How to Draw Attention to Key Information on Your Resume

How to Draw Attention to Key Information on Your ResumeAs you write your resume and are searching for resume writing tips, you might be departureing to feel overwhelmed by the amount of information out there. Many resume writing tips, though, fall into one broad category how to write and format your resume to make the relevant, interesting achievements and qualifications from your work history stand out and impress a hiring manager or recruiterand get you that interview.This is because doing so is the most important function of an effective resume. While there are many specific language and formatting tactics for you to dig deeper into as you write your resume, start with the information I outline in this article to get going on creating a good resume. From there, it might be less overwhelming to dig deeper into mora resume writing tips and further edit your resume to make sure youre impressing a prospective employer.Why Do I Need to Get Attention? Wont an Employer Read All the Resum es They Get?Short answerno. Seven seconds is about the average time an employer will spend reading an applicants resume during the initial stage of the hiring process, and thats if it makes it through an applicant tracking system, or the employer reads past the cover letter. Even what you think is a great resume might only get several seconds if important information is hidden within rather than highlighted clearly.Lets assume the hiring manager has the resume in front of themthey also have a stack of probably dozens of others, too. Now that youve got your chance, you want them to pay attention to what theyre reading about you and then remember itfor the right reasonslater on. If you dont get their attention, they arent going to read further to learn about the work experience you have that makes you such an impressive candidate for the job.Ideally, everything you include when writing a resume should fall under the category of relevant, important information that will speak to the po sitions you are targeting. But to capture attention, you need to guide the hiring manager or recruiter to the key details that they need to see in buchung to want to spend more time learning about your work history, skills, and professional qualifications.Put It on the First PageWhether you have a one-page resume, two-page resume, or are heading into three-page territory, keep in mind that if there is anything crucial in your background, it needs to show up on page oneand, preferably, near the top.For example, an MD transitioning back into pharmaceutical sales after 10 years of practicing medicine had wonderful metrics for quota attainment and territory management, but all of these accomplishments were at the bottom of the second page of his resume. As a result, he didnt receive a single callback in spite of having a vast network of healthcare connections, a stellar sales record, and insider knowledge of the pharmaceutical industry. A potential employer just doesnt have the time to thoroughly read two full pages of soft skills, chronological work history, etc., to get to the herausstehend information that will hook them in.Putting this older but impressive and entirely relevant experience into a more prominent place on the resume by including it in his Career Summary anschauung positioned him better for the roles he is seeking now. By making the sales achievements from his employment history more of the focal point of his resume, a recruiter or hiring manager could easily see the qualifications that were relevant to their needs as they sought to fill a sales position.When you create a resume, keep this in mind while you are deciding what format to use. You need a resume format that will give you the space to prominently display this kind of information. I recommend a more modern resume format with visual appeal rather than the old-fashioned simple paragraph/list format. If you have a metric-heavy resume you might even consider using an infographic resume forma t.This tip about highlighting important work experience is also true of awards, education, and other important qualifications such as technical skills. Perhaps you even had part-time work once that is the most relevant to the job you are currently applying to. Make that prominent, or mention it prominently in your cover letter (focusing on the skillsnot on the fact it was part-time).Even if your education is impressive, you seldom need to put the educational background section above the Professional Experience section, but you should at least mention your master of business administration if it is an important credential for the role in question. One way to determine if such a qualification is a requirement or crucial preference for the position is to pay careful attention to the job description or look at a companys website as you write a resume. You will probably find yourself moving this information around as you tailor your resume to best fit different job descriptions and compa ny cultures. Customize your resume to emphasize what an employer is looking for.Essential information for page one-Your name-Contact information-A relevant header / job title-Industry-Value proposition / what you bring to a new organizationFormatting to Guide the EyeA simple exercise from an art history class can show you what your resume is currently emphasizing. Put your resume in front of you and close your eyes for a few seconds before opening them. Then, without focusing, let them drift over the document. Where do they go first? Second? Is there something leading them down the page? If your name and a relevant header/title arent the first things your eyes go to, your resume format needs some work. Great resumes immediately direct the reader to this kind of crucialand hopefully engaginginformation.There are many ways to make your resume easy to skim. Here are a few to consider-Avoid dense paragraphs that overwhelm readers.-Break up long bulleted lists by using subheadings.-Add a ppropriate white space between bullets in a list.-Use color and/or shading to make section headers easy to find.-Highlight specific achievements with a chart/graph.Quick Resume Format Fix Go BoldGenerally, you can bold words that you want to draw attention to first, such as your degrees, your position titles, or the personal branding statement / professional summary at the top of your resume.Additionally, one of the easiest ways to guide your reader to all of your impressive, quantifiable results is to bold the numbers, as inOverhauled product and parts process, implementing direct sourcing to boost profit margins by 100%.The idea here is that your potential employer first sees the bold 100%, and is then drawn into reading the full accomplishment, and is then impressed enough to want to learn about the rest of your work experience and to keep reading the rest of your resume. A resume studded with bold numbers related to cost savings, revenue growth, client retention, or profit incre ases is sure to make a strong first impression on hiring managers and recruitersDont have any numbers on your resume to bold? Time to review the importance of including quantifiable results in resumesespecially if you are writing an executive resume and should have plenty of quantifiable results by this point in your career. Check out the Great Resumes Fast blog post on Why How to Quantify Information and Use Numbers in Your Resume.You can also search through our blog archives for resume tips on any number of topics, including more formatting tips to help you create an eye-catching resume to impress hiring managers and recruiters.For more inspiration as you are writing your resume, you can also look at resume examples on our resume samples page.To learn more about how the team of professional resume writers at Great Resumes Fast can help you in your job search, head over to our About Page. Our professional resume writers have helped hundreds of people so far, and wed love to learn about your work history, chat about your career goals, and help you create the impressive career documents you need to get an employers attention.Are you tired of your resume being rejected by applicant tracking systems? I know how frustrating it is to submit your resume and receive no response. I hate seeing qualified people never break through the kontrolle process. It shouldnt be that way. Thats why I created this guide and I encourage you to download the FREE PDF so you can start seeing better resume response rates

10 Tech Keywords Missing from Your New Tech Resume - Jobscan Blog

10 Tech Keywords Missing from Your New Tech Resume - Jobscan BlogPosted on February 28, 2019November 11, 2019 by Jeremy Schifeling If youre looking to land a tech job for the first time, you may be concerned that your resume doesnt read as techie enough. After all, its tough to compete with industry insiders who speak and write the lingo.Luckily, there are several common buzzwords across the tech industry that can both make you look like an insider and are generisch enough that youve probably already had experience with them you just dont know it yetSo without further adieu, here are 10 resume keywords that can take your tech resume to the next level, starting right nowA/B testHave you ever had a hunch about a new way of doing things?For instance, maybe you were working at a clothing store and thought If we group apparel by color, I bet it will be mora eye-catching and lead to more abverkauf. And so you actually tried an experiment where you put out a table of color-matched items r ight next to a traditional one and measured which grouping traktament better.If so, guess what? You already have experience with the fruchtwein important technique in the entire tech industry A/B testing.Whether its Google showing different versions of its homepage to different users to find out which gets the most clicks or Uber offering different pricing to different customers to find the sweet spot, testing one hypothesis (A) against the existing version (B) is the fastest way to learn what works.So if youve already employed this methodology, be sure to take credit for it with a bullet like this A/B tested retail merchandising tactics leading to a 27% increase in sales week-over-week.CRMDoes your organization track its customers using any kind of software?If so, chances are that you already have experience with one of the most common tools in the tech world CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software. These are the platforms (typically sold by Salesforce, SAP, Oracle, and Mic rosoft) that sales, marketing, and customer service teams use to identify prospective customers, target them with deals and offers, and serve them well once theyre onboard. Which means that, having experience with them, can give you a big leg up for roles on these teams.So if youve got experience using these tools (even if sold by a different vendor), be sure to showcase it with a resume bullet like this Managed CRM for manufacturing clients, identifying 10 existing customers who were ripe to grow, leading to $57K in incremental revenue.CTRHave you ever measured the performance of anything erreichbar?For instance, maybe you sent out an employee newsletter through Mailchimp and noticed that your newest version got more clicks than your last one? Or perhaps you put up a Facebook ad for your nonprofit that generated a lot more interest than anyone expected?If so, youre likely experienced with one of the most common measures of success in the tech world CTR (Click-Through Rate). This is a simple calculation that can apply to just about any digital experienceThe Number of People Who Clicked on the Experience (Ad/Email/Webpage)The Number of People Who Saw the ExperienceWhile CTR isnt the most important number in the long-run, since tech firms want to generate long-lasting engagement and revenue (not just clicks), its a great short-term proxy for whether users are interested in something. And so if youve got that experience, be sure to flaunt it, as in this example bullet Increased the CTR on our internal employee emails from 5% to 10% within just six weeks.GTMCan you think of a time when you helped launch a new product or service?If so, youve been responsible for what the tech world likes to call GTM i.e., Go-to-Market.This phrase encapsulates all the planning and processes that go into a big launch. Everything from a high-level sales and marketing strategy all the way down to having PR response plans ready for potential crises and customer service teams trained up to handle client questions.So no matter which piece of that overall launch effort youve been responsible for in the past, be sure to list it on your resume like this Led GTM for new confectionery product, coordinating manufacturing and distribution, leading to sales of $2.3M in the first quarter of availability.MVPDid you ever throw three touchdowns in the Super just kidding. This isnt that kind of MVP. Instead, it stands for Minimum Viable Product an approach to new product development thats been all the rage in the tech world since Eric Ries published The Lean Startup back in 2011.The idea of an MVP is that, too often, tech companies spend years building a complex, fancy product, only to discover that no one wants it. So to prevent this huge amount of waste, product managers and engineers are encouraged to build only the smallest, most basic version of a new idea before bringing it to customers. That way, they can gather feedback and measure demand before they invest years and m illions of dollars in improving the concept.And so, if youve ever built a prototype to show customers or asked for feedback from clients before something was fully polished, youve also designed an MVP. Heres an example bullet Designed MVP for new lawn mower concept, gathering feedback from 27 customers much of which went into the final, award-winning design.OKRsOK, heres an easy one Have you ever set a clear goal for yourself?As low a bar as that seems, its a huge part of how tech companies operate today. Specifically, thousands of firms from tech giants to tiny startups have embraced a planning framework called Objectives and Key Results (OKRs). Originally used by Intel, then later popularized at Google, this approach requires all employees to have a clear set of goals and target outcomes every quarter. For exampleObjective Make Google the top search engine in AmericaKey Result Google Searchs US market share should be 1 according to Comscore by March 31So if youve ever applied this same, measurable approach to evaluating your own performance, feel free to share with a bullet like this Brought on 27 new clients, outperforming OKRs by 56%.SQLAre you an Excel pro? Does the idea of running a VLOOKUP get you pumped up?If so, chances are you have what it takes to be great at one of the most universal tools of the tech trade SQL (Structured Query Language). While SQL (often pronounced see-quil) is a programming language, dont let that be a turn off. Its not only the absolute easiest one to master (compared to say Java or C++), its the most useful language for every tech worker to know, even if youre not a coder. Thats because its the way that you get information out of pretty much every database youll encounter in the tech world.For instance, if you worked at Pinterest and wanted to find out what the most pinned item in the world was, you could do that with a couple of lines of code. Or if you worked at Twitter and wanted to figure out who had the most followers, 3 minutes worth of SQL would get you the answer. And make you look pretty badass in the processSo even if youve never used SQL before, check out Codeacademys free course. Chances are, if youre already good at Excel, youll pick it up in a couple of hours.Which will will let you apply it in your own job and write a resume bullet like this Used SQL to query the inventory database, helping to predict which items were in danger of being out of stock before the big holiday sales season.UXHave you ever spent hours making sure that your customers have a great experience online?For instance, maybe youve slaved over your organizations website, making sure it represents the high quality services your team offers? Or perhaps youve reinvented your company emails to make sure theyre easy to digest?If so, youve been focused on something that every tech company is fanatical about UX (User Experience). Thats because, in 2019, its no longer enough just to have a cool product or service. You now need to make it simple and engaging enough for customers to actually want to use it. And thats where UX design comes in from understanding how customers think through 11 interviews to testing new website or app designs to measuring how quickly and easily users navigate those digital experiences and make a purchase.So even if youre not a designer by trade, you can definitely take credit for your UX-oriented approach via bullets like this one Renovated plumbing website with an eye to world-class UX, generating 10% more lead forms by removing friction from the submission process.X-functionalLets close up with one keyword that every future techie should have on their resume X-functional.Because as funky as it looks, this keyword (short for cross-functional) speaks to the highly matrixed nature of tech firms. In other words, most tech teams dont work in functional silos e.g., marketers sit with the marketing department, engineers sit with the engineering department. Instead, they typically co me together on product teams (e.g., Gmail, Alexa) that require staffers from different backgrounds to collaborate.For example, if Google wants to roll out a new feature in Gmail, they need a product manager to conceive of it based on insights they get from a UX researcher. And then, a designer has to lay it out, an engineer has to build it out, and a marketer has to get the word out. All in careful coordination with each otherSo assuming youve had to work in similar setups at some point in your career, you might as well take credit for it with a bullet like this Led x-functional collaboration between HR and legal teams to establish the companys first internship program, bringing in 39 future stars for the organization.The A-B-Cs of T-E-C-HIf youre looking to break into tech, it can be easy to look at a resume bullet like this and throw up your hands in frustrationOversaw x-functional project with UX and sales teams to A/B test new CRM platform our MVP drove historic CTRs, crushing q uarterly OKRs.But once you understand that this alphabet soup is really just common sense masquerading as top-secret insider lingo, youll also understand that you absolutely have what it takes to succeed in tech. After all, youve already walked the talk now you just need to talk itRead more 10 Trending Jobs and the Skills You Need to Get ThemWhich keywords matter most to the job?Knowing the right keywords to put on your resume is the key to talking the talk. It also helps your resume score well within the applicant tracking ordnungsprinzips used by 99% of Fortune 500 companies. Jobscan identifies the exact keywords recruiters and applicant tracking systems want to see in your resume. Just paste your resume below along with a job listing youre interested in to generate an instant match report.Youll need to use some discretion based on industry norms when using abbreviations in your resume. When in doubt, spell out the term then follow it with the common abbreviation in parentheses. For example User Experience (UX).This ensures that your resume makes sense to recruiters lacking technical expertise while also optimizing for potential applicant tracking system search terms.Jeremy Schifeling, a former Apple and LinkedIn employee, is the founder of Break into Tech. If you want a free guide to landing your first tech job, Jeremy has put together a step-by-step cheatsheet just for Jobscan usersFacebook Commentswpdevar_comment_1 span,wpdevar_comment_1 iframewidth100% important