Want A Powerful Resume? Here Are Seven Things To Do

Writing a resume does not have to be hard. Sometimes, job seekers over complicate it. I hear people worry about white space, font or size or even length. At the end of the day, what is most important is your message --- what the hiring manager needs to know about you. If you do not get that right, then all the fancy graphs and charts you put on a resume will mean nothing. 

At the core, there are seven things that every resume writer must get right to have a powerful resume. Just because you do these seven things does not mean that you will get an interview at every place you apply. It just does not work that way. What it will do is give you an advantage over other applicants, because most do not know these important seven things. It will increase your chances of moving from the “no” pile to the “yes” pile. 

Be Truthful

Yes, I have this as the first thing you need to do to make your resume powerful. Being truthful and being able to stand behind what you wrote makes you incredibly powerful. There is a confidence in showing you did something that was of value to an employer or volunteer group. It makes you stand taller and though a hiring team cannot see it, you will feel it. That confidence will reverberate through your job search and believe me, will set you apart from those that exaggerate or outright lie on their resume or CV. If you do not possess all the qualifications of a position, remember that most candidates do not. If you possess 75-80% of what is required, that is actually pretty good. If you are missing skills or experience that might be key to the role, use a cover letter or email to explain how you currently are working on the skill or getting the experience or how you plan to obtain it. Don’t pretend you have something that you do not.

Keywords Are Key

Most people use keywords on a daily basis and may not realize they are doing it. When you go to search for something on the internet, you usually will go to a search engine like Google and put in one or multiple words into the search box. Those are the keywords you want the search engine to look at to provide you with relevant matches. In the world of recruiting, keywords are used to search resumes that have been submitted to their applicant tracking software (ATS) to find those that best match the position. The more keywords that match, the higher the chance your resume will be prioritized for viewing. Therefore, it behooves you to make sure that your resume has within it the keywords that are important to the hiring team. See my blog post Applicant Tracking Systems and Keywords: What You Need To Know for more information about adding keywords to your resume.

Use Active And Not Passive Words

The tone of your resume is very important. Therefore your word choice is also very important. Think very hard about the words that you are using to describe yourself, your activities and accomplishments. Using an active voice will show the actions that you took to accomplish things. A passive voice will more reflect the actions done to you. An active voice makes the reader think that you were in charge, that you determined your destiny. The passive voice gives the impression that you were not proactive, but reactive. What impression do you want a hiring manager to have of you? I bet a new boss will want someone who is a doer and can get things accomplished.

Instead of “Responsible for processing cash receipts” say instead “Processed cash receipts.”

See the difference?

Avoid Cliches and Buzzwords

To write a powerful resume, you need to use the language that resonates with the reader. For some reason when writing a resume, people either think they need to include terms that they never would say in real life or terms used so often they have no real meaning. As an example, some people write in their resume that they have “bifurcated” two things. Who talks like that? Maybe they think it makes them look smart, but in truth, it makes them come across as not relatable. Say you separated something into two parts. Easy to understand and more relatable.

Another example is the term  “people person.” How many people would raise their hands if in a group they were asked if they were a “people person?” Probably almost everyone. So if you say you are a “people person” on your resume, you have not told the reader anything. Instead, you should describe what you do with people. Are you strong in collaboration, relationship building, or negotiation? Use specific descriptors instead.

Other phrases on my pet peeve list are “self-starter”, “team player” and “hard worker.” Avoid using them in a resume.

Numbers, Percentages, Currency and Time Are Important

Telling the reader what you have accomplished is very powerful. When you give examples and can quantify the results, you have demonstrated what you have accomplished and importantly, you have painted a picture of the magnitude of the accomplishment. Using numbers, percentages, currency or time helps to do this. See how these sentences paint a picture of success.

Added 1,000 new customers to the email list.

Decreased service tickets by 20%.

Added $500,000 to revenue.

Decreased time-to-fill by 12 days.

Toot Your Own Horn

Your resume is the place to promote yourself. Yes, it is okay to brag about yourself here. You want the reader to know all of your accomplishments that translates to a successful and productive employee. Don’t be shy. If you do not tell them on your resume, there is really no way for them to know. Your message to the reader must be that you are the absolute best at what you do, therefore, you deserve an interview.

Don’t Be Wordy

With your resume, being succinct is a virtue. It is said that recruiters take about six to seven seconds to review a resume and decide if they want to read more. Very few recruiters will read a six-page resume. They just do not have the time to spend on one document. Therefore, you have to be able to tell the story of you in the shortest, yet complete way possible. Look at your resume and think long and hard about whether you can remove words and still retain the message. Will one word do instead of two? Can you remove “I” and just have the verb and action. Challenge yourself to remove 10 words with each edit. Many people claim that they just cannot get a resume down to two pages. Often it is possible to do so if wordiness is eliminated.

None of these seven things are hard; they just take focus, If you put your effort into these seven focus areas when writing your resume, I promise that you will have a powerful way to market yourself to prospective employers. 

If you would prefer to engage a professional resume writer to put together a resume for you, I am available for a 15-minute free consultation to discuss how I can help you.