Resume preparation, posting, and job prospecting is stressful and time consuming. Making the job search more complicated is the use of Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) being used by human resource departments to filter and process your resume. So, planning your job search and writing your resume is more important than ever.
As a career service provider, one recommendation I make to the folks I counsel is to try not to be seduced into using costly AI resume writing software. The results can be unpredictable, and I personally don’t believe they are as effective as they promise for a variety of reasons. See my post on the limitations of AI resume and cover letter writers at https://wordpress.com/block-editor/post/coffeecat.blog/221.
Below are some considerations for writing your resume.
- Collect your work history and education information and prepare a Word or Excel document.
- Create a skelton resume with the major headings as listed in the next bullet point.
- Review job postings on job sites such as LinkedIn or Indeed for jobs that you’re interested in and make a list of the following information:
- Key words.
- Titles.
- Skills being requested.
- Salary if listed.
- Locations.
- Draft a resume using the information from the above step. Get a simple template to use. There are a ton of “How to” YouTube videos and articles on what information to add and how to format a resume. Use a very simple format for your resume otherwise it will not get through the ATS systems. See the ATS formation suggestions below. Basic sections of a resume are:
- Applicant Header.
- Applicant Summary.
- Work Experience.
- Skills.
- Training, Certifications & Certificates.
- Education.
- Organizations.
- Awards.
- Other resume content considerations.
- Are you looking for a contract job? Full or part-time? W2 employee position?
- Can you relocate?
- Limit experience to past 10 years especially if you are an older worker.
- Leave off non-relevant employment.
- Leave off personal information such as hobbies.
- Leave off medical or family issues or information.
- Any stretches of unemployment need to be explained with a positive activity such as retraining, new certification, or school.
- Tips for formatting a resume to get past the ATS systems.
- Match you resume title to the job titles in the job postings.
- Use keywords in your resume that are used in job posting in your experience and skills sections.
- No graphics.
- Use standard fonts.
- Use 12 pt.
- 1” margins.
- Create PDF as first choice for submission.
- Check for spelling and syntax using such systems as Grammarly.
- Date format month – year or mm/yyyy.
- No abbreviations spell things out.
- Use black dots for list but limit indentions.
- No headers or footers.
- No multi columns.
- No personal pronouns.
- Limits skills section to key skills.
- List most important skills which should match the posts you are looking at.
- Don’t embellish or lie on your resume it will come out in the interview, if you get one.
- Prepare to job search.
- Have a LinkedIn account.
- Use job sites.
- Upload your resume to your job sites so recruiters can find you.
- Job hunting.
- Check the job sites daily and apply the same day – the AST system may stop taking resumes after a set amount are submitted.
- You can modify your resume for a job posting but not too much.
- Test out the resume, if you send out 20 or more with no response to postings that match you experience adjust your resume.
Regards, Rob
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