20 Tips to Boost Your Resume
Your resume acts as the first impression to a potential employer. It lets them know who you are professionally and what type of skills, experience, and personality you’ll bring to their team.
Despite the resume being such an important document, many don’t take the time to optimize it as best they can. This often because job searchers don’t know how to make their resume stand out above all other applications.
To help, we’ve created this list of 20 tips to boost your resume that will take your application from average to amazing! Keep reading to discover how to update your resume with the best results.
20 Ways to Boost Your Resume
If looking to improve your chances of getting your desired job, use these 20 tips to optimize your resume and stand out from the competition.
1. Read the Job Posting Thoroughly and Look for Keywords
Make sure you read the job posting thoroughly. Look closely at the job tasks and the skills being asked for, found in the “Requirements” or “Qualifications” section of the posting. Make sure you have these skills and can complete the tasks outlined.
Include proof that you have these skills in your resume. Mention tasks you’ve completed in previous positions that make you qualified to complete the tasks in this new position.
While you don’t necessarily need to have every skill and have experience relevant to every task, you should meet at least 70-80% of these requirements. Use your cover letter to explain the requirements you’re lacking and why you’re still a qualified candidate.
Also, look for any other keywords that have been used and take note of those. You should then include those keywords in your resume (and cover letter) for that job.
2. Keep Formatting Simple and Consistent
The way you format your resume is very important and is often overlooked by applicants. Keep it clean, simple, and legible. Use a professional font, such as Arial or Helvetica, and keep your font size at 10 point or 12 point. Margins should be between one and two inches and use single spacing. Use subheadings to highlight each new section of your resume.
Make sure you keep formatting consistent throughout. If you bold a subheading, for example, be sure to bold all subheadings. Additionally, don’t leave so much white space that it looks sparse but don’t cram the page full either.
Focus on readability, your resume needs to be easy to scan and quickly provide the reader with all the information they need.
Focus on readability, your resume needs to be easy to scan and quickly provide the reader with all the information they need.
3. Lay Your Resume Out in a Standard Way
Your resume’s contents should be presented in a traditional format. Make contact information clear at the top of the page. Include your phone number and a professional email (use your name at gmail.com or outlook.com). You can put your address but it isn’t 100% necessary.
Your personal summary should then be under your contact info. This is a short paragraph of three to four sentences that highlights who you are professionally (for example, “I’m a graphic designer with 5 years experience”) and what you bring to the position and the company in general.
Follow this with your work experience and then your education. Next, put skills, and awards, achievements, and interests.
4. List Relevant Experience in Reverse Chronological Order and Order of Importance
Unless you’re a new graduate, work experience should be the first thing mentioned after your contact info and summary. Include your most recent and relevant experience only. Do not include experience from over 10 years ago (or at most, from over 15 years ago) or experience that doesn’t relate at all to the position you’re applying for.
The experience section should be in reverse chronological order, starting with your most recent job. The only reason you may put a job that wasn’t your most recent job first is if that job is the most relevant to the position you’re applying for.
For each position, list accomplishments and responsibilities in order of importance and relevance to the job you’re applying for. You should list these using bullet points and short to the point sentences. Include a maximum of six bullet points under each position.
5. Back-Up Experience With Stats and Figures
Use figures, statistics, and additional relevant information to back up accomplishments. For example, don’t just say “I exceeded my sales targets.” Instead say “I exceeded my sales targets by 40% by cultivating strong client relationships and generating new leads”
6. Include Short Term Rolls and Reasons for Employment Gaps
Do include part-time jobs, volunteer positions, and contract or freelance positions if relevant to the job posting. Even if they were short term, these can help show you’re qualified as long as they were intended to be short term. It’s not recommended to include non-temporary jobs that you left after a few months without good reason.
If you have employment gaps (with good reason) don’t be worried to show this on your resume. Then include reasons for gaps in employment in your cover letter. For example, mention that the company closed or you relocated.
7. Don’t Worry if You Don’t Have Experience
If you’re new to the workforce or have changed your career path, don’t omit the experience section. Even without experience, you can focus on your skills and anything else that is relevant such as academic projects you completed. Then use your cover letter to explain your lack of experience in a positive way and why you are still a great fit for the job.
8. List Education in Reverse Chronological Order
Put your education after your work experience. Like experience, education should be in reverse chronological order. Along with degrees, you can include relevant courses you’ve taken and certifications.
If you recently graduated and are applying for your first professional job, put your education first. You can still include part-time work or internships plus coursework and academic achievements under an “experience” section placed after your education credentials.
9. Mention Your Skills, Achievements, and Interests
You should include a section with relevant skills and industry certifications. List skills relating to those asked for in the job posting.
Mention all of the requested skills/qualifications that you have. Then also add skills relevant to the industry that were not directly asked for. Leave out skills that most people have like using email programs or Microsoft Word.
Achievements, such as any industry awards you’ve won, and interests can be included too if relevant to the job and the industry it’s in.
10. Use Skill Subheadings
If you have a few skills under one category, you can highlight these with a subheading. For example, if you speak multiple languages, use a “Foreign Languages” subheading.
11. Show Soft Skills Instead of Listing Them
Instead of listing soft skills, such as being a good team leader or communicator, try to “show” these skills in your “Experience” section. For example, say “I led a team of 5 employees to create a successful client marketing pitch” instead of just listing “good team leader” in your “Skills” section.
12. Keep It Brief
Your resume should be one or two pages at most. The length of your resume should match your career length. If you’ve just graduated or have only held a few job positions, one page should be sufficient. If you’ve had a longer career, you may need two pages to include all relevant experience.
It needs to be easy to read and scan. Remember the “6-second” recruiter test. Most of those hiring will only spend six seconds looking at each resume. Make sure scanning your resume in that short amount of time gets them all the important information they need. Only include the most relevant information.
13. Don’t Use Jargon
Don’t use jargon on your resume. Your experience and skills should show that you understand the industry you’re in. You don’t need to prove it with technical terms.
The person reading your resume may also not be directly in your line of work. For example, if a recruiter is reading your resume, they aren’t likely to have technical knowledge of the position. Make sure your resume is understandable for anyone who may read it.
14. Proofread and Edit
Some recruiters will discard your application if they find spelling or grammar errors. Therefore, it’s necessary to proofread your resume multiple times. Additionally, ask a friend or colleague to review your resume too. You can also use online grammar tools to check for errors.
Along with checking for grammar and spelling errors when proofreading, think about how you can condense your resume.
Consider the following when condensing your resume:
• Is every word necessary?
• Is everything you’ve included under each job position relevant and necessary?
• Can you condense other sections without losing value?
Additionally, ask if you’ve made it easy for the recruiter to see you’re qualified and a great fit for the position. Have you included proof that you have the qualifications requested and have handled tasks similar to those listed in the position before? If not, adjust the content of your resume to show this.
15. Tailor Your Resume to the Job Description
Many people will make one resume and use it for all applications. However, this is not the best practice. Instead, tailor your resume for the job you’re applying for.
Look at the job description and create a resume that shows you fit the criteria well and are a great candidate. You can create one document with all of your experience, skills, and accomplishments. Then simply copy and paste the things that relate to each job posting into a tailored resume.
16. Use Online Supplements
If it’s beneficial to your application to show examples of your work, include a link to an online blog, portfolio, or website. Along with work examples, you can talk more about yourself and your qualifications on the website.
You can also include relevant social media links such as a link to your LinkedIn profile. Those in creative professions may also want to include a link to an Instagram, YouTube, or Pinterest account. Place these links either with your contact information or at the end of your resume.
Even if you don’t include social media handles, make sure what you have visible online is appropriate. Many recruiters will search for you online so make sure they don’t find anything you wouldn’t want them to see.
17. Save in PDF or Doc. Format
Save your resume as a PDF or doc. format (unless the job posting asks for your resume to be sent in a certain format.)
While PDF format will ensure the resume looks the way you want it to when opened, doc. format is more compatible with applicant tracking software (ATS). Unless you know ATS is not being used, save and send your resume in doc. format.
Save the resume with your full name in the file name. You can also include the position the resume is for. For example, “Your Name” Resume For “Job Position”.
18. Keep Your Resume Updated
Remember to refresh your resume. You should be learning new skills and accomplishing new things frequently. Make sure these changes are shown.
Even if you haven’t changed position, you may have gone from managing a team of five to a team of ten, for example. Edit your resume to reflect this.
The same goes for a portfolio if you have one linked in your resume. Add any new projects you’ve completed and remove older ones if they don’t represent your best work.
19. Use a Resume Template
Consider using a professionally designed template for your resume. If you’re in a creative position, this is necessary and should ideally be designed yourself, especially if you’re in a design field.
Even if you aren’t in a creative industry, a well-designed template not only looks more appealing but can fit more information without looking crammed and can make it easier for a recruiter to scan. There are many websites with templates you can download and edit easily.
As mentioned with file format, do be careful with some templates (such as those that use columns) as these won’t be compatible with ATS.
20. Use Your Network
Before applying or right after you send your resume, check your network to see if you have a contact at the company. Knowing someone at the company can give your resume a boost. It makes it more likely that your application will be looked at. Your contact is likely to also put in a good word for you and may be able to set up a personal introduction.
In Conclusion
Applying these 20 tips to boost your resume, will increase your chances of getting your application noticed and moving on to the next phase of the hiring process.
From fixing simple formatting mistakes to producing tailored resumes for each position, you’re sure to impress any recruiter whose desk your resume lands on.