds of candidates for each job. It is quite unfeasible to expect a hiring manager to manually review each and every application, including those who may not have the right experience for the job.

That is why companies use ATS or Candidate Tracking Systems . They are automated software that electronically analyze and process your resume, reducing the number of resumes hiring managers have to manually review.

Erica who is Life Coach emphasizes the importance of matching your resume to the job description: "If you are submitting your resume online, you will want to make sure you incorporate the main points and keywords from the job description into your resume and make sure you use a format optimized for ATS. "

"ATS cannot read text placed in headers or footers.

ATS cannot read text placed in graphs, tables, or text boxes.

ATS does not care about bold, underlined, italic, colored, or colored text.

ATS does not see photos embedded in your resume (JPG or PNG files)

ATS scans the text from left to right so that it does not correctly read the text formatted in columns . "

At Undertaking Employee Solutions , we provide ATS-proof tools for our clients.

Resume Tip 11: If you are a programmer, make a list of projects online.

"If you're a programmer, be sure to clearly list skills, languages, and frameworks for the benefit of recruiters and hiring managers. Including a link to your Github profile or specific projects you've worked on will also allow resume reviewers to see your talent in action.

Recruiters are often looking for precise skills tied to the position, so listing your competencies will help you differentiate yourself from other resumes. Your Github profile and projects will help hiring managers see clearly what you've worked on. "

If you are not a programmer, you can include links to your projects, be it your blog or your online portfolio.

Resume Tip 12: use a clean resume template

Keep your resume design clean without a lot of clutter, colors, different fonts, or graphics. These can easily be overdone and when you're a recruiter reading hundreds of resumes, it's too much to look at, so keep going.

Additionally, using fancy fonts and styles increases the chance that ATS will misprocess your resume. If you are unsure whether ATS will correctly process your resume, upload it for an ATS resume scan.

Resume Tip 13: Organize Your Sections Effectively

"Use spacing to create visual space. Divide your past work experiences into sections and subsections, with at least one evenly spaced blank line between each. Use section headings as an organizing tool."

"You want your resume reader to be able to go through your list, from one past work experience to the next, without all the details getting mixed up. Don't use text boxes to do this though; they tend to look tacky and are not compatible with company applicant tracking systems. You don't want your resume to end up in the hiring manager's trash file due to a formatting error. "

Resume Tip 14: use a meaningful file name

Use first name, last name and if you want the title (or similar) as the file name. Recruiters often keep resumes in the same folder and you will be surprised how often resumes are lost because they are saved as "resume.pdf".

Resume Tip 15: use the active voice, not the passive voice

Using the active voice not only ensures that your resume is less wordy and more concise, it also makes it more impactful.

Claudia Caprio also had this example to add regarding the use of the active voice:

"Use active and not passive voice when writing your resume points. This means saying things like" I increased revenue by X when I set up campaign X "and not" Revenue from the campaign increased by X when the campaign was set up. "

The first example of active voice makes it clear that it was you who initiated the action and got the results, which is key to stand out with your resume. "

Resume Tip 16: Review your resume. No spelling or grammar mistakes!

There are obvious things here, but you might be surprised how many resumes we've seen with spelling or grammatical errors. Ask a friend to review your resume!

Jaime Rodriguez from Emprender Soluciones de Empleo also added this: it is absolutely essential that you review your resume. Many recruiters will throw away resumes that have typos or other errors. Don't rely on the spell checker to catch all the mistakes, as many typos won't show up. Read the document slowly and focus on each word; It is also a good idea to show it to a friend or tutor and ask them to read it. Make sure to submit a resume that you are proud of.

Resume Tip 17. Follow up after applying for a position!

"Don't 'send and forget', take the time to follow up and ask about the status of your shipment. Include a link to your LinkedIn and make sure you're up to date. Bonus points if you have some recent recommendations from LinkedIn. And a additional bonus points if you already follow the recruiting company on LinkedIn "

Resume Tip 18: Cover letters are important too!

Karen Cohen is Director of Human Resources, she emphasizes the importance of a cover letter, in addition to your resume.

"It's not just your resume, but your cover letter. Your resume may not detail where it meets all the requirements, so a well-written cover letter is what will get you out the door. If you use a template that goes online, uses the structure, but not the exact words!

"I see the same wording in several letters," Thank you for the opportunity to apply for the available position at the company. Given the requirements in the job description, I am confident that I have the necessary skills to do the job successfully and exceed expectations. "It's awful.

"Instead, in your cover letter, tell me exactly how your experience meets my qualifications. If I'm applying for a year of supervisor experience and you've never been a supervisor, that's fine, tell me what your leadership experience was like (do I work in team? college? people development?) makes you a good supervisor.

Resume Tip 19: for Resume - Make sure your resume is consistent with your online profiles.

Make sure your resume matches your experience, education, and qualification information that you might find on your online profiles. If a hiring manager detects any inconsistencies between the two, it may imply that you have something to hide.

You can also suggest that you haven't given the expected care and attention when applying for a position and that you don't know how to effectively manage your personal brand online, something that would be a red flag for those in business roles. . "

Resume Tip 20: Avoid the trite and unnecessary industry acronyms

Keep your resume writing as simple as possible. Industry jargon and business buzzwords are too niche and you don't want to jeopardize your interview opportunities because the first HR staff member didn't understand you.

However, if the job posting requires a particular acronym or buzzword in your qualifications or qualifications, use them.