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Whether you’re ready to enter the job market for the first time, after a hiatus, or you want to make a career change, you’ll need to fine-tune your resume. The current job market has shrunk recently and there’s more competition for many positions. Use these resume writing tips to spruce up your resume and get ahead of the rest in the stack.
Your resume is a tool that you can use to summarize the skills and experience that would make you a great candidate for a particular position. It also helps hiring managers get a snapshot of who has the right qualifications and skills to move forward to an interview.
Resumes are not, however, intended to be a cumulative list of every accomplishment you’ve made, every skill you possess, and every position you’ve ever held. Comprehensive statements of education and academic accomplishments are included in a curriculum vitae, but that is exclusively used in academia and typically not appropriate for most jobs. For most positions, you need a standard resume, and you can create an exceptional one with SkillUp’s resume writing tips!
A brief summary of your skills will give hiring managers not only an idea of what individual skills you possess, but it will also showcase your writing and communication skills, which are essential to most jobs. This information should be at the top of your resume but after your name and contact information. Not sure how to format it? Try our Key Skills Summary template.
One of the most important resume writing tips to heed is to tailor your resume to the job posting, which means using keywords from the job posting in your resume. Matching your skills with the wording the job poster is seeking will help hiring managers identify who would be a better fit faster. While this means updating your resume to some degree for each posting you consider, the benefit is that you will likely stand out among the other resumes.
There are several ways to show off your experience and achievements, in addition to listing your previous positions and the skills you acquired. You might create a list of awards, recognition, and certifications, you’ve received. You might even include a list of personal achievements that demonstrate both hard and soft skills: such as “Hiked the Pacific Crest Trail” or “Taught a volunteer woodworking class in my hometown.”
You can also check out our training catalog to help get the skills you need to be successful.
A good resume writing tip is the acronym STAR: Situation-Task-Action-Result, which is a way of succinctly framing your experience. Here’s an example:
Name the situation (you managed the sales team), explain the task (to gain new business), state the action (you used targeted emails), and relate the result (you increased sales by 120%). The final statement would look something like this: Led a team of sales representatives in a new business initiative to target customers with inbound marketing, which resulted in 120% growth.
Bullet points are intended to be concise, so you’re not doing yourself any favors if you include bullet points with paragraphs of information included. Keep in mind that a resume should be direct, brief, and to the point. Your cover letter and interview will provide the space for you to elaborate on your experiences and qualifications.
When putting together your resume, you’ll want to highlight the skills and experience that are relevant to the particular job you are pursuing. Organizing your resume to highlight your skills at the top will give the hiring manager a better idea of how your background translates to the job you’re seeking.
Your experience and skills should steal the show, especially if you don’t have college experience or if your college GPA isn’t the best. In cases where you’re a more mature candidate and college was many years ago, showcase your knowledge and the positions you’ve held. You might keep graduation years off of your resume to avoid unintended biases from the hiring manager that could result in age discrimination.
Because job postings are often inundated with applicants, many companies and hiring managers use Applicant Tracking Systems or ATS. Though you want to take the time to make your resume stand out, you should make sure it’s formatted in such a way that ATS will be able to parse your information instead of disregarding it.
A resume writing tip anyone can use: keep formatting simple! Nothing screams immaturity or a lack of seriousness like childlike fonts, disorganized information, and convoluted formatting. Use professional sans-serif fonts (no scripts) and keep your information clearly organized.
Power words aren’t just used in marketing—you can use them to market yourself! They evoke an emotional response from the reader. If you write that you increased sales, you might get a nod of approval. But if you wrote you exponentially grew sales, the resume reader might be more impressed.
Some good power verbs are:
And you can spruce up your resume with some good adjectives, such as:
Strategic
Dynamic
Innovative
Proactive
Motivated
Detail-oriented
Collaborative
Driven
Efficient
Goal-oriented
We can’t emphasize this resume writing tip enough: customize your resume to the job you are seeking. Look at the details and information provided in the job posting and match your skills to what they need. Save each resume as a separate file so you do not inadvertently upload the wrong file when applying. Read through the job description and even the company’s website (including their values) to see if you can emphasize or add parts to your resume that match what they’re looking for.
Not sure how to organize your resume? Try one of the SkillUp templates as a starting point. The chronological SnapShot resume can help you organize your unique experiences.
When uploading your resume to a job posting website or emailing it to the hiring manager, be sure to use the preferred file type, especially if it’s obvious that the job poster is using an ATS system. ATS systems require MS Word or PDF, so check your file before uploading.
Some hiring managers receive so many resumes that a single error will get the resume thrown out. One of the easiest resume writing tips we provide is to proofread your resume! You should proofread your resume yourself, but it also helps to have a trusted friend or colleague read it for you. Take advantage of services like spell check and grammar checkers to ensure your resume is error-free.
Volunteer experience shows your willingness to work hard even when you’re not being paid, which is certainly an admirable quality. Additionally, you can often gain skills that are relevant to paid positions, so be sure to include any volunteer experience that could enhance your resume.
If you don’t have a lot of experience, there’s no shame in taking the time to learn a new skill! If you’re not able to do that, show how the experience that you have has prepared you for the position, citing related experience and transferable skills.
Nope! Your resume should be a snapshot of applicable skills and experience, so it is unnecessary to include every job you’ve ever held.
Any marketable skill you have that is directly applicable to the job you are seeking should be included in your skills, which includes non-traditional work or continuing education. As long as it is relevant to the position you want, include it!
Many people have gaps in their career history. A good resume writing tip to make these gaps less of an intrusion is to organize your resume in a way that focuses on your skills and experience.
References are great to have, but not necessary to include unless the job you’re seeking specifically asks for them up front.
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