Resume: Your Professional Advertisement
Your resume is “Your Professional Ad”. With that being said, your resume (and cover letter) should immediately speak/stand out to employers (and recruiters), compelling them to call you or reach out via email to learn more.
When you consider the fact that potentially hundreds or even thousands of other candidates are applying for the same single job as you, it’s easy to see why writing a resume that really entices employers at first glance is so important when considering that resume readers only scan resumes for an average of less than 10 seconds.
So how do you write a resume that shows your real value to employers when you’re fighting for their attention? Or when there’s a good chance your resume is going through an applicant tracking system instead of landing on an actual person’s desk?
Resume Best Pratices
Step 1: Mirror the language in the job posting.
There is a better than average chance that your resume will be submitted via an Applicant Tracking System. Applicant tracking systems parse the content of resumes and put them into categories. From there, they scan them for specific and similar keywords and phrases. That helps them determine whether or not your resume should even be sent along to the recruiter.
So, before turning in your resume, make sure to optimize it for potential applicant tracking systems. Look for keywords and phrases in the job advertisement, and work them into your resume. If you can, tweak your job titles and descriptions to match the job advertisement/description, too. Though applicant tracking systems are getting more sophisticated, be sure to read the section that goes more in depth into Resume AI Screening Systems (Applicant Tracking Systems).Step 2: Use hard facts and metrics to show results.
Ever heard of the show and not tell? That’s what you want to do with your resume. Show potential employers hard facts and metrics, like numbers, when you’re talking about results. Did you grow your last company’s revenue, marketing presence, etc? Share those numbers to show the person reading your resume what you’re capable of achieving for their company, as well. Doing so will take your resume from good to great.Step 3: Highlight your relevant skills.
Don’t forget to list out your relevant skills. Your skills section should be quick and to the point. Often, it’s just a bulleted list. While you likely have a wealth of skills across multiple disciplines (especially if you’re at the executive level of your career) make sure that what you include in this list is relevant to the job for which you’re applying.
If there are specific skills that you possess that the company is seeking in candidates, according to the job advertisement, be sure to list those on your resume. They should take precedence over other skills. While soft skills are important to talk about once in your cover letter or during your interview, your resume should really reflect the hard industry skills you have, such as specific software experience.
Step 4: Keep it concise but complete.
Your resume, ideally, should fit on one page. While that’s not always possible for executives with storied experiences under their belts, the more concise you can keep your resume, the better. That’s because hiring managers and recruiters are not going to want to have to go digging to find the details they need.
You can cut your resume down by removing wordy language, cutting unnecessary filler words, and getting straight to the point. There are tons of tools out there to help you write clearly and effectively.
Once you feel like your resume is ready…walk away and schedule another review the next day. Read it again, and pass it along to a friend or someone whose professional opinion you trust. They may be able to help you refine your resume even more with a fresh pair of eyes.
AI Assistance
After you have created a basic resume structure with your professional details filled in, you can utilize an AI LLM model to help optimize your content and structure. A basic resume structure with professional details is required as AI will need a starting point for insertion into the model, AI cannot discover your professional journey alone.
Upon completing a basic resume, you can use the following prompts to help to optiize your resume with an LLM model:
AI Prompt: "Take this resume: [resume content] and improve it for [job title]. Focus on clarity, strong action verbs, quantifiable achievements, and ATS optimization. Highlight transferable skills if applicable."
Resumes From An Employer/Recruiter Perspective
Coming Soon