5 Ways to Get your Resume Through the Clutter

Searching for a job is more difficult than ever, so I have put together five do’s/don’ts to help get your resume to the top of the pile.

1)    Add a professional summary. These few sentences on the top of your resume help to provide the reader (hiring manager/recruiter/manager) with the key points you’d like them to know about you—what makes you most valuable as an employee and how you can bring that value to their company.

2)     Remove any “special” formatting. In submitting your resume on-line, simple and plain is the way to go. No columns, boxes, photos or designs that would make your resume difficult to read by the ATS (applicant tracking system) that typical “reads” each resume before a human does.

3)    Utilize key words and phrases throughout the bullet points on your resume. In order to know what the key words are, go through the job descriptions for the types of jobs you are applying for and look for the words and phrases that are mentioned multiple times throughout the description and qualifications sections.

4)    Start each bullet point with a strong action verb—here is a great list to get your started.

5)    Incorporate metrics whenever and wherever you can: companies like to see the tangible quantitative results you’ve gotten in your past jobs to see what you can do for their companies as well.

Finally, remember that a simple typo can torpedo your otherwise fantastic resume. I find that reading a resume out loud is one of the best ways to check for grammar errors so be sure to proofread that way as well.

Want more resume tips? Email me at pamela@pamelaweinberg.com to work with me on creating a resume that gets results!