Job Search Blog

Help the reader and the ATS software find the skills they’re looking for. What may seem obvious to you, isn’t to a computer or person not familiar with your industry. If the job listing mentions Excel, for example, have it in at least one spot on your resume. But, if it’s looking for “experience with spreadsheets,” use that exact wording too.

Using the same resume for each job is a waste of time and a bad strategy for success. You need to position your resume with a specific goal in mind. Ask yourself these questions: What job function are you seeking to perform? Marketing, sales, account management, etc. At what level? Associate, supervisor, director, etc. In what industry? Software, pharmaceutical, energy, etc. What problem can you solve? International expansion, sales turnaround, business growth, etc.

The bottom line is all that matters. Even with your impressive skills, big name companies, and expensive college degree where you graduated magna cum laude, what it comes down to is how you contributed to profit growth or how you saved money. Your resume experience has to reflect in order to stand out from the competition.

Format: check. Typos: check. Highlighting duties instead of accomplishments: Fail. Do better than the basic job description. Go from “all about you” to showing the reader (and ATS software) what they want to see. How do you stand out from the rest? The reader will have a basic knowledge of your job and doesn’t need to be reminded about the mundane details. What they want to see is how you improved on something. The eye is drawn to numbers and action words. The ATS software is

Bullet points are great for breaking up text on your resume. Here are some guidelines on when to use: Contact information Listing expertise Listing skills Education: when it goes beyond school, location, degree For experience, use 2-4 in descriptions; start each line with a dynamic action verb For entry level positions, if you want to change it up, you can use icons as bullets: Personal information icons: mail, phone and address icons Social media icons: Twitter, LinkedIn, In

Is it okay to use icons, symbols, and abbreviations in your resume? Yes and no. A big NO for submitting online through an application...

A resume serves as a strategic tool aimed at propelling you to the next stage of the hiring process.

Add a touch of fun to your self-reflection by gaining a fresh perspective on your experiences through the use of a word cloud. Here's how...

How much time does a recruiter spend? What's your guess: Recruiters read the whole thing - They don’t want to miss any detail and want to...

After you change-up your resume, even with little tweaks, the next step is to update it online. This includes: LinkedIn Glassdoor Indeed...