As a certified professional resume writer, I see a lot of resumes, and most of them could use some work. When looking at a resume, there are two things hiring managers look for, formatting and content. Initially, you want a resume to appear clean, reader friendly, and functional, however it’s important to remember that formatting is important but content is king. Even if a resume looks nice initially, it is the content that will draw the reader in and persuade them to interview you.
How Should a Resume Be Formatted? Resume format is subjective, and depends on the industry regarding what information should be highlighted, but generally, a good way to format a resume is the following:
- Headlining statement
- Skills
- Certifications/specialized training
- Professional experience
- Professional affiliations
- Education
If you’re a recent graduate or in an industry where your degree is a big factor of your experience, (i.e. medicine) your education should go under the “skills” section, however in most cases, if you have a good amount of work experience, you education should stay at the bottom of a resume.
What Kind of Content Should be Included? Job descriptions are important, however the content that will make your resume stand out include metrics and numerical facts about each job. For instance, if you’re in management, how many employees do you manage? Have you increased sales, or decreased employee overtime by a certain percentage? If you’re in sales, how much have you sold in the past year?
Anyone can say that they’re great at their job, but only people who are truly great will have the evidence to back this up. Hiring managers want to see evidence to support your claims, and facts to show what you’ve achieved throughout your career.
How to Create Content If You Don’t Have Any: If you don’t have a lot of information about your job and you’re job duties, the best thing to do is search for job postings matching your job title. You can then see the kind of information companies are looking for, and utilize their wording in your resume. Think about everything that you do and search for those duties in job postings to see what verbiage is being used. Utilizing industry jargon will help your resume appear more seasoned.
If you don’t have numbers and metrics, create them! Do some research on what you’ve accomplished and turn that into metrics. For instance, if you started out with 5 accounts, but have grown your client base to 15 accounts, you’ve tripled your client base over the course of your job. Similarly, if you created a social media account from scratch to 400 followers, you’ve effectively increased social media following by 400%. Be creative here and highlight your accomplishments. You’ve probably done a lot more than you realize, so be proud of that and showcase it!
The Bottom Line: Your resume needs to look good, but if there are no facts or information in the body of it, you won’t be taken seriously. Formatting is important but content is king, so gather data, highlight your achievements, and make the content of your resume persuasive! Show the reader why they want to hire you!
Great post! Especially the bit about creating content when you don’t think you have any. I think a lot of people don’t realize the content they actually have, and how they can use it on their resumes. It’s definitely a lot harder in some jobs than others to come up with legit metrics though!