Crafting a resume is a task that many job seekers dread. Everyone has their opinions about what to include in a resume and what to leave off. On top of that, you have to factor in the type of job you’re applying for. There are countless online templates to choose from and some people advise not to use a template at all. It can be difficult to sift through all the resume tips to get to something that works for you.
To stand out from the crowd you want your resume to hit all the right notes without a bunch of unnecessary fluff to weigh it down. Here are some examples of things employers don’t often see on resumes, but wish they did.
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Specific Examples
When making a resume, people so often give generalized examples of their accomplishments. Sometimes they do so because they can’t be bothered to recall the facts and other times they do so because they’re trying to stretch the truth. Either way, providing examples without the numbers to back them up is kind of a waste of time. You’re not really going to impress anyone and you’ll be stretching your resume for no good reason, which can be annoying to prospective employers.
Adding numbers to your resume helps employers see specifically what you’ve done—instead of saying something about how you helped create social media content and edit articles at your last internship, put a daily number next to each.
Fewer Buzzwords
Filling a resume with a lot of trendy terms that don’t mean much won’t get you noticed for the right reasons. In fact, it may get your application filtered out before it even reaches the hiring manager. Some applicants make the mistake of assuming that a longer resume containing fancy words will be more impressive, but the fact is that employers often have to sift through a large pile of resumes to decide who to bring in for an interview and they don’t want to see lengthy resumes that don’t contain much substance. These kinds of applications only bog the process down. Sometimes they are perceived as more trouble than they’re worth and they get cast aside without ever being read.
A better idea is to stick to the facts and keep things clear. Provide information about your skills and experience that is relevant to the job you’re applying for. Use pertinent examples, but keep them concise and to the point.
Stand-Out Accomplishments
After contemplating, ‘how should a resume look?’ many people decide to use the same formula. They list their job history, plunk in a description of expectations and duties at each workplace, and call it a day. There is nothing that makes the application exceptional. If you really want to get the hiring manager’s attention with your application you need to include some unique accomplishments. What have done on the job that other employees usually don’t think to do?
No Typos
Yes, everyone has typos, but when it comes to writing a resume it’s what you do about them that really matters. When you’re thinking about how a resume should look, keep in mind that the font and layout are not the only components that leave an impression. You can have the most beautifully laid out resume, but if it’s full of typos and grammatical errors, it’s going to make a bad impression.
Typos and grammatical mistakes are easily fixed, so submitting a resume with these errors looks like you don’t care. Fortunately, most word-processing software highlights these mistakes for you. You should also do a few read-throughs of your resume and have a grammar-loving friend check it over for you, too.
No Objective
At some point, it became trendy to list your career objective at the top of a resume. It fact, it’s become so common that many resume templates include this section. The problem is that the objective is often unrelated to the job and, as such, is seen as unnecessary filler.
The smart thing to do is to wipe the objective section completely off your resume. Instead, use the freed-up word count to talk about some previous work accomplishments. This will have far more impact. If you still want to include a description of what you’re seeking, you can work that into your cover letter.
Sometimes deciding what to include in a resume can be more time consuming than writing the resume itself, but the effort is well worth it. So, if you’re struggling with the questions, ‘how should a resume look?’ and ‘what should I include?’ just follow the resume tips of hiring managers and you’ll have an application that gets attention for all the right reasons.
