32 Resume Tips & Tricks from the Experts
Finding work is hard - but finding work during a pandemic is even harder! That’s why we’ve compiled a list of some of our favourite tips and tricks to get you noticed when you apply for a new job. Looking at this list may seem a little overwhelming, but we promise the time you spend reading these tips and tweaking your resume will be worth it!
At Resume Ninjas, we value the efforts that go into building a resume and want to set you up for success. We have a variety of packages and can coach you on presenting your best talents, using our past experience as recruiters.
If you’re just entering the world of job hunting, we recommend you start here. These tips aim to highlight what’s important and help you catch the eye of potential hiring managers.
For your convenience, we’ve separated our tips into the following categories:
Getting Started
Talking About Your Experiences
Education
Social Media and Outside Interests
Getting Started
1. Choose a consistent and clean format
Choosing a simple format that isn’t distracting is best, and if you use colour, keep it to one or two professional shades. The exception to this rule is if you’re going to work in graphic design or another creative field - where showcasing your creative skills may be a benefit.
2. Find examples tailored to your field
Spend the time to do research on resume styles in your field. A marketing manager or a graphic designer are going to have very different resumes from an executive or academic. Reach out to your network to see if you can take a peek at their resume as you’ll likely find it helpful.
3. The shorter, the better (Don’t put everything on there)
You don’t need to list all jobs you’ve worked over the years. Keep your work experience to the past 15 years, unless it’s relevant to the job you’re applying for - or you’ve had a significant gap in your employment
4. Highlight/put the best parts on the top third
Make sure you add the juicy bits so that the first thing the hiring manager sees will grab their attention, and keep them reading. This can include your most relevant job experience, your personal profile, or a list of your skills.
5. Tailor your resume to the job you’re applying for
Highlighting the skills that best match the job you’re applying for will help catch the eye of recruiters. Take the time to tailor your resume to each job application - consider it an investment for your future career!
6. Ditch the objective statement
Unless you’re a new graduate or making a major career change, an objective statement is not needed. Rather than focus on your hopes for a career, summarize some key, relevant accomplishments that will catch the eye of the hiring manager.
7. Plan your resume to fit ATS (applicant tracking systems)
Many companies use human resources systems to streamline their work. Part of this includes using software to pull information off of uploaded resumes. Applicant trackers also don't see headers or footers, text boxes, coloured text, or if it's bolded, italicized, or underlined.
Additionally, you’ll need to walk a fine line between making your resume aesthetically interesting, and making your resume ATS compliant. Make sure your most important information is not in any of the formats in the above point - and keep them to one column.
8. Save as a PDF
The rule of thumb is to save your resume as a pdf, as it will remain formatted correctly. However, this can change if the company you apply for has a robust ATS so it’s always best to ask them If they use an ATS - and if so, save it instead as a word document, as information can be taken by the software more easily.
9. Go easy on caps
CAPS ARE NOT AS IMPRESSIVE AS YOU THINK! Keep caps limited to very specific heading types as they come across as glaring and aggressive - and unfortunately don’t place the kind of emphasis you intended.
10. Hire help
Consider hiring a coach to help hone your resume. Having a professional with real hands-on experience can help give you the best foot forward when applying for your dream job. If you’re looking for a coach, it’s one of the services that we offer.
Talking about Your Experiences
11. 5-6 bullet points max per job section
Keep your job experience to your most important accomplishments. Any more than five or six points will be fatiguing and likely won’t be read. It’s important to make sure the information is easy to skim and has plenty of organized headings and subheadings.
12. Don’t bold the company you worked for, bold the position you held
Unless working for the company is a brag in itself (like Google or Facebook), recruiters care significantly more about the position you held at the company, not what it was called.
13. Quantify your accomplishments
If you’ve had success, find ways to quantify the impact it had on your team or clients.
14. Add all types of work, including volunteering! Especially if it’s relevant.
A lot of times it’s easier to break into your field by doing unpaid work, but that doesn’t diminish the value of what you did. Make sure to showcase the relevant volunteer work you’ve done! The hiring manager will appreciate that you took time outside of work to grow your career or expand your interests.
15. List your niche skills that are relevant to the job, but not general skills everyone should have
There’s an unsaid expectation in today’s work world of things like experience with Microsoft Word, or having strong interpersonal skills. If you can, try to highlight specific instances where you’ve used these skills above and beyond the standard.
For example, if you want to showcase a high proficiency with Office apps, you can discuss a manual you developed for staff or a project where advanced skills were needed. If you want to highlight your interpersonal skills, you could talk about a working group you chaired or successful projects you took part in.
16. Use past performance reviews as areas that managers valued
Consider keeping an accomplishment journal to remember key terms that are used by your managers to describe you and your successes.
17. Kill the short term jobs
Did a stint in a coffee shop you didn’t like? Had to be laid off three months after you started? It’s common to have small gaps in employment. Be honest if asked, but otherwise don’t include them in your resume. They’re not necessary and may leave your employer questioning your integrity.
18. Explain job hopping
There is an exception to the advice above - if you are a serial job hopper - they should be listed. You may also want to consider explaining why you’ve needed to vacate a position so many times. Sometimes job hopping can be out of your control, and it’s important to make sure your recruiting manager knows that.
19. Action verbs for job description/ skills
Action verbs are important ways of catching the eye of the recruiting manager looking for a specific practical skill set. However, don’t take this too far. Make sure to vary your sentence structures and wording to keep the manager interested and showcase your diverse range of experience and skills.
20. Don't use adverbs
We know you completed tasks efficiently, or quickly. It’s better to quantify as much as you possibly can in order to show real tangible results - rather than a vague descriptive word.
21. Update regularly
Update your resume regularly with new accomplishments and focusses - this will allow you to reflect on your current position as well as make sure only the best and most recent experience is sent to new employers.
Education
22. Include continuing education/professional development work
Continuing education or professional development shows that you were excited to grow within your position by continuing to learn. It also demonstrates an eagerness to go above and beyond!
23. Highlight your education more if you’re a recent graduate, but less later on
As you advance in your career, your education, while important, doesn’t carry the same weight. Instead, focus on your more recent work experience which will be much more valuable. Your hands-on skills will carry you further than your education - unless you’re going through a career change.
Social Media and Outside Interests
24. Consider a website to highlight all of your achievements
If you want to keep your accomplishments detailed on an online platform, consider building a website to showcase all of your skills. This way, you can keep the biggest, most relevant points on your resume - and then direct the hiring manager to a site that contains the rest.
25. Show relevant outside interests
If you have a strong interest in your field and have relevant outside interests or hobbies, it may be worthwhile including them to show your passion and relevant transferable skills. For example, if you’re looking to get into sports media, mention your participation in high-level sports - to show a deeper understanding of them.
Sometimes, your interests may not be directly relatable but can show transferable traits. For example, you may be looking to work in healthcare, but you’re also a marathon runner. Showing your dedication and perseverance as a marathon runner can broaden the areas where your skills can be shown.
Your Contact Info and References
26. Keep your contact info up to date
There’s nothing worse than applying for your dream job, and realizing they can’t get in touch with you! Avoid using your academic email, as once you leave university it may be shut down at random intervals - depending on the policies of your school.
27. Have a professional email address
Beyond using a personal email, it’s critical your email address is professional! No one wants to see the email you used in high school. Instead, choose an address that’s simply your first and last name - and limit numbers and characters. If you’re worried about missing out on information, you can always forward your old email to your new one.
28. Don't include unnecessary personal information
Specifying things like your marital status, height, weight, or year of graduation (unless it is very recent) are unfortunately all ways that you can be screened out for a job (whether consciously or unconsciously.) It’s better to instead highlight if you’re located locally, your best method of contact and links to your LinkedIn or website as these will bring the focus on to your skills instead.
29. Remove “references available upon request”
We all know you have references, and we know you’ll provide them if we ask. When space is limited, dedicating a full section to saying this is considered a rookie mistake. Use the extra space to expand on something else that is relevant but may have been cut out, like your volunteer work!
Getting Ready to Apply
30. Proofread, proofread, proofread!
Build your resume, then let it simmer for a day or so if you can. Revisit it, review it with a pen - and have friends review it in depth. Having a fresh set of eyes can correct mistakes you may miss, and there’s nothing more painful than a typo. Don’t rely on spellcheck to catch everything either, as it can miss out on important things like name spelling and clunky grammar.
31. Make sure all your information lines up
It can be easy to make mistakes, but conflicting information looks awfully shady to a recruiter. Make sure your LinkedIn, website, and resume all have the same dates and titles so hiring managers don’t think you have something to hide.
32. Follow the application instructions - and double-check them before sending!
Read the instructions the recruiter laid out. Sometimes when you read a job list you become fatigued by a wall of information, but it’s important to review each recruiter’s instructions for applying.
Even if it’s for the same company sometimes a manager will be looking for something specific, like a cover letter or a portfolio. Make sure you follow their instructions carefully, or you could be screened out immediately.
Wrapping it Up
Writing a resume can be overwhelming, as made clear by the number of tips in this list. However, taking the time to go through and perfect your resume can really make you stand out as a candidate - and increase your likelihood for success. Your investment in your resume can also significantly reduce the time spent looking for work.
If you’re still feeling overwhelmed, and are not quite sure how to tailor your talents to a job posting, Resume Ninjas can help. We look at both sides of the application process: building a good resume, and finding the right jobs for you.
We use one-on-one coaching to sharpen your resume and bring it to the top of its game, based on our experience from being recruiting managers ourselves. We can then take it a step further and help you find job postings that best fit what you’re looking for in a career, and what you can bring to the table.
Take a look at our packages here to tailor our services to your needs. We look forward to hearing from you!