Your resume is a powerful tool that showcases your qualifications, work experience, and skills to prospective employers. A well-crafted resume shows you in a positive light. It increases the odds of being called for relevant job openings. Let us look at the top tips for resume writing in this article.
In this writeup, we list the different factors associated with creating your resume right. It covers formatting your resume, listing work experience and education, and highlighting skills. So let’s dive straight in and go through these easy to follow tips for resume writing.
Top tips for resume writing
1. Go with a simple and scannable design
It is tempting to use trending graphics and formatting for creating your resume. However, it should be noted that simpler designs deliver better outcomes for resumes in nearly all cases.
A hiring manager will look at your resume only for a few seconds before he moves on to the next. Simpler designs will appeal more to him. So, you want to go ahead with a resume design that has clearly marked sections with job titles in bold.
2. Make it ATS-ready
It is equally important to make sure that applicant tracking systems (ATS) find your resume easy to read. To scan your resume, an ATS first converts it into plain text. If your resume relies heavily on graphic elements, this could lead to a problem here.
A resume that is ATS-friendly is in the .txt or .pdf format. It has a simple design, clearly marked sections, and includes the relevant ATS keywords. You may want to make sure that your resume does not go overboard with ATS keywords.
3. Create an objective or a professional summary
Objectives and professional summaries deliver an idea about your job preparedness to hiring managers.
4. Add a professional email address
Your email ID is one of the most important channels for hiring managers to connect with you. You want it to be professional and easy to remember. You may want to use Gmail to create your email ID, as it is the most popular email provider. Try and include your name in the email ID.
5. The references section might not be required at all
There used to be a time when the references section used to be an indispensable part of nearly all resumes created. But not so today. This section has now become optional.
Similarly, at one time, they used to write ‘references available upon request’ below the resume. They don’t write it anymore. This section is no longer needed.
The truth of the matter is that it is very unlikely that your hiring manager will have the time to call up any of the references that you share and check with them. So, in your resume, you might want to cover the space that the references section takes up with some additional information on your work experience.
6. Put your work experience in reverse chronological order
This is self-explanatory. Your hiring manager is likely to have maximum interest in your most recent work experience.
7. Bullet points tailored for the job you are applying to
It is prudent to ensure that the skills that you mention on the resume are the ones that hiring managers are proactively on a lookout for. Mentioning them in bullet points makes your resume easier to go through. So, by using bullet points, you can present yourself as being more suitable for the job.
8. Use technical language sparingly
If you come from a specialized industry, you are likely to hold a reasonable bit of technical knowledge. However, a hiring manager may not be sure about the nuances of the trade in all cases.
To get a head start with the recruiters, it is recommendable to tone down the technical content on your resume. This makes it easier for a hiring manager to understand your prior work experience.
So, you may want to discuss numbers at this point. Instead of talking about databases in detail, you may want to say that you managed systems that hundreds of employees used.
9. Focus on concrete achievements
It is often better if outcomes are mentioned on the resume, instead of actions. So instead of saying that you made hundreds of calls to potential customers daily, you might want to say that you increased the company’s revenue by 150%.
10. Using action words
You seek to put your best foot forward when you present your resume. To make the best impression on the hiring manager, you want to use impactful language to describe your responsibilities and duties. Action-oriented verbs will deliver the best outcomes for these circumstances.
So, instead of saying that you led a team of four, you want to express the same thing by saying that you managed a team of four. This makes it easier for the hiring manager to understand your job responsibilities in the previous work position.
11. Put your experience before your education on the resume
There is only one exception to this rule, and that is for students who don’t hold any corporate work experience. They put their education towards the top of the resume. However, if you hold work experience, you will mention work experience first and then your education.
Putting education before work experience also works for corporate workers who are also currently pursuing their education. Then, as a learner, you may want to bring the focus on your job skills by adding a relevant courses section in the education section. Here, you could talk about the courses that make you relevant for the concerned role.
12. Awards and achievements
During your time in schools, if you had received any academic awards or hold any achievements that you would like to mention, they too should make it into the resume’s education section. One of the important examples of awards received when in school is scholarships.
13. GPA should generally be avoided
GPA is to be avoided on your resume unless your employer specifically asks for it. In most cases, employers are more concerned about you meeting the educational requirements than your grades.
If your grades have been exceptionally good, you may want to add them to highlight your dedication and hard work. Overall, adding or not adding the GPA is up to you, but hiring managers don’t typically expect you to mention your GPA on your resume.
14. It is best to include both technical skills and workplace skills
While technical skills are typically classified as hard skills, workplace skills are often called soft skills. Your resume should highlight both.
At times, employees feel that it is only their technical skills that are valuable for employers. This notion is incorrect, and soft skills are frequently deemed to be as important as hard skills. Mentioning both on the resume is one of the best practices.
Among the most important soft skills to mention on the resume are critical thinking, problem-solving, and teamwork.
15. Tailor skills to the job description
It is likely that you hold an entire range of skills. However, each of these skills is not necessarily valuable for the job you are applying to.
So, from the viewpoint of creating the resume, you should only mention those skills that are valuable for the concerned role or position. The best spot for knowing about these skills is to first go through the job description. Once you figure out the skills that the hiring manager is looking for, you can decide which of these skills you possess. Listing these skills on the resume makes it attractive from the hiring manager’s viewpoint and increases the odds of your resume clearing the organization’s ATS system.
16. Highlighting unique skills
There will be cases wherein you hold some unique skills that are not required by the job description as such. If that is the case, these skills, too, should be mentioned on your resume. You may want to mention your coding skills in Java and C# when the job profile needs you to be a Python programmer.
Conclusion:
By highlighting your skills and strengths and tailoring them for each position, your resume stands out in the job market. Focusing on your achievements and using action words helps create a dynamic document. We hope that these tips for resume writing deliver the best outcomes for your requirements.