Many applicants submit resumes that are too wordy and contain too much information.
Recruiters are not interested in lengthy resumes that contain unnecessary information. They will easily pass it up and consider the next one.
The first message your resume should pass is what you can offer a firm, your level of experience, and past accomplishments that make you suitable for the job.
Consider these 5 things that must be your resume while you trash the others.
1. Perfect Grammar
Spelling and grammatical errors will get your resume thrown out faster than you can imagine. Always double-check spellings, get a second party to proofread or use an online grammar application.
2. Replace Objective Statement with an Executive Summary
Recruiters hate the objective statement at the beginning of resumes because they’re outdated and just a mix of many adjectives with no personal representation or expression.
Replace your objective with a brief career summary that states why you are qualified for the job and your industry experience.
3. Use Statistics
Using numbers and statistics to qualify your accomplishes is a sure way to gain a recruiter’s attention and better grasp your experience and contributions.
Use percentage, figures, and amounts to represent your facts. For example, rather than saying ‘I brought in lots of clients and customers’ say smoothing like ‘ I brought in business worth $50 million as a marketing officer, and increased the customer base by 50%.’
4. Use Keywords
Many recruiters have begun using software to screen resumes. In the last 2 years, over 200% of recruiters and about 500 major companies have started using one form of application tracker or the order.
To pass through this software, you need to include the right keywords that will stand out. One way to find the perfect keywords is to search online for resume keywords in your industry, and look through job descriptions relevant to your field and pick keywords.
5. Experience working with competing organizations
Including your experience working with a similar company or competitor can work in your favor when applying for a job.
According to career expert Vicki Salemi, hiring managers love to get applications from candidates who have worked for competitors. It helps them understand and gauge if you have an experience or understanding in the field and good enough.
Final Thoughts
When you are writing a resume, you should also consider getting professional assistance. As much as you might understand your experiences and strengths better, a professional resume writing service will help you position and articulate your points.
A study in London evaluated professionally written and self-written resumes in which over 400 recruiters took part, self-written resumes scored less than professional ones.
According to Resumes planet recruiters also found that professionally edited resumes had better delivery and were more polished. Professional resumes were rated 57% while self-written documents scored 39%.
In the actual hiring process, recruiters were more confident about representing candidates with professionally edited resumes. These candidates were also worth a higher salary than the applicants with self-written resumes.
