How to Make Your Resume Stand Out!

Your resume is one of the most important documents while getting your dream job. It is the first impression recruiter gets from you and what they use to decide if you are getting an interview. So let's make one that will land you an interview.

According to Grammarly, this article sounds disapproving and sad ????. I apologize in advance. I want you to land your dream job so that I might have been too aggressive.

·?????As a draft, get your resume reviewed by your University. Even if you have already graduated, most still support you for FREE. Please do not stop there. We want to stand out, so keep reading.

·?????Attend several resume reviews events, especially those with volunteer employers. Nothing beats advice from the people who will hire you, plus it is also a networking opportunity.

·????You know you are done with your resume once people can no longer give you advice or start giving you the advice you just changed because it is opposite of what someone else said.

·?????Opinions are like belly buttons. Everyone has one, so use your judgment on feedback. Remember it is your resume, so you make the final decision.

·?????After all of that, review your resume one final time with me—shameless plug for my resume review sessions. Fees apply*

Sell don't summarize.

The purpose of a resume is to sell yourself, so do not summarize your entire career. Therefore, you should not be listing everything you have done but listing accomplishments relevant to the position you are applying to concisely. I detail how to do this in the work experience section below.

Use a sniper instead of a shotgun.

It would help if you were a sniper by tailoring your resume for every role or, at a minimum, the industry you are targeting instead of using one resume for everything. This method is known as the shotgun approach or sprays and pray. Just spray your resume everywhere and pray that someone will see it.

Do not use those paid ATS optimizers. People will give you interviews, not AI robots. Those are gimmicks that have excellent marketing/advertising. Some of the worst resumes I have seen are people who paid hundreds of dollars, and all the company did was add a bunch of buzz words and make it look pretty.

The best way to target roles is by using their job description to help you. Add any experience that is relevant to that role in a way anyone can understand

Less is best

Your resume should be simple and easy to read. You want to make the recruiter's job easy. I promise you that no one will read your resume entirely. Recruiters and hiring managers will most likely only glance at it. 1-page resume only. The average recruiter reads a resume for 6-7 seconds, according to most experts on LinkedIn. I honestly skimmed through them most of the time.

Contact Information

• Your name should be super visible. I recommend big font centered at the top.
• Make sure your voicemail is set up, includes your name, and has storage.
• Use a professional email. Shout out to two people I know who had brobroracing and skinnybones504 for their email. I still can not stop laughing. Do not use your work email.
• Add a link to your LinkedIn. You can customize your Linkedin URL. Article on LinkedIn coming soon. Example: linkedin.com/in/arnoldtheengineer
• In the U.S., we do not use CV (curriculum vitae), so do not add headshots. or "References Available Upon Request."

My resume example:

Objective/Summary

• Take off the objective or summary. I know what you are looking for by seeing your graduation year or the job you applied for. Stop using prime real estate by telling me you are a hardworking, driven individual. Instead, make it evident with your experience. Anyone can say they are hardworking, but not everyone can prove it.
• Do not add the company name. You might mix up companies. I once gave the wrong resume to the wrong company and had to go back and tell the recruiter I needed to swap the resume. I was so embarrassed by my mistake. Learn from my mistake, so you do not do it.

Work experience

This, in my opinion, is the most critical part of your resume. Especially nowadays that it seems like you need 5 years of experience for an entry-level position. You need the experience to get experience.

The best experience for students that have not been in the industry is internships. Getting your first internship will be very hard, but the rest will be much easier to get once you get the first one. If you have no internship experience, the second-best thing is research experience in your college. If you are not lucky enough or have the connections to land those, the next best thing is doing projects or competitions in a team. We want to see that you can apply what you learn in school to the real world in a group setting. I recommend you stay away from solo projects since you will not be working alone in the real world.

• Include month and year for each job
• It is okay to keep irrelevant jobs if you don't have several relevant roles. However, if the role is not directly related, you should consider skills that can transfer over. For Example, customer service, leading, conflict resolution, and quality control are transfer skills.
• Add keywords from job descriptions.
• Add Numbers or, in fancy terms, quantifiable results
• Use action words to start every bullet. Check out this list from Harvard.
• Set up each experience in reverse chronological order. Newest first.
• No acronyms. Make sure you spell out everything. You do not know if the recruiter has experience in the area they are looking for people.
• Use ACR or CAR (google it) formats for your bullets.

Example:

Interacted (action)?with 20+ customers per day, communicated product benefits, and answered questions to increase sales figures consistently (context),?selling an average of $10000 of merchandise per week (result).

I borrowed the following from www.theupswingreport.com: 
"To effectively present your experiences, use the Action-Context-Result (ACR) format.?For each experience on your resume, you should include 2-4 descriptive bullet points in the ACR format describing the position.

Action (what you did.??Click here for a list of action words): use a strong word that conveys a skill (Analyzed, Created, Led, etc.).?Do not use a “result” verb (Completed, Increased, Reduced, etc.) for your action word.?If still engaged in an experience, use the present tense (analyze).?If the experience has been completed, use the past tense (analyzed).

Context (further explain what you did): you must assume that the reader of your resume is completely unfamiliar with your experience and explain accordingly.?The context should convey the significance (why it matters) and constraints (what you overcame).

Result (what happened): quantify (increased sales by X% or $X) results whenever possible.?Qualitative results are acceptable when your result cannot be quantified.?Remember that it is always better to omit than include falsified information."
        

My work experience example: If you find anything I should change, let me know:

Education

• Add the college you attended plus the degrees, certificates, minors, and concentrations.
• Add your GPA. If it is under 3.0, have a good story why. If it is over 3.0, good, don't worry about it anymore. I usually do not care much about GPAs. It's sad because, as a student, I focused so much on it and got a 3.5. I would have been equally or more successful if I had had a 3.0 and spent the extra time to get involved. If you have been in the industry for a while, only keep it if it is high. It does not hurt, in my opinion.
• Move your education section after-work experience.

My Example is probably not great for students or entry-level since your education is a significant portion of what you have to offer but here is mine from a mid-career perspective.

Extra Sections

Skills

• List all the software and special skills you have. No need to explain them. Just list.

Awards

• Add them in, do not be shi you deserve the recognition, even if it is not relevant, make sure you include the year.

Leadership

• Very similar to work experience, but in this case, organizations you ran. Do not repeat anything from the work experience. Nothing should be repeated on your resume.

My Example:

General guidelines

• Consistent format
• .5-1inch margins, bullets, add space between sections
• A resume should be a PDF when uploading or emailing to companies.
• Recommended Resume file name: Arnold_Morales_Resume_Date
• Don't Lie
• Font 10-12 Times new roman is my favorite. Arial is another favorite for people

Additional Resources:

Here is a Linkedin Live I did on Resumes with my friends Stephen Lu and Fariha: https://www.dhirubhai.net/video/live/urn:li:ugcPost:6833798779343380480/

Here is a Podcast I did about resumes with Robin Ryan: https://nontraditionalcollegesuccess.buzzsprout.com/1154111/4860764-resumes-virtual-interviews-covid-19-cover-letters-ats-job-searching-and-networking-with-america-s-top-career-expert-with-robin-ryan-ep-14

Let me know if you are interested in a resume review. Fees apply.