The Watercooler

Get Your Resume into Shape

Whether you’re aiming to land your first job, find a better job or just get back to work, one thing is certain: You need to get your resume in shape.

Crunches, push-ups and dieting won’t work.

What will?

Times and technology have changed. These days, grabbing a recruiter’s attention takes more than updating fonts and proofing for typos. Follow these simple tips from our national employment agency to get your resume in fighting shape:

Give your resume a human voice.

While your resume needs to be ATS-friendly, it should also help an employer learn more about you than can be described with boilerplate bullets and corporate jargon. Rewrite your lead-off or summary so that it appeals to an employer on a human level, touching on at least one of the following:

  • why you choose your career;
  • why you’re passionate about your profession;
  • how you view your industry;
  • what you want from your life and your career.

Audit what you’ve accomplished.

Whether you’ve been in school, volunteering, working as an intern, temping or working in a traditional job, you’ve been learning, growing and achieving. Take stock of everything you’ve done, and add new job skills, milestones, experiences and successes to your resume.

Moving forward, create a list of accomplishments and update it monthly – so the information you need for your next update will be right at your fingertips.

Revisit your keywords.

Here are a few things you need to know about keywords:

  • Many organizations use software to scan resumes for pertinent keywords. Even if you’re an ideal candidate, you may get passed over if your resume doesn’t contain the right words and phrases.
  • Keywords also put your skills into focus for a recruiter and help them determine, at a glance, whether your abilities align with those needed for the available position.
  • As industries change and jobs evolve, so do the keywords needed to land them.

The takeaway here? The “right” keywords for landing your dream job are incredibly important – and they’re also a bit of a moving target.

Before you apply to another posting, review the job requirements, research industry trends and scan similar job listings to generate a list of a dozen or so strong, descriptive and applicable keywords.

Use them throughout your resume, wherever they make sense.

Show the employer the “WIIFM” (What’s In It For Me).

Regardless of your experience level, industry or functional role, your resume should clearly demonstrate how your value translates into a potential employer’s specific needs.

Review your resume with a critical eye to make sure it moves beyond mere job responsibilities and shows a recruiter what’s in it for them.

Looking for more great resume advice?

Check out these other posts from PrideStaff:

You’re Spooking Hiring Managers with These 5 Resume Mistakes

Are You Caught Up in the Resume Buzzword Hype?

Then contact your local PrideStaff office. With offices from coast to coast, we help candidates like you find great jobs, temporary or full-time, within our network of clients.