5 Ways to Make your Resume Stand Out
image by @joaoscferrao
One of the most important things you can and should do to ensure you are maintaining confidence in yourself and consistently advancing in your career is to Always Be Looking. This means you should always be ready to jump on an opportunity that may come your way. One way to do this is to keep your resume fresh and updated at all times. Writing your CV is a confidence boost and a reminder of how amazing you are.
We partnered with career coach Elena Terekhova to gather some tips on how to make your resume stand out in this new labor economy.
There’s been a lot of talk about a global labor shortage, while this may be the case, you shouldn’t take for granted that you will land any role. The near constant messaging about how workers are exercising their ability to jump from better offer to better off is enough to make leaders very careful about who they hire. Companies are having trust issues and are less willing to take risks, particularly in Europe where it is difficult to part ways with an employee who is not working out, so a strong resume is great ammunition to get your foot in the door.
Here are the top 5 ways that your resume will get you noticed:
1. Relevance
A standout resume is not about the past, but about the future.
On average, recruiters take around 6 seconds to scan each CV, if an algorithm isn’t already doing it for them. They have one objective in mind: a person who will perform defined tasks in a given context, using their skills and time to achieve the organization’s goals. Your task is to help the recruiter understand your experience from their own perspective. It’s about them not you. Yes, this could mean customizing your resume for every job application.
“Show how what you have done will help them achieve what they want to do.
This doesn’t mean you should change your experience or lie. Absolutely not. Instead:
Digest the job description. Ensure you fully understand from the industry, your network, the recruiter, what it is that they really need and what their possible ‘pains’ and challenges are.
Demonstrate how your past experience positions you to take on their most relevant challenges.
Tip: All of your prior work/volunteering/part-time experiences were made of tasks, results and skills you used. In a new potential job ask yourself “what will be similar”? Are there similar stakeholders, tasks, challenges, expected results or maybe skills to activate? You can use keywords from the job description or explain the similarities in context, stakeholders or function.
2. Results
If you only focus on listing your tasks, chances are, 90% of candidates have done the same things you’ve done before. What matters is not what you did, but how well you did it. What were the results? Results direct the recruiter to contact YOU over the others.
“Duties tell, Achievements sell”
Compare:
Designed and facilitated leadership and management training programs.
Vs.
Designed and facilitated 1000+ hours of leadership and management training programs for both public and private companies, and top educational institutions.
In the second example, you’ve said what you did, quantified how much of it and for whom you did it.
Quantifying results is not automatic in all workplaces and you may not be clear on what metrics to use. If this is the case, first, acknowledge the fact that there were results in your work. Even in ‘routine’ jobs there are results, otherwise there’s no use having a human in that role!
After that, try answering these questions to help you quantify your results:
- How many hours were delivered? How many hours of work were saved thanks to your effort?
- What was the holistic impact: a whole program delivered? A new process launched? Overall goal achieved?
- What was your individual contribution? Don’t say “I attended meetings”. Think of what your role was at those meetings: to facilitate dialogue? Taking notes in order to keep key stakeholders informed? Consolidating analysis that leads to decision-making?
3. Brevity and Clarity
A standout CV is easy to read. As simple as it sounds, it should have a clear structure and visual form. At the mention of a ‘visual form’ many candidates get tempted to add some pretty Canva templates, bold colors or fonts. This is not what I mean. Even in creative industries there is little space for creativity. The visual form should only facilitate reading.
4. A Good Story
Your CV is your story. Let your story feel logical that your journey has led you to THIS very job.
Make sure in each previous role you are clearly showing progress, new skills picked up, added volume responsibility, new clients worked with etc. You want to show growth and not just a cornucopia of previous jobs.
Think outside of the box in terms of how the things you do, that aren’t necessarily in your job description today, make you qualified for the role you’re applying for. For example: do you mentor someone? Do you manage all the interns and trainees? Do you volunteer in a relevant field? Are you active in recruiting for your university or company? Do you sit on panels or boards? Do you write a Substack or blog in your field? These are all ways to demonstrate leadership or to position yourself as an expert.
5. Instant Trust
If you’re switching careers, embarking on your own business or simply need a fast and clear way to showcase capability and credibility, consider including a very short, positive, sentence or blurb from someone else. For example:
Feedback: “Elena is incredibly resourceful and a pleasure to work with.” - Head of Operations, Fortune 500 FMCG Brand.
If that is too out-there for you, you could always list your references if they are impressive. Just make sure to inform the referrers beforehand.
Good Luck on your search!
You can reach Elena at:
Instagram: @mywaytoetincelles
Website: www.mywaytoetincelles.com