Ah, Valentine’s Day. The birds are singing, couples are walking hand in hand, and love is in the air. But your resume is sitting at home alone, sad, and lonely on this most romantic of holidays. You’re their only hope. It’s time to schedule an update date with your resume!
And if you’re looking for a gift that will really make your resume shine, have we got a deal for you: our best resume tip blogs, all absolutely free!
Trying to get a leg up on the career ladder is challenging no matter your experience level, and with competition around every corner, making your resume stand out above the rest can prove difficult. One way to give your skill set a boost, as well as your resume, is to earn certifications relevant to your career field. To help determine what certifications might be right for you, here are a list of popular certifications organized by career field.
Don’t get coal in your job search stocking.
Interviews are scary. But if you have a great resume, interviewers better watch out, because a well-qualified applicant is coming to town.
A good resume does half of the work for you. Your interviewer will know your skills and accomplishments, so all you have to do in the formal interview is show that your personality and preferred workplace culture are in line with those of the company.
Here are a few things to keep in mind as you prepare your resume for the new year. (more…)
Scare off the competition with your newly expanded vocabulary
Ghosts and ghouls are garish and ghastly. Zombies are zealous in their pursuit of brains. And warlocks are wild in their suspiciously suspect spellcasting.
But there is one creature more frightening, foul, and fatal than all the rest:
Your resume.
Only a select few enjoy resume-writing. For the rest of us, the onerous activity can seem like an exercise in futility, akin to trying to melt a witch wearing a water-resistant wetsuit.
You must get your foot in the door to score a job, and, unless you’re a zombie with the ability to throw your actual foot through the literal door, you’ll need a tip-top resume to get past the scanning robots and secure an interview.
Here are the tastiest words to make sure you don’t get eaten by the competition.
Words That Show You Take Initiative
You want to show your potential employer you didn’t twiddle your thumbs and do the bare minimum in your previous positions. Use these words to show you’re eerily experienced, and that you originated new and complex programs:
Words That Show You Are Results-Driven
Employers want results. Would you hire a ghost that scared “a bunch” of people or a ghoul that increased the individuals frightened by 72% within 2 years? Be specific with the following words:
Words That Show You Are a Team Leader
A true werewolf king is the leader of his pack. But that doesn’t mean he needs to repeat the word “led” five hundred times on his resume. Instead of saying you “led” a team, show you went above and beyond with these words:
And that’s it! Now that you have plenty of words in your resume pumpkin, you’re ready to turn it into a ferociously fresh job search jack-o’-lantern. So, get carving!
Any other “boo-tiful” words you’ve found effective in getting your resume noticed? Let us know in the comments below!
From top to bottom: out with the old, in with the new
For college seniors, graduation is right around the corner. For the rest of us, a change in weather might inspire a change of career. Regardless of the reason, spring is a great time to modify your resume to get rid of anything that isn’t working. Plenty of people clean out their houses this time of year; why not spiff up your resume?
Mop Up Your Address and Contact Information
Starting at the top, we have your name, address, phone number, and email. These are the first things your potential employer is going to see, so make sure they’re updated! Nobody will contact you if your contact information is wrong. And you most definitely don’t want your college or previous address on there. Companies want to know that you’re in their area and ready to work (unless you plan on relocating, which should be noted in your cover letter).
Clear the Cobwebs Off Your Experiences
Do you have anything new to add to your experiences? An outdated resume is an easy way to reject a candidate. If you still have your high school fast food experience on your resume, now might be a good time to remove it (unless it’s one of the few experiences you have, of course). Keep everything to one page. And if your work experience is lacking, don’t be afraid to put down involvement in charities or professional groups.
Verb tense matters. If you still have your last job listed with verbs in the present tense (oversees, leads, conducts, etc.), change those to the past tense (oversaw, lead, conducted, etc.) And if your current job duties are listed with verbs in the past tense, change those to the present tense. This may seem like a small thing, but it’s a big pet peeve among the HR community.
If you haven’t looked at your resume in a while, consider a revamp of the way you present your experiences. Change boring words like “did” and “saw” to action verbs like “presented” and “oversaw.” Have peers and professionals review your resume to make sure you present yourself in the best way possible.
Polish Your References
Remember how you used that professor you loved as a reference because you performed well as a leader in the big capstone group project? That’s great to include if you’re graduating this year, but not so great if you’ve been working for five years. The references you choose should be not only relevant, but also timely.
Take the time to contact your references and make sure their phone number or email is up to date. While you’re at it, send thank-you letters to references you’ve provided in the past.
Dust Off Your Cover Letter
A cover letter provides a chance to show that you’re more than a number or words on a page. It is by no means extinct. You’re a person, with your own thoughts, values, and experience that show you’re the right person for the job.
Your cover letter should be a living document. That means changing it depending on the company you’re sending an application to. It’s great to have a standard cover letter, but use that as a base and adapt it to each new company. If you’ve been using the same cover letter for years, update it and remove unnecessary information (e.g. old experiences, outdated references, etc).
Vacuum Your Social Media
Social media may feel anonymous, but it’s not. Your face and name are there for all the world to see. Social media is the first place recruiters go after you’ve impressed them with your resume. If your page is full of activities that aren’t exactly work safe, you won’t look right for the job. Same goes for extensive posts about your political views.
Set your social pages to “private,” and create business pages where appropriate. If most of your Facebook and Twitter information is hidden, the recruiter will settle for your LinkedIn page. That’s what you want them to see—the professional version of yourself they need to hire.
For more on resume re-education:
Resume Tips to Impress Your Interviewer
Have any other questions about revamping your resume? Let us know in the comments below!
Retool your resume with these witty words
Your resume is the first thing HR looks at, and unfortunately, you don’t get a chance to talk to them or show them who you are as a person before the interview. All you have are the words on the page. Which is why it’s so important to make sure you use the right ones.
Resumes can be frustrating. You’re spending hours working on a document when you know that if you could just meet your interviewer, you’d land the job. But it’s something we all must deal with. It’s not possible to interview every single applicant, so companies need to have some way to narrow down the competition. That’s why they have software that picks out certain words as more pertinent to the job than others.
Here’s how to make sure you don’t get thrown out of consideration.
Employ Metrics-Focused Verbs
Your resume should be full of accomplishments. When you list what you’ve successfully done (number of reports sent, projects completed in a finite time-span, etc), use action verbs:
Use Team Player Words
Instead of saying you’re a team player, show you directed a team and achieved results:
Opt for Management Words
Instead of saying you “led” a team, show you went above and beyond with these words:
What NOT to Write
In addition to the words you should use, there are some words and concepts you’re better off staying away from.
Any other words you love to use in your resume? Questions about the perfect term for a given situation? Let us know in the comments below!
See Also:
Melt the ice away with these helpful blogs!
Resumes are tough. They’re only a series of words on a page, but they’re the deciding factor on whether you get in the door for a job interview. If you start to improve your resume now, you’re more likely to succeed in the new year.
Here are a few of our past blogs jam-packed with resume renovation goodness you can use this holiday season.
30 Resume Power Words and Lucky Words for Your Resume
If your only way in the door is a series of words, then every word better count, right? Specific results-driven vocabulary can enhance your resume and help employers see that you have the soft skills they’re looking for.
Resume Tips to Impress Your Interviewer
Your resume needs to be uniquely tailored for whatever job you’re applying for—it should show why you’re right for the job, not just what you’ve done in the past. If you build your resume with these tips, you’ll hit the important points recruiters look for.
Since there are only so many hours in a day, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that recruiters only spend about six seconds on each resume. If you have too much fluff and not enough substance, you’ll lose your reader fast. So cut out the less important information and focus on your experiences and hard facts. Formatting is also important. If it isn’t easy to read, nobody will go through the trouble of reading it.
You can turn your resume into a warm cup of job search cheer with these hot tips. Take a break from the holiday bustle and review your resume. How is your spelling and grammar? Are your job descriptions both informative and concise?
Which is Better—Chronological or Functional Resume?
Still feel like there’s something off with your resume? Not sure that you’re really getting your point across? You may want to consider a functional resume. A chronological resume is perfect for a conventional career (you’ve gone from job to job with little downtime, and everything has been in the same industry), while a functional resume allows you to showcase your soft skills and experiences, rather than a string of continuous employment.
Not sure which soft skills to highlight? Check out this video on soft skills.
We’re happy to gift you answers for the holidays—just write your questions in the comments section below!
