9 Resume-Building Tips to Stand Out from the Crowd

While the pandemic resulted in job losses across the globe, many took this rapid change in the job market as a means to start again professionally. Job openings across industries mean anyone can look into openings related to what they have been doing or even search for companies within their line of work. The world may have closed because of COVID-19, but job opportunities have opened. 

But that’s the thing with this boom in vacancies. The competition to get hired is fiercer than ever. Because of this surge in applications, there is now a switch in the job market from being candidate-driven (who stands out in the crowd) to client-driven (which applicant will fill the position best). 

With this in mind, you can start with the right foot forward: your resume. Follow these resume-building tips to make your application catch the eye of recruiters by letting your resume do the talking. 

Your resume should look neat and concise at one glance. 

Your resume is your first impression on employers, not your job interview. But sadly, they don’t read resumes in their entirety anymore, at least in the initial stages of the hiring process. In fact, recruiters and managers look at resumes for an average of six to seven seconds only. While the amount of time spent on analyzing resumes may vary from company to company, employers will resort to a quick scan of your resume instead, especially when there are many to read. 

This is why resume formatting is key to giving your resume a stand-out look. Effective formatting also determines how professional you appear to potential employers. While clean formatting and good use of white space don’t get you the job per se, the ease of reading your resume is already a plus point towards convincing the reader to give your resume a shot. 

Here are five tips on how to clean up your resume: 

• Everything should be on one page. While there is some debate about resume length, there’s merit in a recruiter seeing everything they need to know in just one page. Your resume, after all, should summarize your recent educational and professional background. With the average reading time of employers, a single page might fit well in that seven-second browse-through of your credentials. 
• Ditch the fancy design and opt for clean, simple lines. There is no need to personalize your resume using ornate visuals. Clean lines, however, are good means to punctuate partition between columns or division between information. For example, between your educational background and work experience, a simple line can be used to divide the two. 
• Don’t put your photo. The space a photo takes up could have been used for personal information. It also doesn’t add up to your skills and background in relation to the job. Additionally, photos can bring up bias or discrimination from employers connected to a person’s appearance, intentional or not. 
• Streamline your text and content. A clean-looking font like Times New Roman works well at a 12-font size. Use bullet points, at most five per past/current job, so it’s easier to read at a glance. Using columns will help you maximize your resume’s space, but only up to two columns so as not to crowd the page. 
• Proofread and edit. Typos in resumes, though forgivable, leave a bad taste in its readers. Spend time rechecking your resume, even after a Microsoft Word or Grammarly spell check. 

Let the contents of your resume truly introduce who you are. 

Beyond work history and educational attainments, you can harness the resume’s potential in allowing the employer to take a peek at who you are, both professionally and personally. Eventually, recruitment staff will spend time searching for you online and interviewing your character references. So why not save them the time of sleuthing about who you are when they can catch a glimpse of that through your resume? 

Consider these four tips to make your resume content more intuitive and closer to what employers hope to read about in an application:  

• Utilize industry keywords. Many companies use apps like applicant tracking systems to look for potential hires across the internet through keyword searches. Some human resources apps can also skim through resumes and simply look for keywords that match the job description. With this in mind, take note of jargon specific to the job you are applying for and infuse it into your content. For example, don’t just say you are familiar with graphics editing programs; name them, like Adobe Photoshop or Snapseed. This goes the same for processes that may only make sense to people doing the same work as you. Chances are, these are your future employers. Don’t go into the pitfall of adjusting the use of words recruiters might not know about. They will look for keywords that mirror what they used in their posted job description. 
• Numbers add impact. How about some statistics in your job description? Concrete, measurable data helps back up your job experience as these numbers show how productive and effective you truly are in your past responsibilities, compared to a general statement. Instead of saying your proposal led to an increase in productivity, write it instead as your proposal reduced overtime work by 10 percent. Doesn’t that sound a lot more impressive? 

• Take out not-so-recent information. Omitting outdated info doesn’t only shorten your resume but also highlights who you are now as a professional. Don’t include your high school education anymore. Also, your work history should only include your past jobs within 10 to 15 years. This is a good period in showing how you have progressed as a professional. 
• Include social media handles.  If you’re a social media user who’s mindful of what to share with the world in your social media accounts, it’s safe to include links to your accounts in your resume. Additionally, ensure you have a working LinkedIn account to easily cater to employers who want to know more about your professional brand online. After all, a survey has proven that 73 percent of employers hire someone through social media. Hiring someone based on how the internet introduces them is a thing nowadays, so don’t miss out on it. 

LET DAVIS COMPANIES HELP WITH YOUR JOB SEARCH. 

While resume-building tips increase your chances of landing that dream job, a dedicated staffing partner can lend you a hand in your job search. Davis Companies is here to give you all the help you need to become the best version of yourself in your next role. 

Davis Companies believes in attaining operational excellence through people, and you can be part of this excellence. By building in-depth relationships with the professionals that we work with and maintaining our commitment to promoting personal integrity, we assure you that working with us will be a worthwhile experience. 

Get that dream job, and do it the Davis way. Contact us now