I am constantly asked for advice on how to improve resumes. While there is no magic method for creating a great document, there are ground rules for how to improve your resume and increase your chances of being contacted by a recruiter or hiring manager.
Even with these tips, it is still important to begin with as well-crafted a resume as possible. Learning to create excellent resumes requires significant effort and is an ongoing exercise, so if you're still having trouble getting started, consider using an online resume builder.
Here are my top 10 tips for how to improve your resume:
Use a reverse-chronological format. This is, by far, the preferred format of recruiters, hiring managers, and applicant tracking systems. The reverse-chronological format presents your background in an easily understandable timeline.
While some experts disagree, my advice is to not use the so-called "functional" resume format. This is universally reviled by both hiring managers and recruiters. While a functional resume presents your skills and competencies, it does not focus on your career path, so jobs tend to be lumped together under key skill sets.
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Because there is no timeline of your employment history, this format is sometimes recommended to candidates who have gaps in employment to help "hide" such gaps. If your goal is to improve your resume, pick a style that sells you but makes it easy to understand your career trajectory.
There is a lot of conflicting advice out there on how to improve your resume, but almost everyone agrees with customizing for each specific role. The hiring manager to whom you're sending your resume only cares about the business problem they are dealing with right now. You want your resume to communicate that you understand the business's pain and that you can solve it. Customization of your resume accomplishes two key things. It conveys your understanding of the role and the business's problems, and it emphasizes your strengths and how they relate to the job.
Optimize with keywords. Keywords are king. To improve your resume, make sure the appropriate terms are worked in throughout. Not sure what keywords should be included? Create a word cloud out of a target job description. The biggest words are the keywords; use them to maximize your chances of being found.
Proofread! Your resume needs to be perfect. If it is rife with typos, spelling errors, or grammatical mistakes, it conveys the message that you cannot write, you lack attention to detail, you don't care, or all of the above. Have your resume reviewed and proofread by someone other than yourself. There is no room for sloppiness here.
Highlight your quantifiable achievements. A resume with no achievements is a resume that fails. You need to sell yourself on your superstar accomplishments, so be sure that you're focusing your narrative on those. When you think about your current or last position, it's easy to think about what you did. But you need to go beyond that. Think about what you accomplished. No one wants to read a resume that has a list of job duties. If you ask me how to improve your resume quickly, this is one area I will definitely tell you to address.
Purge "responsible for" from your resume. One quick fix to improve your resume is removing "responsible for" from your lexicon. Responsibilities are the mundane minutiae of any job. Responsibilities don't sell you. Instead, focus on your skills and accomplishments. Employers want to see the results of your work rather than a boring list of the tasks you performed.
Eliminate clutter. By "clutter" I mean things that take up valuable real estate on your resume but do nothing to promote you. Graphics, nonstandard fonts, articles (a, an, the). In short, your resume should be concise, accomplishment-driven, and to the point.
Know when enough is enough. I generally recommend that people go back 15-20 years maximum on their resumes. Although the role you held in the early '90s was important in getting you to where you are today, it is not directly relevant to jobs to which you're applying now. Additionally, there is no reason for you to include every single job you've ever held. A resume is a promotional document, so you want to include only relevant, relatable experience.
Delete the "objective" statement. Another quick way to improve your resume is to get rid of the objective statement. This is passé and irrelevant. Instead, consider starting off your resume with a personal summary, which many consider to be the modern successor to this dated segment.
Know your audience. I often say one of the most uncomfortable truths about jobseeking is that the entire process has little to do with you, the candidate. It's about the hiring company and the particular manager's business needs. You need to craft your resume not for yourself, but for your audience, which is the recruiters and hiring managers you'll be contacting. To improve your resume, make sure it focuses on the business problems your audience might have and illustrates how you are the solution.
Keywords are king. To improve your resume, make sure the appropriate terms are worked in throughout. Not sure what keywords should be included? Create a word cloud out of a target job description. The biggest words are the keywords; use them to maximize your chances of being found.
Customize! There is a lot of conflicting advice out there on how to improve your resume, but almost everyone agrees with customizing for each specific role. The hiring manager to whom you're sending your resume only cares about the business problem they are dealing with right now. You want your resume to communicate that you understand the business's pain and that you can solve it. Customization of your resume accomplishes two key things. It conveys your understanding of the role and the business's problems, and it emphasizes your strengths and how they relate to the job.
