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How to Get Your Resume Noticed: You may spend hours (or even days) writing and worrying about your resume, but once a recruiter, HR worker, or hiring manager sees it, they will only spend 15 seconds deciding whether to pass on you as a candidate or keep looking into you.
Since your CV will only be looked at for as long as it takes to order a cup of coffee, it’s important that it has the most important parts to increase your chances of getting an interview. Before you look for another job, you should change your resume to.
9 Ways to Get Your Resume Noticed
Throw away that Grad Year
If you’ve been out of college for more than three years, take off the year you graduated. Recruiters only care that you have a degree, and you don’t want them to make a mistake and treat you differently because of your age.
Talk about what you’ve done
Getting a job is a game of numbers. Employers like to see quantifiable achievements on resumes. Include numbers whenever you can, and when you list them, use numbers instead of words. For example, instead of “thirty percent,” write “30%.”
Here are some tips for putting numbers on your resume. Fill in the blanks. If your resume doesn’t have much full-time paid work experience that qualifies you for the job, it’s fine to add internships, part-time jobs, and volunteer work.
Change Your School
While you’re at it, you might want to change the order of your education and experience. Unless you just graduated, your last one or two jobs are probably more important and relevant to getting the job than your education.
Make it easy to read
To make something easier to read, increase the line spacing or leading to at least 120% of the font size. In Word, go to Format and then choose Paragraph. Choose “Exactly” from the drop-down menu under “Line Spacing,” and set the spacing to two points larger than the size of your font (so, 12 if your font is 10 point).
Make sure you can do the job well
Make sure you have what it takes. Usually, the qualifications needed to be considered for a job are listed at the end of the ad. Make sure you meet at least the minimum requirements to be taken into account. If you don’t, you’ll waste everyone’s time, including your own. Check out these tips to learn how to read a job ad.
Cut your profit margins
Need a little more room to move around? Cut the margins at the top and bottom to 0.5″ and the margins on the sides to no less than 0.75″ This will keep your resume clean and easy to read, but it will also give you more space to talk about what you have to offer.
Clear out the mess
Throw away old jobs. You don’t have to list every job you’ve ever had on your resume. If you have worked for a long time, the last 10–15 years is enough. On job applications, you may have to list them all, but your resume is a summary of your work history, not your life story.
Get rid of information that isn’t important. Your resume is not about you as a person. You shouldn’t write about your family, hobbies, or anything else that has nothing to do with work.
Think about adding a section on qualifications
Maybe instead of the “Career Objective” you took down? This section should be a six-sentence (or bullet-pointed) summary of your best accomplishments, most important skills, and most important experiences. By doing this, you give keywords to any applicant tracking systems and put the most important information at the top for the hiring manager to see.
Change your header so that it stands out
You don’t have to know a lot about design to make a header that looks cool and gets the attention of recruiters. (Hint: Use the same header on your resume and cover letter to make your “personal brand” look really put together.)
FAQ
What are red flags in a resume?
One of the most common red flags on a resume is a long gap between jobs that isn’t explained. These gaps can make hiring managers think that you have had trouble getting jobs in the past, which could be a sign of poor performance or something else wrong with you.
What makes a weak resume?
A bad resume doesn’t have any measurable or unique results. Instead of talking about the tasks you do or the things your company has done well, talk about how you used your skills to give your employer measurable results.