10 Resume Tips For A Great Resume

Resumes aren’t as straight-forward as choosing a type and including the right sections. There are always a few elements of resumes that are either unique to your industry or unique to your circumstances that make the perfect resume an elusive accomplishment. Here are the best resume tips, some of mine and some contributed, that add an extra layer of detail that will take your resume from good to great.

Use Bullet Points

I see resumes that use bullet points to outline their experience, and I see resumes that use paragraphs. Bullet points are nice little packages of concepts and skills that help the reader organize a large page of information. You might be tempted to write paragraphs because it’s easier to simply start typing until you’re done with everything you have to say. It can be seen as lazy, but most importantly, it buries your experience in large blocks of text a recruiter is likely to skip over.

Write plainly and directly

You should not need a thesaurus or list of top SAT words to write your resume. So many resumes try to write in overly formal, flowery prose, and writers often forget these resumes are going to be read by normal people who are just trying to cut through the fog and see what you really bring to the table. So ditch words like “utilize” and “expertly assisted clients” and instead focus on writing to deliver the most amount of information in the fewest words possible.

Don’t go overboard with design

The verdict is out – “Designer” resumes are not popular with most recruiters. Applicants are willing to do anything they can to stand out, and a plain-looking resume might give you the false impression that you’ll seem like a plain candidate. We hear from recruiters all the time who tell us “I just want good information and data as quickly as possible from someone’s resume. I prefer the basic Microsoft Word templates!” Trust us when we say the best way to stand out is to focus your efforts on writing about your best skills and experience, not on finding the perfect set of skill bubbles and graphs for your resume.

Include contact information

This one gets debated often, so let’s clear the air. While many people say you shouldn’t have to include your street address on a resume, there’s a very good reason you should. Recruiters get bombarded with out-of-state resumes and people willing to relocate for any position. Those resumes simply say “Phoenix, AZ” instead of a street address, hoping to mislead the recruiter and get a foot in the door. Having a street address is strong evidence that you’re a local candidate. If your need for privacy is greater than average, by all means you can omit your street address. But if you’re looking to get the most responses possible, leave no doubt about your physical presence in the area.

Don’t forget your soft skills

Your resume is literally your highlight reel, and should effectively articulate the value you bring to the table. So, instead of running off a list of responsibilities, showcase your accomplishments while highlighting the valuable soft skills you bring to the role. Hard skills may get the job done, but soft skills are what will help you land and keep the job. Employers usually want to see the best from both, and while everyone’s resume will be unique to them leadership, adaptability, technology savvy, emotional intelligence, collaboration, problem solving and communication skills are the valuable soft skills that employers looks for.

Provided By: Nicole Williams Collective

Focus on your timeline

For people with several years of career experience, we often list only the year (not the months) for employment, graduation, etc. No one should be getting bent out of shape over a 2 month gap between jobs these days, and having a resume with “2007 – 2011” is much easier to skim and connect the timeline. While we’re on the topic, do your best to align consultant positions, freelance positions, and other overlapping items. For example, employers might worry about seeing a “2017 – Present” side business when you’re also working full time jobs during that period. Choose how you want to represent these side gigs and do your best to keep a clean, continuous timeline. This sometimes even means omitting part-time jobs if they don’t contribute to your career but might interfere with your timeline.

Write a summary!

Summaries are incredibly powerful introductions to your resume when written well and kept short. Writing 3-4 sentences that review your key credentials, experience, background, markets/industries, etc. can set the tone for the rest of the document. A badly-written summary that focuses on soft skills and vague statements can sink your resume, but omitting a summary entirely can make the resume feel a bit abrupt and lack personality/identity.

Avoid first person pronouns (I, My, etc)

Modern resumes are written in what’s called “implied first person” narrative. This means you’re writing about yourself, but you’re refraining from pronouns like “I” or “My”. Even in the summary, you should take care to avoid these words. The resume should read like it is impersonal and factual in nature, and saying “I began my career at..” is a good way to show people you aren’t really familiar with resume convention. Read a few examples from our resume samples if you want a quick refresher.

Numbers matter, but stories matter more

There’s no shortage of articles that say you should quantify your achievements. But what about people in jobs where success isn’t necessarily measured in numbers, dollars and cents? What about accountants who minimize their mistakes and perform fairly routine reports? What about laborers who provide vital services and are only measured by whether or not the job is completed? Numbers don’t tell the whole story, and that advice

Don’t exaggerate unrelated experience

I see this with new college graduates. The average student worked a generic job during school to pay the bills. There’s no reason to turn your server or burger-flipping job into more than it was. Employers understand you are lacking in experience when you first get your degree. If you waited tables at a restaurant for a few years, resist the urge to draw some silly link between that job and your future career. If you’re a chemist, don’t talk about the hazmat training and food safety video you watched in training. Recruiters are naturally suspicious, and job-seekers are constantly trying to mislead them on every aspect of their resume. Do not give them cause for concern. Tell the simplest story and don’t try to make a job seem like more than it is, especially if the job was unrelated to your future career.

Be suspicious of your skills section

If you currently have a separate section for skills, give it a second look. Are they strong technical skills that would impress recruiters at a glance, or are they mostly soft skills and low-level software (Microsoft Office, Problem Solving, etc.)? A weak skills section can really drag down a resume. Most people should probably dissolve those sections and instead mention important skills in the actual body of experience. This has the added bonus of showing recruiters where you learned these skills.