One of the most important things in the job search is a good resume. So it is very important to know what makes a resume stand out. Here, we talk about what your resume must have and what you should avoid.

If you are having trouble finding a job, you might need to change your resume.

"In six to seven seconds, [hiring managers] have to decide, 'Yes, we want to get to know you,'" said Jheneal M. McDuffie, managing director of The Resume Chic & Co.

Writing a resume is a high-stakes task, but you can write a good one if you know what will help and what will hurt.

Don't ignore the little things that can make your resume better. From layout to wording, there are a lot of options for resumes. But how do we know which ones are best for our careers?

I talked to McDuffie and Paula Christensen, a resume writer and interview coach, about the most important things to include on a resume and how to avoid making common mistakes.


Do: Start with the basics of your resume

When you start to format a resume, you should start with five sections: your contact information, a professional summary, your work experience, your education, and your skills.

McDuffie said that, depending on the level of experience, there are different ways to present this information. If you just got out of college and don't have much work experience, put your education and skills first. When you are further along in your career, show off your work experience.

Don't: Make it hard to format your resume.

The key to a good resume is a layout that is simple and easy on the eyes. Your resume should stand out from the rest in the hiring manager's stack, but it shouldn't be too much.

Christensen and McDuffie said that breaking up information into smaller sections is the easiest way to make a resume look better. Use bullet points to make paragraphs more digestible.

Christensen said, "It's about how easy it is to read and how you group things in ways that make it easy to quickly scan, but also interesting so that people want to read more and get to know you better."

"No one wants to read a whole paragraph unless it's in an article," McDuffie said. "Therefore, you need enough white space." "Some people will just put blocks of paragraphs on their resumes, but you can't do that."

Do: Format important information to stand out.

"Maybe use bold, shading, or underlining to bring attention to the parts you want to highlight," Christensen said.

Christensen also said that sometimes pictures are helpful. A salesperson, for example, could include a chart that shows how their sales grew at their last job.

Christensen said, "I think pictures can really add a lot to a document. They don't have to be weird or strange, just things that show off your personal brand and tell more of your story."

Don't forget to make choices that are good for the ATS.

Most resumes are read by applicant tracking systems (ATS) before a person does, so it is important to take them into account.

For example, McDuffie said that putting contact information in the header of a resume is a common mistake. This is a problem because an ATS won't be able to understand it and will skip over it during its scan.

"You'll want to use really simple words, because even though the [ATS] is supposed to be smart, it's not that smart," McDuffie said.

Christensen said that when you tailor your resume to the job you are applying for, you should also think about the ATS. Keywords are the most important things for an ATS, so use as many relevant words from the job description as you can. You can use sites like Jobscan to see if you have enough keywords.

"It gives you an analysis when you copy and paste your resume and the job description," Christensen said. "And you can figure out, 'What are the themes I might be missing here?'" And that's a great way to make it very specific."

Do: Write a catchy headline and a professional summary.

Christensen and McDuffie said that the headline and professional summary should be strong enough to make the hiring manager want to keep reading.

Christensen said, "I think a strong headline is a great way to get the attention of a recruiter and let them know right away where you fit in." "It's a part of your resume that's easy and easy to remember. It's also good for systems that track applicants."

McDuffie says that once the headline is done, you can use the "aeroplane method" to write a good summary.

"You start high with an overview of the big picture," McDuffie said. "Then you [descend] to where you talk about some of the details that you contributed to that high-level result, and then in the last two to three sentences, you land your plane... I usually end things with something like "positioned for success" to show the recruiter or hiring manager that the candidate is serious about this.

Don't: Pay attention to yourself Too Much: Christensen said that you should always think about what you can do for a company. The person in charge of hiring wants to know what you can do to help the business grow.

Christensen said, "I don't want the professional summary to be more about you, the candidate." "If you say, "Here's what I want from this job" instead of "Here's what I want," you'll be more focused on the employer. It's more about the company's problems and pain points, and quickly figuring out how you can fix them and help that company.

Do: Keep the Skills section up-to-date.

Christensen said that for the skills section, you shouldn't have a "set it and forget it" attitude. Don't just think of a few skills and move on to the next section. Instead, think about keywords in the skills section.

Christensen said, "You might be applying for a different job that's a little different from what you've done before, so those keywords should be changed." "Most people set it and forget it, but they should really look at the job posting and see what skills are needed for this job."

McDuffie said that the section about skills should have nine to twelve "core competencies." She says that you should have an equal amount of hard skills and soft skills.

McDuffie said, "I usually do one soft move and then one hard move to switch between the two." "Sometimes it's hard to find that balance, especially if you're trying to show that you have hard skills but also want to show that you have soft skills all over the rest of your resume."

Don't copy and paste job descriptions into the Work Experience section.

McDuffie and Christensen said that writing a basic job description in the work experience section is boring and doesn't show how you added value to the company.

McDuffie said, "You'd be surprised at how many people copy and paste job descriptions." "Instead, use action verbs to give an idea of what you've done in a position. And don't just say, "I did this, I did that," but really think about what you can do to help. It needs to be about three short, powerful sentences about what you've done. The rest of the information can be put in bullet points."

Metrics will help you show your results more clearly, but McDuffie said it's OK to focus more on qualitative achievements if you can't measure them. Christensen said that if you don't have the statistics, you can use that to describe how you did compared to your coworkers.

"Did you manage to boost sales more than they did? Were there things you could do that they couldn't?" Christensen said. "Really think about how you could compare yourself to other people who have done that job. First, you want to show that you are a good fit for the position. Then, you want to show how you are different from other people in that position.

Do: Take out anything that doesn't belong.

As you move up in your career, skills that used to be important to you will become less important. The skills and experience sections of the resume should show this.

Christensen said, "You have to do an audit of those old jobs to see what's new and important." "If you fill up your resume with too many things that aren't relevant to your next job goal, you're just making it hard to read."

Don't: Ignore experiences that aren't in the usual sections of your resume.

Even though the five essential sections we talked about above must be there, you don't have to stop there.

"You can add your volunteer work, organisations you belong to, awards, licences, and certifications," McDuffie said. "But only put them in if it makes sense. The keyword here is 'relevant.'"

Christensen said that you should change other sections to fit the job. Even if you don't have much work experience, you can show that you are learning the skills needed for a job by adding a section about your certifications. Or, if a company is known for giving back to the community, adding a volunteer section can show that you share the same values as the company.

Don't make it hard to read.

McDuffie said that, for both the ATS and the person reading it, a resume should be simple and not too fancy. Also, use words from the job description that the employer will understand.

"You should use the words from the job description to write your resume," McDuffie said. "So if they say they want "strategic direction," you should write "strategic direction" instead of "strategic management." It's really important that you follow these rules."

Also, try to give as little information as possible.

"The resume should be a snapshot of you, not a list of everything you've done," says Christensen. "The point of your resume is to make someone want to interview you. Part of making them like you and want to get to know you is making sure your document is easy for them to read."

Top Takeaways

Resume dos and don'ts

  • Format your resume so that it looks good and keeps in mind how applicant tracking systems work. Use bold and italics to draw attention to certain points and leave a lot of blank space.
  • Use the professional summary to tell the employer what you can do for them, not to tell them your life story.
  • Update skills often and get rid of ones that are no longer useful.
  • Instead of copying and pasting job descriptions, you should focus on what you did well in your previous jobs.
  • Add sections outside of the five essential ones (contact information, professional summary, education, experience, and skills) when they are relevant.