Do you want a better resume? Here are a few tips:
–Ban the word “responsible” from your resume. Responsible only means what you were supposed to do, not what you actually did.
–It’s okay to use “a” and “the.” Managed the 2022 budget process, led a team.
–If it happened in a year starting with 19 it’s too old to be on your resume. Starting with 20 is pushing it, but understandable depending on circumstances.
–You don’t need dates on your degrees (for the background check, yes, but not for the resume). See above for the old thing.
–Job Titles are more important than company names, in most cases. Bold the job title
–Walls of text make recruiters’ eyes glaze over.
–Changing it from “to ensure” to “ensuring” changes it from a task to an accomplishment.
–Leave super cool accomplishments on your resume, even if they don’t directly relate to the job you are applying for.
–Your resume should focus on your accomplishments, not your assigned tasks.
Any other tips out there?
From a staffing service viewpoint, all things we have seen in the past 2 weeks.
1-2 pages only, we don’t need a half page of AI created job descriptions for each of your jobs. We only want to know what you really did.
Don’t include your Picture, hobbies, or a statement talking about how you are a single mom of 4 kids all under the age of 12!
Don’t send us a Picture of your resume.
Don’t use different color fonts, black is fine.
AND if you use an AI created job description, please fill in the details – don’t leave [software used] and then claim you have attention to detail.
I encourage everyone to mention technical skills. Anything that lets recruiters know you can use standard work applications.
I disagree with the one about not putting old items on your resume. I got my current job in 2021 in big part to a job I had in 2000-2002. In high lever professional hiring it is important to document your entire career. Achievements and experiences 20+ years ago can still be relevent.
I think it depends on the circumstance and/or how high level the position is for. Unless it’s incredibly related to the job you’re applying for, you might not need to include it — for example, you can also put “20+ years of [insert skill] experience” in the summary section at the top, or in your skills section. I have “13 years of customer service experience” on my resume, but I don’t need to tell them that I worked at Walmart in 2010 because I have more relevant and recent customer service experience that I can include instead.
While I agree with not having positions from more than 10 years ago on your resume, it’s hard when you have a position from 1999-2021; that needs to be on there. And similarly, what about your LinkedIn profile, should you change those dates, too? I know many have their LinkedIn profile on their resume.
I would add that explaining what the company does is an excellent idea. My exec search teammates complain that they don’t want to have to go dig the information up if it is an obscure company they have not heard of. Make it easy for the reviewer to “get it” quickly. They will only look up the details if the rest of the resume stands out. Don’t leave it to chance.