Employers are on the move trying to meet talent shortages and discover new ways to find qualified candidates. Job seekers are now being infused with optimism about the all the available opportunities. If you’re one of the 74%+ of job seekers open to new opportunities this year you’re probably taking a good look at your resume and wondering if it’s as ready as you are for a new job search. If you’re having a hard time writing your resume or simply not feeling confident about the current condition of your resume, here are three quick tips that you can use right now to freshen up your resume so it’s ready for the job market.
CULTURE FIT IS IMPORTANT
The majority of recruiters say that culture fit is an important factor in their hiring decision. You don’t hear much about culture fit when it comes to resume writing, but your resume is a great place to start setting the stage for a great culture fit. Start by researching the company culture of the organizations that you want to target in your job search. Find out what beliefs and values drive their organization and if these align with yours, be sure to include that information within your resume.
DITCH POINTLESS WORDS
Meaningless words that take up space and add no value to your resume do not market or brand you strongly enough. Examples of these words include; results, success, professional, accomplished. These words are not inherently bad—it’s just that they don’t tell the employer much about you and the distinct value you are offering. Instead, replace these generic phrases with specific terms.
Instead of saying you are results-driven describe the results you deliver with metrics, facts, and figures.
Replace the generic term success with the actual successes you’ve had using specific examples, keywords, and industry terms.
The word professional can be switched with the actual position title that you’re pursuing.
Accomplished is an overused phrase that’s hard to quantify. So instead of using the phrase accomplished, share your accomplishments with metrics.
MODERNIZE YOUR RESUME
If you haven’t updated your CV in the last two years it’s time for an overhaul. Our society has become increasingly more visually driven. Just Google some basic stats about the performance statistics around videos, visuals, and info-graphics over plain text. Or, research what our current attention span is. Content-heavy resumes that lack visually engaging elements, design, and color are now becoming outdated. It’s time to revamp the design of your resume for visual design elements that will engage the reader and make content easily digestible and quicker to consume. For examples of visuals in resumes here are several resume samples that include color, borders, shading and graphs.
