On average, a single job posting results in 250 applications, yet only 2% of applicants make it to the interview round.
It is essential that your resume stands out amongst the crowd. You can't win over the hiring committee if you're not invited to the table.
There are simple yet effective ways to craft your resume in a way that gives you a boost over your competition and into more interview rooms.
Use these tricks, and your job search will end quicker than you could ever imagine.
Use Numbers to Emphasize Your Achievements
Using concrete numbers is one of the best ways to make your resume stand out in a competitive job market.
You have a 40% higher chance of making it to the interview round if you use numbers and statistics in your resume.
It shows the hiring committee exactly how valuable you can be to their organization.
Using numbers in your resume is particularly helpful in fields likes sales or finance where you're expected to meet quotas or make the company a certain amount of revenue per quarter.
While not as obvious, adding numbers to your resume works in every field.
You can use numbers to emphasize how efficient you are by showing how long it takes you to complete a project or show how large of a team you're able to lead.
Sprinkling in a few numbers and statistics here and there in your resume may not seem like an obvious way to make it stand out, but you'll be surprised to learn how well it works for you.
Take the Time to Customize Your Resume
Each position you apply for is different and requires a different resume.
You can use the same template resume for each position you apply for, but you should take 5 or 10 minutes to customize it to meet the requirements and industry of each position.
For example, applying for a communication coordinator role at a not-for-profit will require a different resume than apply for the same position at an engineering firm.
You may want to switch in or out a previous position, change the tone of your resume, or add in a few extra personal tidbits that align with the company's values.
Only 46% of job seekers customize their resume to each job and doing so gives you a leg up on your competition and makes your resume stick out.
Choose Your Words Wisely
Most people understand that their resume is important, but most people have no idea how important the words they choose can be and how much they impact hiring managers.
Using action verbs like executed, operated, organized, and oversaw increases your resume's effectiveness by 140%.
Including leadership-oriented words makes your resume 51% more attractive to hiring managers and adding industry buzzwords makes it 29% more appealing.
If you include action verbs, leadership-oriented words, and industry buzzwords, there is no doubt your resume will stand out.
Small descriptive words are often overlooked by resume writers, but they play an important role in how memorable (or not) your resume is.
Pay attention to them and choose them wisely.
Highlight Relevant Experience
Hiring managers want to know that you have the skills to do the job. They don't care about jobs that don't directly relate to the job you're applying for, so cut them out of your resume.
Most people give every posItion included in their resume the same amount of space, but that is a mistake.
If there is one position in particular that closely aligns with the job you're applying for, give it the most space on your resume. The same goes for positions that have transferable skills.
You can include positions that aren't closely aligned to the position you're applying for but keep them brief.
This is easier said than done when making a career change, but there are still ways to highlight relevant experience even if you've never worked in that particular field before.
For example, you can highlight the communication and organizational skills from a receptionist position when applying to be a sales person.
Add a Summary at the Top of Your Resume
The first 15 to 20 words of your resume is your elevator pitch. It is your first impression, and it can make or break you.
40% of hiring managers admit to spending less than a minute reviewing each resume with a startling 25% of hiring managers saying they spend less than 30 seconds with each resume before making a decision.
You need to grab their attention in the first few seconds, or your resume is going in the rejection pile.
Writing a brief summary of your achievements and experience at the top of your resume really makes it stand out in the crowd.
You make the hiring manager's job easy, and they remember that.
On top of making a good impression on the hiring manager, a small summary at the top of your resume can help you make it past the screening process.
A staggering 75% of all resumes are rejected by the filters placed on the online applicant tracking system, so only a quarter of all resumes are actually seen by human eyes.
Adding a strong summary at the top of your resume boosts the chances that the computer sorts your resume into the pile to be seen by the hiring manager and that you make a strong first impression when the hiring manager reads your resume.
Conclusion
There is a lot of competition in the job market, and it is increasingly becoming more and more difficult to be invited to an interview.
Your resume plays a huge part in whether or not you're successful. Resume writing isn't as hard as it looks.
Using the small but important tips and tricks above, you can catapult your resume to the top of hiring manager's pile and increase your chances of finding your dream job.
This original content is provided to you by Skill Sharp. Follow us at www.skill-sharp.com to get all the info you'll need to empower your career strategies and success!
