Get Your Resume to the Top of a Hiring Managers Pile with These Tips
Posted March 19th, 2020
When you are trying to find a new job, having a standout resume is critical. Otherwise, your application might be placed straight into the discard pile, and you never get a chance to speak with the hiring manager about why you’re a great candidate.
In many cases, a hiring manager only spends a few seconds reviewing your resume. While that may make it seem like there isn’t much you can do to catch their eye, that isn’t the case. There are things you can do to make sure your resume gets to the top of the hiring manager’s pile. If you want to make a great impression quickly, here are some tips.
Highlight Accomplishments in Your Professional Summary
Your professional summary is supposed to showcase the best of what you have to offer. The issue is, many professionals don’t use it properly. While they might give a reasonable overview of their work experience, they forget to include relevant achievements.
By highlight accomplishments that align with the target role, you are demonstrating your capabilities in a meaningful way as early in your resume as possible. It gives you an opportunity to speak to more than just your experience, as you can include details about your skills and past results in a similar role. This is much more intriguing to the hiring manager, increasing the odds that they’ll keep reading.
Make Sure Your Job Titles Are Universally Clear
Many companies use unique or quirky job titles to describe their positions. While this is fine internally, it can be confusing to anyone who hasn’t previously worked for that organization, including hiring managers.
Since your goal is to make a positive impression as quickly as possible, make sure your job titles are universally clear. You can do this by listing your official title and then, next to it in parentheses, include the more traditional version. That way, your non-traditional job title won’t be misinterpreted by a hiring manager who might not be familiar with how your past employer classifies or titles positions.
Use the Right Formatting Choices for Readability
If your resume is hard to read, the hiring manager isn’t going to spend much time trying to review it. Your resume needs to be skimmable, so you have to make smart formatting choices.
Make sure there is a sufficient amount of white space. It gives the eyes a break and can actually help with flow.
Additionally, use bullet points strategically. Not every statement or line needs to be highlighted with a bullet point. Instead, it may be wise to use simple font adjustments (like bolding headers or adjusting the text size) to make certain areas stand out and bullet points in others. This creates visual interest and prevents bullet point overload.
Let Bayside Solutions Help with Your Resume!
Ultimately, the tips above can help you craft a resume that stands out for all of the right reasons. If you’d like to learn more, the staff at Bayside Solutions can help. Contact us today and see how our knowledge can benefit you.
