Your resume is the ticket that takes you to the front of the job search line. Taking time to do it right is one of the most critical steps in your career journey. In fact, if you want to stand out, your resume has to be perfect.
We’ve put together a list of Must Do’s and Thou Shall Not’s to help you create a resume that passes the Applicant Tracking System and catches the HR eye.
Must Do’s
- Start with a sharp, attention-grabbing header, which includes your name, contact information, and the position you are seeking.
- Customize your resume to the job for which you are applying. Create your “backbone” resume first, and then customize for each position that you are considering. Tweak your job titles, skills, experience, and responsibilities you have fulfilled to fit their description – while remaining accurate, of course. Focus on the skills and accomplishments that most line-up with their job requirements. Choose the industry keywords that align with the position and use them throughout your document.
- Tell your story. Don’t merely list your skills, experience, education. Tell them what you did with your skills, what you accomplished, the difference it made for your previous employers. Quantify your accomplishments. Share specific examples.
- Proofread your resume – more than once. You can use software such as Grammarly to remove typos, but you still need to proofread for spelling mistakes, missing articles, font styles and similar quirks. Triple check your contact information. Always have at least one other qualified person proofread it for you. Nothing sends your resume to the bottom of the pile faster than typos, grammar errors, misspelled words, etc.
Thou Shall Not’s
- Skip the specifics. You won’t get hired for your skills – you get hired for the outstanding work you were able to do with those skills.
- Create a list of previous responsibilities instead of a list of accomplishments. They don’t want to know that you designed banners at the graphic design agency – they do want to know that your designs won awards and one you created for company XYZ increased public awareness by twenty percent.
- Be too brief or too wordy. Be crisp, clean, concise – use action verbs and make every word count.
- Ignore your soft skills. Employers aren’t just looking for skills and degrees. They want to know if you have the character and personality to fit in their culture, your level of emotional maturity, your business acumen, people skills, etc.
About Lingo Staffing
Lingo is a full-service staffing firm dedicated to providing top quality services to its clients and its candidate pool. With extensive knowledge and experience in light industrial, administrative, and professional employment, Lingo encompasses the capabilities and resources necessary to help you get ahead.
Our experience and commitment to client satisfaction make us the perfect choice to manage all of your staffing needs. Our staff guarantees exceptional customer service with an expedient response time.
Our experts are located at an office near you: Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Tennessee, and Georgia.
Lingo, the language of On Demand solutions. Contact us at an office convenient to you.