5 Easy Resume Updates that Make an Impact
Making resume updates can seem like a daunting task, but it doesn’t have to be! Here are five easy resume updates that can help you stand out.
When is the last time you updated your resume? If it’s been a while, you may want to break it out and prepare to make some updates. Making resume updates gets a bad rap for being a tedious and time consuming task. In reality, if we updated our resumes more often it would be quick and painless.
It’s especially important to keep your resume up-to-date if you’re in the market for a new job. Many people job hunt at the top of the year, so now is the perfect time to spruce up your resume before you start shopping it around. Here are a few updates that are easy to make and that help you get noticed for the jobs you really want.
1. Add or update your professional summary
Think of this as the highlight reel of your resume. A professional summary gives a brief overview of your current role, your years of experience, and some of your top achievements. This is a great area to highlight industry related skills and any special certifications you may have. Professional summaries have taken the place of objective statements, as they tend to paint a better picture of who you are as a professional.
2. Add relevant keywords
Many companies use an ATS (applicant tracking system) to track and rank all of their applicants. One of the best ways to make sure your resume has a high ranking is to add keywords relevant to the role you’re applying for. Tis step requires a bit of research, but honestly researching positions should be part of your job hunting process anyway. You want to use strong action words when you’re describing what you’ve done in your current and previous roles. Words like “executed”, “developed”, and “achieved” are some examples of verbs to use when detailing your role. Make sure these words and phrases flow with your resume—you don’t want to pepper them in too much in areas that don’t make sense. Overall your resume should still be legible with a nice flow, just with some more powerful action words.
3, Remove old, irrelevant work experience
As a general rule of thumb, you want to keep your resume down to one page. This means you’ll likely have to leave out some old jobs or internships you had at the beginning of your career. Don’t be afraid to purge any of this information that’s unnecessary. Your resume should showcase the most recent and most relevant work experience you have. Anything additional may get your resume thrown out or won’t be referenced in the interview stage.
4. Double-check your formatting
You want to make sure anyone can easily read your resume. The design should be simple and you want to make sure things like margins are correct so that important information doesn’t get cut off. You also want to make sure the sections of your resume (work experience, education, etc.) are clearly labeled.
5. Add measurable results
This is something that will really help your resume stand out and impress hiring managers. Wherever possible, add in numbers that quantify your skills or any results you were able to achieve. If you helped grow part of the business, find out how much and add that data to your resume. If you helped train new employees, share how many people you successfully trained during your time at the company. Measurable results are a strong way to back up the skills you highlight in your resume.
I hope you all found this list helpful. You can probably complete this entire list in an hour and have a fresh resume for the new year! Have you made any of these updates to your resume recently? Leave a comment and let me know.
