More Common Resume Mistakes & Facts
In addition to personal feedback, I combed through dozens of recruitment survey results to fill any gaps my contacts might have missed. Here are a few more items you may want to consider when writing your resume:
- The average interviewer spends 6 seconds scanning your resume
- The majority of interviewers have not looked at your resume untilyou walk into the room
- Resumes with a link to a comprehensive have a 71% better chance of hearing back
- 76% of resumes are discarded for an unprofessional email address
- Resumes with a photo have an 88% rejection rate
- 58% of resumes have typos
- Applicant tracking software typically eliminates 75% of resumes due to a lack of keywords and phrases being present
Now that you know every mistake you need to avoid, the first item on your to-do list is to comb through your current resume and make sure it doesn’t violate anything mentioned above.
Once you have a clean resume, you can start to focus on more advanced tactics that will really make you stand out. There a few unique elements you can use to push your application over the edge and finally get your dream company to notice you.
Steal The Resume Template That Got Me Offers At Google, Microsoft, & Twitter
Make Your Experience Section Easy To Skim
One of the most challenging parts of writing your resume is balancing the amount of information that needs to be included with making it easy to skim. As we mentioned above, recruiters allot a matter of seconds to each resume. Because of that, you dont want to include large blocks of text or too many bullet points. Condense everything as much as you can and use an appropriate number of bullets to convey that you are the right fit for the job.
In 2020 Your Resume Can Use Custom Headings
Wondering what else your resume should look like in 2020? Dont forget the often-ignored section headings.
You can custom-design these headings to represent your OWN brand. For example, sales wins could be shown under Sales & Market Share Results. If you lack formal education, you can still include an Education section titled Professional Development and Training. The idea is to explain your value-add with these descriptions.
If you are applying to online postings, however, submit a resume with standard headings , then follow up by sending your innovative resume version to a hiring manager.
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With All That In Mind What Should A Resume Look Like In 2020
How does resume look like. Cool how a resume should look like resume design examples 40 best what a professional resume looks like simple beautiful what does an acting resume look like photo elegant what does a great resume look like simple 19 inspirational cover letter teacher free resume templates simple, things you can draw resume skills and abilities professional set. If the resume makes it to. Unless youre applying for a design role, a clean, simple layout is best.
Avoid text boxes or columns because ats generally cant read them. The 7.4 seconds is only a first review of a resume to see if it looks worth further review. It highlights your progress and professional growth over time.
What does a good resume look like in 2019? Asking what should a resume look like goes hand in hand with what it should read like. According to hannah morgan of career sherpa in what does a modern resume look like , youll need to put relevant information in the right places to guide the reader.
Jobs have changed so much in recent years. Write your summary in 1st person, the rest of the resume in 3rd person. What does a budtender resume look like?
And how to make one now! With limited time to impress them, your resume needs to stand out more than any of the others. This chronology helps you to separate.
What does a good resume look like? What does a good resume look like? Shop owners have to sift through piles of resumes.
Are These The Best Resume Examples For 2022
Yes, these are the best resumes for 2022 for four major reasons:
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When To Use A Combination Resume
A combination resume may be best for you if you’re making a slight career transition or if you have a diverse employment history where relevancy to the role youre applying for may not be immediately clear. For example, you might use a combination resume if youre applying for a people manager position and you have extensive experience managing teams but youve never officially had a manager job title. This format can help showcase your leadership accomplishments and transferable
Use A Simple And Readable Design
To keep your resume readable for an employer, include some design elements in your resume that make it simple and easy to scan. You can easily achieve this by clearly marking the headings, using bullet points, keeping the paragraphs short and highlighting certain words by bolding or italicizing them.
Use a clean, professional font. For example, fonts like Times New Roman, Georgia and Tahoma are usually easy for most people to read. Make sure the font you choose has consistent spacing and looks good both on-screen and printed. Keep the font size between 9 and 12 points in order to maintain readability and presentation.
Use color strategically to make your resume visually appealing. For example, you might use a different color for headings and monogram the rest of the resume. You can also use color to draw in the reader to a certain important point. However, use additional colors sparingly. Selecting one color to use with a primarily black and white resume should be enough.
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Most Recent Jobs First
The High Score Resume always shows the most recent jobs first. When people ask about your golf game, vacation travel, or books read, theyre not looking for you to go all the way back to the beginning and tell you about your first one first. They typically want to know about the latest.
Same thing on your resume. If your last job was working as an IT security engineer, dont list your college role as a sales representative first. Your most recent experience is the most relevant in the same way that your most recent high score is most relevant to the games you play.
This is your chance to detail your successes and achievements.
And, in the same way that your high score doesnt say Well, first I did level 1, where there were challenges and many obstacles. Then I did level 2 , your resume should not simply list past job titles and duties, and shouldnt provide an inventory of your staff or budget size.
The purpose of the High Score Resume is to display for your future boss the specific achievements that made you a valued contributor to past bosses.
For each job youve had, youll have an entry including the company name, title, description, and dates.
Showcasing Personality And Emotional Intelligence
In a LinkedIn study, results show that about 91% of talent professionals believe that soft skills are important. Skills associated with your traits or personality are just as important as hard skills. Sixteen percent, however, believe that they are actually more important. Apart from your skills and work experience, employers also look for certain qualities and personalities that are sometimes difficult to express on a single piece of paper. Nonetheless, proper resume writing can achieve this feat.
Showing your personality and emotional intelligence through your resume assures the hiring manager that you are a person and not likely to become a robotic employee during your tenure. Some of the top qualities that employers are looking for include apt communication skills, flexibility, eagerness to learn, and the ability to work harmoniously with co-workers.
Career Builder also listed listening skills, emotional intelligence, and communication skills as some of the top qualities employers are looking for. In your resume, mentioning some unique and worthwhile hobbies that can be relevant to the job position you are seeking makes you a better candidate.
Personality & EQ in Resume Trend Takeaways
- 91% of employers believe that soft skills are important. .
- Some of the top qualities employers are looking for include listening skills, emotional intelligence, and communication skills.
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Executive Resume Trend : Spotlighting Career Wins From The Pandemic
Saying that 2020 has been tumultuous for many peoples careers is the biggest understatement of the year. That said, employers still want to see what went well for you when they read your executive resume. Organizations want to know how you navigated tough times in your job and supported your company. These career wins dont have to be your career win of the decade however, you should provide clear examples of what you did to adapt, grow, keep performance steady, and apply critical thinking during the pandemic. Here are additional insights from my colleagues on this resume trend:
Paula Christensen: Add skills gained and/or adaptations made during the pandemic. For example: Doing more with fewer resources. Being asked to stay on amidst layoffs. Adapted to managing a team remotely. Recalibrating service to your customers. Modifying how you train your team. Employing emotional intelligence to manage relationships with customers, teammates, and vendors differently.
Kamara Toffolo: How you helped minimize COVID-19 related disruption of work/service/operations and how you helped teams move to and embrace new ways of working.
Ashley Watkins:Since many companies are shifting to virtual environments, its critical to demonstrate how they can serve the business and its customers remotely. Then, take it a step further by articulating an increase in value to the target employers bottom line.
Your Resume Needs Metrics In 2020
In 2020, you can no longer list your job descriptions and call it a day.
Instead, youll need to capture quantifiable proof of performance in dollars, percentages, or other figures. By displaying context and metrics, your resume will reflect your value proposition as a top candidate for the 2020 job market!
First, make a list of top career wins, such as major contracts, large initiatives, productivity improvements, or cost savings.
Next, put figures in each of your success stories, such as profit gains or improvements in market share. Your 2020 resume should contain succinct sentences that demonstrate results, as in these examples:
Expanded revenue 45% by opening APAC and European markets, using compelling marketing campaigns against established competitors.
Captured $40M in savings with efficiency projects identifying security, automation, and systems improvements.
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Who To Use As A Reference
Many people struggle to decide who to list as their references on their resume.
To help break it down, here are the best people to include on your reference page in order of importance:
If possible, list your current or former boss at the top of your references list. Most employers view supervisors or bosses as the most valuable references, because they have the greatest insight into your work ethic, skills, and professional strengths.
Additionally, consider the following details when choosing the other references on your resume:
- Which of my references are most relevant to the job Im applying for?
- Do I have references that work in the industry Im applying to?
- Which potential reference would best highlight my relevant skills?
- Who is not suited to give me a reference for this particular job?
Can you use a friend as a personal reference?
Generally, you shouldnt include friends as a reference on your resume. The exception is if theyre former colleagues, are currently employed at the company youre applying to, or are a former supervisor. In these cases, listing your friend as a reference is acceptable.
Who to use as a reference if its your first job
For a student or recent graduate, finding an appropriate set of professional references is difficult. So if you lack work experience and have no references, you can list a:
- Teacher
- Guidance counselor
- Family member or friend youve done work for
The Best Resume Format Guide For 2021
By now, as a seasoned job hunter and student of The Interview Guys, you should know there are a few essentials you should have in your arsenal: business cards, a solid cover letter, your elevator pitch, and your well-formatted resume.
Hang on, havent we already gone over all this in that other article, How to Make a Resume 101?
Yesand no.
In that article we did go over how to write a resume, but in this article, were going to take you to the next step and focus specifically on one seemingly small but massively huge part of resume building: resume format and how to select which one is right for you in 2021.
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How To Format A Resume
The goal of formatting your resume is to create a professional-looking, easy-to-read document. Employers have only a short time to look through your resume, so your formatting decisions should make information clear and easy to find. If you are formatting an existing resume, you might need to adjust certain words or phrases to ensure it is still easy to read after youve applied formatting changes. If you are formatting a resume before you write it, be sure to pay attention to how the information looks on the page and adjust as needed.
Image description
Skills
Optional
Here are the key steps for formatting a resume. Lets look at each of these components in detail. Consider how you might apply each of these when drafting or updating your resume.
When To Use A Functional Resume
If you have one long gap or multiple employment gaps in your resume in the past five years, are a first-time worker or are drastically changing career paths, then consider a functional resume. By highlighting skills that transfer across industries and your most relevant accomplishments, you can emphasize the right qualifications for the position you want. This also prioritizes the information thats most important to a recruiter rather than focusing on a work history that doesnt align with the job.
In some cases, a functional resume might be too limiting. If you have some experience and few or no gaps in your employment history, a combination resume might be the right choice.
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Use The Hybrid/combination Resume Format
Before using this resume format, first, you need to aware of its functionalities and where need to use its format.
The combination resume template offers more flexibility, allowing you to present your work history in a way that emphasizes your strengths, as well as the chronological resume format
Those who are job applicants have some employment gaps, have different types of skills and experiences, and play a very creative additional role that people can go through this resume format.
How To List Education On Your Resume
The next section were going to cover is your Education. Lets start with the basics – how to format the education section & what to mention there. Then, well move on to tips & tricks thatll help you stand out
- Program Name. E.g.: B.A. in Business Administration
- University Name. E.g.: New York State University
- Years Attended. E.g.: 08/2008 – 06/2012
- GPA. E.g.: 3.9 GPA
- Honors. E.g.: Cum Laude, Magna Cum Laude, Summa Cum Laude.
- Academic achievements. Any interesting papers youve written, courses youve excelled in, etc.
- Minor. Minor in Psychology
Here’s an example:
Tips on perfecting your education section:
- If you dont have any work experience, mention your education section first.
- Mention your latest educational entry on top.
- If you have a university degree, dont mention your high school at all.
- ONLY mention GPA if you had a very impressive academic career .
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Focus On Your Achievements
While its important to describe your job history, you should present it from the perspective of your achievements rather than what your job required you to do. For example, explain how you used your creativity to find a unique solution to a problem. Think of such specific, quantifiable results you achieved, and include them in this section.
Use the same approach to describe your skills. Instead of a simple list of skills, employers are more interested in knowing how you have successfully applied those skills in a practical situation. There is no need to have a separate section of skills unless you are applying for a position that requires certain hard skills . Instead, consider including the skills within the descriptions of your work experience.
What Does A 2020 Resume Look Like
Keep It Simple Use clear section headings and make them stand out with bold type, capital letters, and/or a different color. Make sure theres plenty of white spacean overstuffed resume is hard to read. Skip the fancy graphics, pie charts, and illustrations, which dont play well with resume-scanning software.
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