How To Make Your Resume Stand Out 2020

Study Specific Cases Of Resumes That Stood Out From Competition

Writing a resume that stands out with no work experience

• Put Education and Projects section on the top left and top right
• Hide GPA if its below 3
• Add a link to personal industry-related projects or Github if youre in development
• Include a short objective to frame the recruiters expectations
• Use custom sections to stand out from hundreds of applicants
• DONT mention passion in your objective.

Successful example:

Tips for making your resume stand out for senior employees

• Use custom section to stand out from your competition and add personality to your top-management experience
• Frame your experience with a well-researched custom headline on top
• Add links to a business-related profile
• Frame Skills sections in a unique way

Successful example: senior manager resume at Verizon

How to create a standout resume with bad work history

• Go for a functional layout resume where skills and workflows are prioritized over the experience section
• Create a proxy item in your experience section, e.g. Freelancer, or Agency and list your temporary experiences within it
• Write an engaging Summary section to address the recruiters questions about your inconsistent work history and turn it to your advantage
• DONT mention passion in your objective. Just dont.

Standout resume for different positions

Over years weve shared and updated a library of 530+ professional resume example guides with best practices and tips for specific job titles.

Tweak Keywords To Build The Best Resume For Each Job

Dont make the mistake of answering each job posting with the same generic resume. Instead, take a few extra minutes to mirror it to the keywords and phrases within the job ad. Youll be much more likely to make it to the next round of hiring, especially if an applicant tracking system has anything to do with it.

Get as close as you can to the language of the job description, or at least look for common denominators, Leavy-Detrick advises.

If youre planning to cast a wide net by uploading a general resume to your LinkedIn or Indeed profile, make sure its tailored to the primary job you want then update your keywords when applying to positions that deviate from the norm.

How To Write An Ats

December 15, 2020 | By Conrad Benz| Reviewed by

Applicant tracking systems eliminate over 70% of applicants before their resume even reaches a hiring manager. Make sure your application makes the cut by learning how to write an ATS-friendly resume with our expert tips, examples, and ATS resume templates.

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Top 5 Resume Formatting Tips

1.Keep your format simple: Remember, you have 10-20 seconds to snag a hiring managers attention. Presenting them with a resume thats overly crowded, hard to read, confusing or just plain messy isnt going to get you the jobits going to get you thrown out. Watch your spacing, font size and margins. Keep it legible!

2.Keep it professional: Avoid cute fonts, gimmicks, scented paper, glitter, odd shapes, or anything that could potentially make an employer look at your resume and question your sanity. Dont print on cheap paper. Show an employer youre serious about the job.

3.Focus on what you did for past employers, not just the job you held. Anyone can push a button. Why were you the best button pusher there was? What set you apart from every other button pusher who came before you and will come after you? Dont just outline the job description. What were your accomplishments while doing that job?

4.Make sure youre selecting the resume format that best reflects who you are, your work history, and the job youre applying for. Keep in mind employment gaps, career trajectory, where you are in your industry, and where you plan on going. Make sure youre selecting the right format resume .

Use The Chronological Resume Format

There are three primary resume formats job seekers use when applying for work.

However, the chronological resume is the most compatible with ATS software, because it best emphasizes and organizes your work experience . If you have a normal work history with no large employment gaps or career changes, definitely make sure you use a chronological resume.

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Make Your Resume Stand Out From The Pile

By IBM Careers Blog | 2 minute read | January 8, 2020

Looking for a new opportunity? Then youll be asking yourself that age-old question: How can I make sure my resume is on the top of that pile? Well, ask yourself no more! We asked IBMers to share their best advice on how you can make your resume stand out and land a job at IBM.

1. Highlight your greatest hits.

Standing out is all about what you have done differently and how you added value. One mistake a lot of people make is to highlight job descriptions on their resume. Anybody can be given that same job description, but no two people will have the same outcome. So the best way to stand out and be noticed by IBM is to emphasize the ways you added value. Show how your contributions made a difference, and be sure to mention how all this helped you and your team achieve a goal.~Brorhie Muoboghare, Global Learning Experience Lead

Projects, research, anything youve done make sure you take credit for it all so we can realize your best work!~Marc Velasco, Senior Software Engineer

2. Be brief and straight to the point.

Treat your resume like the cover of a magazine/newspaper. Ask yourself: What are the big headlines? What is the impact of what youve done in the past? Why should you be invited in for an interview?~Lisa Chen, Lead Design Strategist

Do not write every detail in your resume, so you still have something to say and elaborate during the interview.~Shela Buena, Talent Acquisition Coordinator

Dont Worry Too Much About Gaps

One of the questions that Lees and Heifetz get asked regularly is how to account for gaps in a resume, perhaps when you werent working or took time off to care for a family member. If you were doing something during that time that might be relevant to the job, you can include it. Or you might consider explaining the gap in your cover letter, as long as you have a brief, positive explanation. However, the good news is that in todays job market, hiring professionals are much more forgiving of gaps. In a recent survey, 87% of hiring managers said that they no longer see candidates being unemployed or having an employment gap as a red flag.

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Proofread Proofread And Proofread Some More

Your resume is your first impression. The last thing you want to do is submit a resume riddled with spelling or grammar mistakes. Take the time to proofread your resume and run spell-check. Then, pass it along to a few trusted friends or family members who are well versed in grammar and spelling. You may also want to utilize a tool like Grammarly to ensure that your resume is error-free.

With these tips, you will be able to create an appealing, organized teacher resume that will help you stand out among the crowd of applicants. Your new-and-improved resume will make a strong impression in that stack of papers. Even if you dont get the calls or interviews you want right now, principals will be more likely to remember you in the future. Good luck navigating the job search, and stay positive!

If you liked these tips, check out my various teacher resume templates that have gotten me compliments, interviews, and jobs! Each one comes complete with a teacher resume template, matching cover letter template, real examples, and a 6-page guide jam-packed with tips, word choice hacks, sentence starters, and more.

If youre interested in reading all about how I teach resume writing , then check out this blog post. If youre looking for help on how to write a standout cover letter, then youre in luckthats going to be my next blog post.

Any questions on teacher resume writing? Any other suggestions or advice from your own experiences? Lets chat in the comments!

Be As Specific As Possible

Every teacher plans and teaches lessons, so be specific in your employment experience bullet points. If your bullet points are so generic that they could apply to almost any other teacher, then youre not going to stand out from the crowd of applicants. Here are some questions to help you be more specific when you outline your experience:

• What have you accomplished? Did you start an initiative? Serve on a committee? Present at staff meetings? Increase test scores, participation, etc?
• Can you include evidence to illustrate your accomplishments?
• What did you teach, and how did you teach it? What unique strategies or technology did you utilize?

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Summarizing Your Job Experience

Your resume experience section is the most important aspect of your entire resume. It’s a summary of your career experience and progression that outlines your responsibilities and achievements.

This is the section that you’ll most likely spend most of your time on. It’s good practice to make sure you consistently jot down any new experiences you’ve had, even if you’re not looking for a job.

For example, if you recently landed a $200,000 deal by bringing on a new client at your firm, write that down somewhere you can remember. Over time, you’ll have dozens of bullet points you can copy over to your resume when you are ready for a new job.

Here’s a simple example of work experience

Server, Red Lobster

• Greeted incoming guests and directed them to comfortable seating.
• Memorized and informed guests of daily menu specials.
• Made recommendations about food and beverages as well as other services provided by the restaurant.
• Provided exceptional and friendly customer service by taking food and beverage orders and entering them in our PoS system.

Here are the key pieces of information that your resume objective should include:

• Job Title = e.g. Server
• Company Name = e.g. Red Lobster
• Start & End Dates = e.g. November 2018 – Present
• Location = e.g. New York, NY
• Responsibilities & Tasks = e.g. Made recommendations and answered questions about our food, beverages and other restaurant functions and services.

This is a simple example, but it can be improved by adding more detail.

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Dont Restrict Work Experience To Work

Recently out of college with little work experience? Consider including major projects and papers you worked on as a student. Group projects and large research papers can involve the types of skills that many employers are after: communication, writing skills, time management, focus, project management, teamwork and research just to name a few, Reynolds said.

It can be tricky to decide where to place this kind of experience on your resume, but if the work youve done has largely occurred in an academic setting, the experts recommend listing it separately under a Relevant Experience section. Use titles like research partner, strategy lead, or project manager, and make clear any time restrictions you were bound by to emphasize that you are comfortable working on a deadline.

Prospective employers will be impressed by your ability to connect the dots from the classroom to the real world and communicate value beyond an assignments scope.

Pro tip: Only highlight projects that are relevant to a potential role.

Highlight Relevant Work Experience

While this seems like common sense, you dont need to list every accomplishment or job youve had. This may be a helpful time to create a couple of different versions of your resume. Whatever position you’re applying for, highlight only your most relevant skills and experience.

Heres how to do it:

• Customize your resume to reflect the specific job youre applying for
• Outline skills you have that make you the perfect candidate
• Talk about projects or successes youve had that are relatable

Resume booster: If you’ve had a lot of different work experiences, you can always create a highlighted skills section. This is where you might include project management, customer service, or administrative skills youve picked up.

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Before You Send Your Resume

Check for typos. Resume errors matter: dont think a spelling or grammatical error wont get picked up. Unfortunately, the mistake will jump right off the page and get noticed. Grammarly is a terrific tool for making sure that your resume and cover letters are perfect.

Give it a recognizable name. Dont call your resume resumetake a second or two to personalize the file name to FirstLastNameResume.docthat way its clearly recognizable as your resume to recruiters and hiring managers.

Save it as a PDF. If you save your resume as a PDF, you wont have to worry about funky formatting or the recruiter seeing a garbled mess. Unless the employer requires a different format, send a PDF so readers can view your resume exactly as you want it to look. Here are 11 free tools you can use to convert your resume to a PDF file.

Keep Things Concise And Clear

Two of the most common mistakes people make when writing a resume are listing every position theyve ever held, and generally being too wordy when describing their previous roles.

Hiring managers have limited time to read through your application, and every second they spend reading filler is a second theyre not getting familiar with your skills, qualifications, and background.

To help your resume stand out, keep your writing concise and only include information thats highly relevant to the position.

For example, if youre applying for an office job and you already have some work experience, its dont include that bartending job you worked in college.

Additionally, you should cut any positions you held more than 10 years ago to give employers an up-to-date picture of your experience.

By being concise and focusing on your recent, relevant experience, you can quickly highlight your most valuable qualifications while keeping your resume length to an easy-to-read one page ultimately making any hiring managers life easier.

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How Long Should An Ideal Resume Be

Andrew Challenger, Senior VP at Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc., once said that there is no exact perfectnumber of pages in a resume. He added that it should demonstrate a job seekers qualifications accurately.

Typically, for most applicants, a single-page resume would be enough. However, for job seekers with plenty of experiences, a two-page layout is ideal. The length of your CV is significant because it imparts your level of expertise. It allows you to sell your proficiency, time, and competence to your possible employer.

It doesnt matter which of the above resume formats you will use as long as it fits nicely into one single-sided page without overfilling. There are some rare occasions that a long resume is acceptable. It is applicable if there are career changes for vastly innovative fields or people at the senior or executive level. However, bear in mind that you are not writing an autobiography.

Your prime concern is to make your CV clear and readable. Use a 10 or 12 size font from Arial, Calibri, Times New Roman, or Verdana.

Find Or Create A Visually Appealing Template

If youve done a bit of research, then you probably know that your Times New Roman resume from 2010 is a little ancient . You dont have to be a graphic designer, but you should consider making your outdated resume more organized, appealing, and modern if you want to stand out in 2020. Luckily, there is no shortage of resume templates. If you want to make it even easier on yourself, find a resume template designed with teachers in mind. If youd like to take on the challenge of designing your own teacher resume, here are a few tips:

• Use a clean, professional font for your text. If youd like to add a title or accent font, a decorative one should be fine.
• Add boxes to organize and separate information
• Use purposeful bolding or italics
• If you want, add a small dose of color

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Include Relevant Industry Keywords

Many large companies use a type of software called an applicant tracking system to help them filter through the hundreds of resumes they receive.

Essentially, ATS software scans your resume for industry-related keywords to determine whether youre qualified for the job or not. If the software doesnt find the keywords its looking for, it automatically rejects your application.

To find the resume keywords you need to include, read through the job description and take note of any skills mentioned in the requirements section.

Then, mention as many of these skills as you can in your resume. Usually, this applies to specific technical skills required for the job or relevant certifications.

Heres an example of a job description for a with the keywords underlined:

Peppering these keywords throughout your resume gives you two advantages over other candidates.

However, making your resume ATS friendly isnt just about keywords. Your resume layout also needs to be easy to read and organized logically for computers and humans to easily digest its content.