It’s not uncommon for 200 to 300 people to apply to the same job online. Most of them will submit a two-page resume. Now ask yourself: Who do you know who wakes up in the morning and says, “I can’t wait to read 400 to 600 pages of resumes today”?
Resume reading and screening is a tedious job that someone has to do. It doesn’t take long to learn how to sort out the poor resumes from the good ones. After you’ve been doing the job for a while, all you’ll need to make an initial determination is about six seconds.
[See: The 8 Stages of a Winning Job Search.]
What that means for the job seeker is simple: If you want to show your stuff in a stand-out way, you’ll need to convey your story in a format that is easy to follow. You need to make it extremely easy for a resume reader to understand your career progression, key skills, accomplishments and the results you’ve achieved up to this point in your career.
With this in mind, you will be well-served to think of your resume as a series of modular sections, with one building on the one before it. When you add some flair to your language and convey the following sections, you’ll be on your way to success.
Heralding headline. Just under your name and contact information at the top of your resume you should give yourself a bolded headline. It might be a job title to which you aspire, like “Human Resources Director.” Even better, it could be a catchy description of your role, such as “HR Change Management Leader.”
Bold branding. Objective statements are out these days! Taking their place are short statements that relate your personal brand. A great branding statement will show one’s personal qualities, citing some key areas of expertise and successes. In essence, it summarizes all that follows and motivates the reader to read on for the specifics.
Splendid skills. What are the key skills you possess that set you apart as a qualified professional? You might want to create a three-column text box, with up to five rows that detail your particular interpersonal and hard skills. Be careful to avoid things like “excellent communications” that everyone will claim. Instead, point to particular skills that relate to the job you seek.
Crucial challenges. Remember that your next employer isn’t hiring your last job description. Rather than having bullet points beginning with “Responsible for …” statements, you might boil down the essence of your job to a sentence or two in order to create a context. Then, speak about your actions and results in two to four bullet points per job.
[See: 10 Items to Banish From Your Resume.]
Artful actions. Bullet points are effective ways to demonstrate what you’ve done to fulfill your responsibilities and set the stage for demonstrable results. Use powerful action-oriented verbs to begin each bullet point. Tell what it is that you’ve actually done to fulfill your responsibilities and obtain positive results.
Resounding results. When you show past results in terms of quantifiable numbers and percentages, resume readers easily assume “this candidate did it before, so repeat success is likely in the cards.”
Of course, it is easiest to state how many dollars of widgets you sold and compare that to previous time periods. But if you aren’t a salesperson, don’t fret. You can speak about your role in creating or developing a product, marketing it or aiding in its manufacture.
Moreover, you can look to your role in creating business efficiencies as a contributing factor to a company’s bottom line. Even if you are in a relatively minor support or administrative role, you can point to what you’ve done that has made your boss or department successful.
And, don’t forget that cutting expenses always helps improve profits. You should explain what you’ve done to contribute to your company’s frugality.
Education. No resume is complete without a section highlighting your education, including degrees earned, major area of study, the school at which you studied and its location.
There is ongoing and legitimate debate about whether or not to include dates of degrees earned. Often, people are afraid that when middle age and older workers include dates it can lead to age discrimination.
This author, however, holds that failure to include dates might lead an employer to think that you are older than you really are. Moreover, few people are hired without an in-person interview. You might appear younger than you really are, but it isn’t likely you can shave a whole generation off your appearance. It’s fanciful, at best, to think that you can “trick” an employer into being so interested in you sight unseen that the age factor will disappear before you have to show your face.
[See: 10 Ways to Perfect Your Personal Brand.]
Meritorious memberships. Be sure to list professional organizations to which you have belonged and any committee or board positions which you’ve held.
Volunteering. If you donate significant amounts of time to a nonprofit organization, it shows a degree of selflessness that makes for a good team member. However, you should not list any religious or political organization unless they are specifically related to your target employer.
Happy hunting!
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9 Winning Resume Elements to Stand out From Your Competition originally appeared on usnews.com
