Give your best tip for writing a resume that will get you the interview?
To help you write a great resume that will get you job interviews, we asked hiring managers, recruiters and business leaders this question for their best insights. From referencing your education and work experience correctly to focusing on accomplishments rather than duties, there are several tips that would help you put together a resume that stands out and lands you job interviews.
Here are 11 tips these leaders follow to write resumes that get them interviews:
- Reference Your Education and Work Experience Correctly
- Include Relevant Keywords
- Keep Your Resume to One Page
- Opt for a Great Layout and Design
- Double-Check for Errors With Spelling and Grammar
- Make Your Resume ATS-Friendly
- Relate Job Descriptions Directly to Relevant Experience
- Show Some Personality in the Resume
- Start With the Most Relevant Information
- Include Only Things that Matter
- Focus On Accomplishments Rather Than Duties
Reference Your Education and Work Experience Correctly
The most important thing to do is include all your education and work experience on your resume. It is a big mistake to leave anything off of your resume. Make sure you detail all of your education, including the name of the school, the location, the dates you attended, and the degree you received. Also, include any activities, clubs, or associations you may have been involved in at school, including the date you joined. It would be best if you did the same for your work history, including all the jobs you held, the name, address, and phone number of your past employers, and the dates you worked for each company, including the dates you began and ended employment.
Saneem Ahearn, VP of Marketing, Colorescience
Include Relevant Keywords
A great resume is not only customized to the job but also includes relevant keywords. As most documents submitted to employers are handled by Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS), optimizing your resume with keywords suitable for the role is crucial. You can do it by analyzing different ads for the same job title. Simply pick ten job advertisements for the same position and focus on the skills and experience mentioned in the first paragraph. If you look for more inspiration, you can also visit LinkedIn’s Skill Section to see what names are currently used for some of your skills.
However, be careful not to overstuff your resume with keywords. You don’t want the recruiter to think you’re trying to trick their system. Ensure that your resume’s keywords sound natural and are not used too often. Ask your friend to look at your resume and give you feedback to make sure that your resume is understandable and to the point.
Dorota Lysienia, Community Manager, LiveCareer
Keep Your Resume to One Page
You should be able to highlight all of your previous experience, certificates, and skills in one page for the eye to see. Anything over that is excessive and should be avoided. A hiring manager won’t bother to read the second page as they have hundreds of resumes to review. Keep it short and simple.
Chris Vaughn, CEO, Emjay
Opt for a Great Layout and Design
It’s not just the content on your resume that will help you land the job, but also the way everything’s presented and highlighted. You could be a highly proficient expert in your field but if you offer up a resume that looks like a large wall of text, hiring teams aren’t going to want to call you back. Instead, level up your formatting skills so that you’re highlighting your strong suits and choose a layout that’s pleasing to the eyes and easy to skim through. Taking the time to craft a well-designed resume shows interviewers that you’re someone who pays close attention to details.
Harry Morton, Founder, Lower Street
Double-Check for Errors With Spelling and Grammar
Your resume is your chance to make an excellent first impression, but a few typos can quickly get you sent to the bottom of the pile. This is especially true if you’re applying for a position that involves any kind of written communication; you need to show that you can represent the company professionally. So, before submitting your resume to any potential employees, try to get it proofread. If you don’t have access to a professional service, at least run it through a free online proofreading tool and ask a friend to check over it.
Amanda Napitu, Founder, Improving Your English
Make Your Resume ATS-Friendly
Incorporate keywords from job postings to make your resume ATS-friendly. Many companies receive hundreds, if not thousands, of candidate applications for a single jb post alone. The chances are high that companies automate their candidate reception process to filter out nuisance candidates and give HR highly relevant candidates. Doing so saves time and energy.
The Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is responsible for automating the process of narrowing down the candidate pool into a select few. The ATS software compares the words on your resume to specific inputted skills, requirements, experience, and achievements found in the job description. With that said, if you naturally put those keywords in your resume, you have a higher chance of moving onto the next selection stage.
Tristan Buenconsejo, Founder and Managing Director, TriBu LinkBuilding
Relate Job Descriptions Directly to Relevant Experience
Your number one resume priority as a job candidate is to connect the dots for your hiring managers. Relate job descriptions directly to your relevant experience to tie your track record to your aspirational title. Highlight any skills, program proficiencies, or duties in your most recent experience that you’ll use in the new position. It’s strategic to help management verify your qualifications upfront without ambiguity so you can continue wowing recruiters with your personality. The primary job of a resume is to grab managers’ attention. Then, it’s on you to share your story and how it will benefit their organization.
Zach Goldstein, CEO & Founder, Public Rec
Show Some Personality in the Resume
Show some personality in the resume. Add any hobbies or extracurriculars to demonstrate your interests outside of the office and how they may transfer over to the position you’re interviewing for. For example, if you’re in a slow pitch softball league, add it to the resume. This shows that you enjoy working in teams and have the ability to collaborate with others to reach an end goal.
Natália Sadowski, Director of Aesthetics, Nourishing Biologicals
Start With the Most Relevant Information
More often than not, recruiters have limited time to scan through your resume, and in this process, they might miss out on key pointers. This is why it’s crucial to include what you want them to see in the beginning of your resume so that it makes things easier for them and also highlights the parts of your experience that are relevant to the job description.
Igal Rubinshtein, Founder, Home Essentials Direct
Include Only Things that Matter
Only include relevant work. If you’re early career, you may feel like you don’t have enough professional experience to fill a resume, but there are ways to be creative about it. You can elaborate on internship duties or relevant classes you’ve taken. You can include a section for your technical skills. You can even have a slightly shorter resume. What you should avoid doing is stuffing your resume with things that have nothing to do with the job you’re applying for. Employers want to see how your skills translate to the role — not just that you can fill a page.
Vimla Black Gupta, Co-Founder & CEO, Ourself
Focus on Accomplishments Rather Than Duties
When writing your resume, focus on accomplishments rather than duties. Your resume should represent you as a winner – not just someone who completed tasks, and the best way to do this is by staying away from the lists of duties and responsibilities. Instead, focus on your accomplishments and how they add value to a company. For example, instead of saying “managed a sales team of six people,” say something like this: “Increased sales by 20%, improved customer satisfaction by 30%, and reduced churn by 40% in one year as supervisor.” It shows that you are motivated by results and have a track record of success, which helps you land an interview.
Arkadiusz Terpilowski, Head of Growth & Co-founder, Primetric
