Getting a job can be the hardest thing you have ever done, and that is because you are putting most of the application into a piece of paper. Your resume is often the one thing that gets you in the door with your new job, because it will get you the interview, the test work, or whatever the next step is for the job.
In order to make sure your resume stands out from the competition and gets your potential employer’s attention, you need to smarten up your resume and ensure that you can get your dream job. Here are some simple and effective ways to pump up your resume!
1. Tailor Your Resumes To The Job
Yes, it is almost criminally easy to take a resume template, switch a few words around, address it to a different person, and send the same general information to ten different jobs.
However, if you are willing to put in the work, then you will get more results and more interest from your employers because the resume is tailored for the job itself.
Read the job description and see what skills are needed to do the job and do it well, as well as any skills the employer needs.
You can even take it a step further and research the company or even the person you are working with and communicating with. The more personalized information that you are putting into the resume, the better it will be.
Remember, you are trying to check as many boxes as possible for your employer. So, if the job needs someone who can write, organize emails, and meet deadlines, then your resume tells them how you have done each of those things and what success you have reached. That will make your candidacy even more alluring to an employer and will make you more likely to be hired.
2. Show, Don’t Tell, and Use Numbers
While you can talk about your responsibilities and what you did at your old jobs, you need to ensure that you are talking about your results and achievements at the job.
The employer is going to be looking at the tangible results you have done at other jobs, because if you gave another company results you could also give the same results to them.
For example, don’t just say that the copy you wrote increased the traffic to the website, you should say that the copy increased the traffic to the website by 25% over two months. The more numbers that you are putting into your resume, the more tangible evidence that you are putting into the resume.
This is something that your employers can trust as you work with them, and the more you show off the numbers around your success, the better it will look for you. If you aren’t tracking your numbers and the data around your jobs and the work you have done, you should start right now and get that data so you can use it in your resume.
3. Check Out These Resume Examples
Of course, there’s no better way to smarten up your resume than by taking a few examples of successful resumes and seeing what you can learn from them. There are countless successful resumes on the internet, as well as other good resume examples, which you can use as templates.
Still, don’t just pick the first resume you see and use it as a template. Don’t be afraid to look around, take parts from different resumes, and build your own resume that shows off who you are.
After all, the one thing that almost guarantees that your resume ends up in the trash is if you have an obvious resume that is a template with just a few word changes.
Keep It Simple
It’s in the title of the article, but it bears repeating here. You need to ensure that you aren’t spending hours making an extremely complicated resume, because that can be as much of a deterrent to your employers as a simple resume is.
Instead, just focus on keeping your resume simple and you will get your dream job in no time at all!
