What Jobs Look Good On A Resume

Side Hustles That Will Look Good On Your Resume

For the third year in a row, Bustle’s Upstart Awards are honoring young women who are doing incredible things in the realms of business, STEM, fashion and beauty, the arts, philanthropy, and beyond. Want to be an Upstarts honoree one day? Read on for career tips, insights, and inspiration to help get you there.

When I finished college and joined the real world, I quickly learned an important lesson: education alone isn’t enough to pad your resume. Heck, sometimes employment isn’t even enough when it comes to landing a better job. That’s why you should consider picking up some side hustles that will look good on your resume â or including ones from your past that you maybe previously deemed irrelevant.

What is a side hustle, exactly? According to Entrepreneur, a side hustle is one way to “make some extra cash that allows you flexibility to pursue what youâre most interested in,” although a side hustle can also be a passion of yours. For example, my full-time work as a writer actually began as a side hustle: I picked up small freelancing jobs here and there while working full-time in another position, until writing grew enough to pay the bills.

Plus, it’ll reflect the go-getter you are. Another reason to include side hustles? The owner of your company probably started their career in a similar position. We’ve all got to work our way up, and side jobs are certainly nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, you should show them off on your resume with pride!

Create A Clear Education Section

Having a clear education section is essential for your resume, especially if youre a recent college graduate or have minimal work experience.

If you lack professional experience but have a good track record in school , your education section should be highly detailed to highlight all of your education-related accomplishments.

On the other hand, if you possess more than a few years of professional experience, then its appropriate to keep your education section short and sweet.

Additionally, if youre a student or recent graduate, list your education section above the experience section of your resume. This way, you emphasize your most marketable qualifications at the top of the page.

Here are the main points to include in a standard education section:

• The names of your university, community college, or technical school
• Location of the schools
• Date of graduation
• Degree
• GPA

Additionally, include relevant coursework on your resume if youre a recent graduate and dont have much work experience yet.

Here are two examples demonstrating how to format your education section:

How Does Color On A Resume Impact An Electronic Scan

But even if very few employers actually use resume organization tools to reject resumes, can color on a resume get past the ATS scan?

The answer is yes. As long as the contrast between the text and background is high, using color wonât prevent your resume from being scanned. Conservative use of colors on your resume is acceptable to Applicant Tracking Systems. As a lead software engineer, Iâve seen many colorful resumes that are successfully parsed by Applicant Tracking Systems such as Lever.

So donât use too much color on resume if you want your resume to be parsed correctly. Keep in mind that other aspects of your resume are more important than how well your resume can be parsed by software.

Recommended Reading: How To List Languages On Resume

Classes Training And Certifications

Now its time to list any relevant classes, training, or certifications that are relevant for your resume.

For classes, include coursework that you took through school that are relevant to the position you are applying for. Just list the class title instead of the class number, such as ECON101. You can also write a brief description that is one to two sentences long to describe the course, if it is relevant to the job youre applying for.

For every training session and certification on your resume, list where you received the training, the type of course taken, the date you received it, and the date it expires .

Example of how to list a class in a resume:Intro to Hospitality Introduction to the hospitality industry, including various types of career paths. In-depth lessons on the food and beverage sector, including the categories of restaurants and the different types of food service.

Example of how to list training and certifications:Coral Springs University, Coral Springs Florida Valid 9/2018 9/2021First Aid & CPR Certified

Weave Your Skills Into Your Professional Experience Section

While many job seekers may list skills in a separate section of their resume, its also important to weave them into descriptions under each of your previous positions. This is where you have an opportunity to strengthen your skills section with additional context and specific examples.

For example, if you include the skills project management and time management, you could illustrate this by providing a real-life example, such as: Successfully managed six projects across three separate teams during the first half of 2018, and delivered all completed items by the deadlines.

You May Like: Child Actor Resume With No Experience

What Employers Look For In A Resume

You can easily spend hoursor really, days or weekslaboring over your resume. But will all that hard work result in a resume that matches what employers are looking for? A successful resume doesn’t just showcase your work it matches recruiters and hiring managers’ expectations, clearly conveys that you’re a good fit for the role, and above all, is easy to read and understand.

Industries Such As Tech Marketing And Media

If youâre in industries such as tech, design, marketing, or media, strategic use of color on a resume can be an advantage.

During my career as an engineer at mid-sized tech companies, Iâve manually reviewed thousands of resumes. Most resumes I reviewed had some color, which usually didn’t make it hard to read.

There were a few exceptions. I usually had a hard time reading resumes that were over-designed to the point where I noticed the resume design more than the candidateâs actual experience and skills.

Avoid drawing negative attention with colors on a resume

Incorrect

Donât use quirky graphics and too much design.

Correct

Use a resume design that makes your resume easy to read.

Luckily, most small-mid sized companies especially in tech usually wonât let a resume get filtered out because of bad design. Some of those candidates still got the interview. Poor resume design sometimes doesn’t prevent moving on to the next step. Irrelevant experience and lack of fit is more of a filter.

Even if your resume has colors, keep in mind that it may still be printed in black and white. When your resume is translated to black and white, it needs to be just as readable. A high level of contrast between colors and text on your resume is important.

You May Like: How To Mention Promotion On Resume

Make Your Experience Work To Your Advantage

So, now youre sold that your winding career path is a good thingbut how do you translate all of this into your job search? Whether youve changed jobs out of curiosity, boredom, or necessity, diverse experiences can work in your favor if you tailor your resume and interview skills to cast your experience in the best light possible. Heres how.

Volunteer Work And Activities

Lastly, create a section for volunteer activities. This could be formal or informal volunteering, such as serving food at a local homeless shelter or helping your neighbor rake leaves. For each volunteer activity, include who you volunteered with, what your role was, the dates and hours you volunteered and a brief description.

Example of how to list volunteer work and activities in a resume:Coral Springs Soup Kitchen, Coral Springs, Florida 25 Hours Meal Prep and ServingPrepares, serves, and cleans up after meal service at a local homeless shelter on a bi-weekly basis.

You May Like: What Font To Use For Resume

Lack Of True Interest

For me, being underqualified generally isnt a deal breaker, but a lack of effort is. A lack of spelling and grammar errors on a resume certainly isnt reason alone to hire someone, but too many errors shows that the candidate isnt serious about the position.

This goes beyond the resume itself, and has to come out most notably in the short questionnaire we ask applicants to fill out. If someone wants to answer with one-word responses, that tells us all we need to know about their interest in the position.

, CEO and Co-founder, Choosing Therapy

If someone cant put in that effort to shine on a resume, what does that mean for their effort in the workplace? As we enter the hybrid work model, it is crucial that each employee is prepared to carry their own weight to make remote collaboration and genuine team-building successful.

How To Make Job Hopping Look Good On A Resume

Contents

People ask also, how bad does job hopping look on a resume? So, the deal with job-hopping is this: Its not necessarily an absolute résumé killer, but in many fields it can make it a lot harder to get the jobs you want. The reason for that is employers may assume that if you have a pattern of leaving jobs relatively quickly, youll leave them relatively quickly too.

Correspondingly, how can I make my resume look good with a lot of jobs?

Quick Answer, what makes you look like a job hopper? Here are the top signs that youre a job hopper You havent spent more than a year in the same role ever. You start looking for a new job after being in your current role for less than 3 months. You apply for jobs outside of your specialty or experience just to see what you can get.

In this regard, how do I not look like a job hopper?

Recommended Reading: How To Make A Acting Resume

Spelling Punctuation And Grammatical Errors

Always double-check the spelling on your CV. Ensure you are writing in the correct tense and if you are using the third person, stick to it throughout the document. Avoid Americanisms and use the spell-check. If you struggle to spot mistakes, ask a careers professional, mentor or friend to look over your CV or use spell-checking software like Grammarly.

Highlight Your Relevant Job Skills

Hiring managers are on the lookout for candidates who have relevant, job-specific skills. While listing a heap of skills on your resume doesnt actually prove youre skilled, incorporating your various skills into different sections will catch the eye of whoever is vetting your application.

For instance, you can showcase your hard and soft skills in your introduction and work experience section. And of course, you should also list your most valuable abilities in your resumes skills section.

You May Like: How To Put Multiple Jobs At One Company On Resume

Whats A Resume Summary & When To Use It

A resume summary is a 2-3 sentence summary of your career. You should use a resume summary in basically any situation, unless youre a recent university graduate or switching careers .

In your resume summary, you need to mention:

What To Put On A Resume: 7 Things To Include

If youre wondering what goes on a resume, Im going to share everything you should include to get more interviews, including:

• What to put in a resume for experienced candidates
• What to put in a resume if you have no experience
• What NOT to include in your resume
• How to look at the job description for clues about what skills and experience to put on your resume to grab each employers attention. .

Heres exactly what to put on a resume, based on my experience as a recruiter

Read Also: Is It Ok For A Resume To Be 2 Pages

Signs Of Bad Resumes That You Need To Look Out For

When youre reviewing hundreds of resumes a week, you need to be able to spot the bad ones quickly. Not knowing which red flags signal possible bad hires can lead to a lot of wasted time and money.

But, depending on the position and the candidate, some resume mistakes are forgivable. So how do you know when to give a job seeker another chance or just move on?

These are the resume signs that hiring experts use to help them weed out the wrong candidates:

Spelling Or Grammar Mistakes

Proofread and spellcheck everything.

You are very unlikely to get called for an interview if you have a spelling or grammar mistake on your resume and nobodys going to tell you either.

So you need to find it yourself, or have a friend proofread it carefully for you!

Heres a little trick if you proofread it yourself: temporarily change your resume to an unusual font before proofreading. It will help you spot errors .

Now youve hopefully gotten answers to your questions about what should a resume include, and youve seen the top things to leave off as well.

Theres one final step, though, thats going to get you far more interviews from all of this

Recommended Reading: How To Change The Resume In Linkedin

Formatting Sections On A Resume

Clearly separate resume sections by formatting them in underlined and bold using a size that is one or two points larger than the rest of the text. This helps a hiring manager easily scan through your resume and pick out the important information fast.

When creating a resume, especially when you have no experience, it saves a lot of time to use a resume building template. Using a free resume template allows you to focus on writing the content without spending too much time on formatting.

Additional Relevant Accomplishments And Volunteer Work

The last section to consider adding to your resume is a shortlist of any other relevant accomplishments or volunteer work. Only include those that are relevant or that may help create a better picture of who you are as an individual as related to the position youre applying for. If youre not sure what information may be a fit for this section, re-read the job descriptions that interest you. Consider if you have any experiences outside of the professional history you already added which may help employers understand your qualifications.

Here is an example of what your accomplishments and volunteer work section could look like:

Volunteer firefighter, 20102012

Don’t Miss: Microsoft Excel Resume Examples

Should I Put Color On My Resume

So youâre interested in making your resume stand out with colors.

But will color on a resume attract employers or turn them away?

Color on a resume used to be widely considered unacceptable. But the perspective of employers is different now in 2021. In fact, colors on a resume could be an advantage in making your candidacy stand out.

How do you know if colors on a resume is right for you? And how much color is too much?

The answer to these questions are unique to a candidateâs industry and how the resume is used. To understand what level of color is right for you, letâs first think through the lifecycle of a resume.

Resumes are reviewed and evaluated in the following ways:

Color on a resume can have either a good or bad impact at any of these steps. Letâs think through the employerâs perspective to understand this further.

Elaborate Formats And Designs

When it comes to selecting a design for your resume, less is more. Not only do elaborate designs and unconventional formats confuse most applicant tracking systems, but they also annoy recruiters who are accustomed to quickly scanning a resume for specific information they expect to find in particular spots within the document. Don’t make recruiters hunt for the information they care about. Play it safe and stick to a clean resume design with a clear hierarchy. Not sure what works? Check out TopResume’s library of free resume samples.

Also Check: How To Insert A Line In Word For Resume

Name And Contact Information

At a minimum, your contact information section should include your name, phone number and email address. Depending on the type of job youre applying for, you might also include a link to an online portfolio or professional website.

An example contact information section might look like this:

Alex GardnerHouston, Texas 456-7891

A common practice is to use your name as the title of the page, formatted so that employers can easily identify your name and contact information first.

Related: 20 Skills in Demand in Today’s Workforce