Perhaps you know what mistakes not to make on a resume, but what should you do to make your experience stand out from the rest? Are there key features every job seeker should include to catch recruiters’ eyes?
First, some general advice: If you’re sending the same exact PDF out to every prospective employer, you’re doing it wrong. Customize your resume anew each time you send it out, as CareerBuilder suggests. Does the job call for someone to manage a budget? Highlight prominently how you managed $1 million budget at your last job. At least 63% of recruiters said a resume that is customized to the open position is more attention grabbing. Also, listing your skill set first on the resume was considered effective by 41% of recruiters, and 40% said they give resumes that come with cover letters more attention.
Attractive design is another key feature of a strong resume, so choose a clean, professional look, with margins of at least 0.7 inches and font size no smaller than 11 point, per Glassdoor. Make sure recruiters can easily spot vital areas like “work experience” and “education” without having to hunt for them due to a complicated resume design.
Most recruiters have to zip through resumes at a lightning pace, so it’s important to include keyword language and a design that grabs the recruiter’s attention, according to Vicki Salemi, a career expert at Monster: “For jobs you truly want to be considered for, it will be worth your time to look at the job descriptions and company’s social media and website before applying.”
When it comes to starting your resume, everyone should include a summary statement, experience, professional organizations, education and skills and certification, per the Muse. But, of course, great resumes will look different depending upon your profession and how far along you are in your career.
With that in mind, here are three examples of great resume templates — for three different types of workers — plus more tips on how to really stand out.
The best resume for a 20-something
One way to organize your resume is to start with a clean, smart design that makes it easy for the recruiter to contact you immediately, according to Glassdoor. Next, knock the recruiter’s socks off with your relevant experience — highlight key soft and hard skills close to the top and use keywords from the job description to punctuate relevant experience.
Start with the most important experience and be as specific as possible. If you are going for an accounting job, list it as “accounting experience,” for instance.
While weaving extracurricular activities into a more seasoned resume may seem somewhat odd, including clubs and community involvement on your new resume looks great to recruiters if you are a younger applicant. You could title the section as “leadership” and include that you were president of the environment club in college, for example, especially if you are looking for a job in environmental sciences.
Finally, in the education section, don’t forget to include any certifications — plus your GPA if you graduated at the top of your class, Glassdoor advises.
The best resume for a mid-career worker
Just because it’s not your first rodeo, doesn’t mean you can’t benefit from a resume refresh. Sure, you have experience, but is your resume 2017-ready? Older workers already face ageism, and are less likely to get jobs, even if their resumes are otherwise identical to those of younger workers, one study found. While this bias is unfair (and potentially illegal), you don’t want to further stack the deck against yourself with a novel-length resume written in a font that screams “typewritten in the 1950s!”
One key move? Make sure you knock the recruiter’s socks off with the first few lines in the summary. “The top one-third of your resume is what a recruiter or hiring manager scans to determine if they will read the rest … and they only give it three seconds,” career coach Jennifer Braganza told Time.
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