10 Resume Tips to Set You Apart

Everyone should have their resume updated and ready to go at all times. You never know when an opportunity will present itself and a poorly written or outdated resume will do you no good. Regardless of where you are at in your career, you should be consistent in updating your resume at least a few times a year.

I’m a recent college grad so there were many instances last year to update it. I updated my resume a few months before graduation to include new programs I learned and relevant classes I had completed. Once I graduated I again updated my resume to match my new education status and took the opportunity to add any new details I may have missed previously. Within 5 months of graduating I was so lucky to find a new job, which meant yet another update to my resume.

While you may not have many changes going on in your career, it’s essential to make sure you are making these updates. Maybe you were recognized for something in your current role or you graduated over 3 years ago and still have your education listed before your now extensive job experience. There’s always a need to keep up to date because we can’t predict what will happen in the next year or even month. Below I have attached 10 important things to keep in mind when writing or updating your resume.

1. Show the Company what you can do for them. Make sure that everything you are putting into your resume highlights what skills you have to offer and what you will bring to a future employer. This isn’t the place to tell them what you are looking for or to just list your basic tasks at your current job. The market is saturated with people looking for employment so you need to show the company what sets you apart and what you will do for them.
2. Use Strong Action Words. This is another great way to set yourself apart from others. Reading resumes can become a tedious task so make sure to use strong words that show your worth. Go here for some great examples of words to use.
3. Keep the Most Relevant Info at the top. It’s important to strategically place sections on your resume. For those applicants with no experience, it’s a smart idea to highlight your education. For those that have been in the field for many years education is not as important and should be placed at the end of your resume.
4. Be honest. This is pretty simple. Do not lie or embellish on your resume. No matter what field you are in, there are ways to enhance a simple task and there are different skills you can highlight that can show what you can do without fibbing. I recently made a career change where I was a healthcare worker going into the marketing field. I needed to find ways to emphasize what I could do, so I focused not so much on healthcare, but instead focused on my skills working in a team, while also emphasizing that I helped to promote current focuses and contests. These are important skills in the marketing field and helped me to land my current position.
5. Don’t just describe your work tasks, but explain what you did above and beyond. If you are continuing in the same industry then you often don’t have to describe what tasks you have completed as employers will already know what your core roles are. In this case it’s much better to explain the type of impact that you had on your company. This helps the company understand your strengths and what you can bring to the table for their company.
6. Make sure to include numbers. When writing your resume it’s important to include numbers, whether it’s a percentage of expenses you were able to cut or just the number of new hires you brought onto your team. These numbers help to give an exact measurement to your success and accomplishments within the company. It makes it easy for the reader to understand, while also giving definitive evidence to your effectiveness as an employee or manager.
7. Keep bullets short and sweet. There is a very limited amount of time to get the attention of a future employer, so keep your resume quick and to the point. It should sound professional, but it should also be short and concise. Too many words can create confusion and may just come across wordy.
8. Use appropriate resume format. It’s good but not required to try and keep your resume to about 1 page. If your format is wasting valuable page space it’s time for a change. It’s also key to match your career to your resume style. Certain industries allow you to get away with more creative resumes. If you are in graphic design it’s acceptable to show off a little bit of your work as that’s what is expected from you in everyday life. This same resume may not work for an accounting position though, where creativity is not a key element of the position.
9. Allow at least 2 people to look over your resume. This is probably the most important task I can recommend when it comes to your resume. We all miss little details at some point or another no matter how detail-oriented you are. Aside from basic misspellings, etc, it’s also important to get some other insight on your work. I have had my resume read by several individuals and they have helped greatly. Use your best judgment when making certain changes, but this is a great way to make sure that you are targeting the correct audience while also sounding professional and highlighting your top skills.
10. Make the resume authentic. It is fine to look at other resumes for inspiration and to help with wording, but be sure to make sure the resume is your own. If you can’t speak to your resume because you don’t even know what is says, it will be obvious during an interview. Your resume is the element that gets you in the door, but it also needs to represent the person that shows up to the interview.