3 Mistakes Made On Resumes and Helpful Resume Tips To Score An Interview
If you’re looking online for a job, you may have to upload your resume on various job boards. It can be tedious and very time consuming. Then after uploading your resume, you may not hear anything from the hiring company because it’s ending up in the discarded pile.
Recruiters notice good resumes, as it highlights your skills, work experience and shows them that you are the ideal candidate for a position. A good resume also increases your chances of getting an interview, which, hopefully, results in a job offer.
A bad resume, however, lands you in that discard pile – never to be seen again. And, if you’ve applied for remote jobs left and right with no success, your resume may be the reason for it.
Below are a few tips to keep in mind when creating your resume:
1) Use Standard Formatting
The first of many resume tips to remember is that the majority of resumes go through an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) before they go to a recruiter. The ATS is created to weed out bad resumes from good ones. A good one is sent on to recruiters while the bad ones go to a virtual dump.
For the ATS to read your resume, it should not have any borders, divider lines and other non-standard formatting that makes it hard for reading. If the ATS can’t read it, your resume will automatically be thrown out.
Have a clean resume, sticking with basic bullet points and non-complicated sentences. Be sure it’s saved as either a .doc, .docx or PDF since the ATS can read these much more easily. Most jobs you apply for online will use an ATS. If it’s not able to understand the resume you send, a real person is never going to see it and call you in for an interview.
#2) Include Keywords From the Job Description
One of the things the ATS looks for on resumes are keywords. However, these keywords it’s looking for are dependent on the job you are seeking. These keywords can be found within the job ad.
For instance, you see a remote customer service rep job ad and want to apply. You have lots of customer service experience and want the opportunity to work from home. This sounds great, but a cookie cutter resume isn’t going to lead to an interview request. Why is that?
Every job you send your resume to is going to be unique, which means a basic generic resume won’t get past the ATS (and seen by recruiters). The hiring manager will use the ATS to sift through the hundreds or thousands of resumes for the one position. For the recruiter to get the best possible resumes, they ask the ATS to focus on specific keywords, which can be found in the job ad.
Don’t forget that the job ad is the employer’s way of getting the right person into the position. You can create a winning resume by using the keywords in the ad and putting them into the resume. When you add in keywords, it makes it through the ATS and boosts the chances of an interview.
#3) Make Sure It’s Well Written Without Errors
You may think getting past the ATS is all you need to do to get an interview. However, one of the other important resume tips to keep in mind is that you also need to have a well-written resume that recruiters want to read. Just adding keywords and simple formatting isn’t enough to land an interview.
Recruiters spend about six seconds on average looking over resumes. This is why you need to spend some time reviewing your resume to ensure it impresses them. As far as resume tips go, you only have one time to make a great first impression.
Proofread your resume repeatedly. Recruiters will find spelling and grammar mistakes and, if they do, they probably will not call you for an interview.
Recruiters also want to quickly see what impact you’ll make in the position. This means you need to highlight the skills, qualifications and achievements you have.
For instance, you worked at a paper as a reporter. A well-thought-out resume will highlight the accomplishments you had in the position – winning an award for an article you wrote and increasing readership, not just a list of basic tasks that you did such as wrote articles, and took pictures, etc.
When it comes to resume tips, remember to boast about your accomplishments. When recruiters see your success, they can see you have the potential to be successful in their company as well. They’ll call you for an interview to learn even more about you and the accomplishments you have had.
It’s Time To Create An Eye-Appealing Resume
So, if you’re constantly applying for a job online and don’t get any callbacks or emails, chances are you need to rework your resume. Review the resume tips above and see if your resume lacks what it needs to generate interest. Looking for a job can be time consuming, but sending a one size fits all resume to all jobs you apply to will not work.
The best thing you can do is develop a customized resume for each job you submit your resume to. Use a format the ATS will recognize and make use of keywords (seen in the job ad itself). Getting past the ATS is great, but make sure the resume isn’t full of mistakes – spelling and grammar – and highlights the achievements (not just break down of your job duties). Follow these resume tips to increase your chances of being called in for an interview!
