Your resume faces tough competition. Recruiters spend only 6 seconds reviewing an individual resume.
On average, each corporate job opening attracts 250 resumes. Of these, four to six candidates will be called for an interview, and only one will be offered the job.
Write Winning Resumes
Having looked at thousands of resumes over the past 40 years, I recommend these top 10 tips for best-ever resumes.
- Start with your name—short and simple. Use your preferred first and last name as opposed to listing your full name. If your name is more common, like John Smith, you might add your initial at the beginning or in the middle.
- Keep your contact information equally short and simple: your email, location in which you are interested, and preferred phone number. The top of your resume might look like:
Your Name
YourName@Email.com
Metro Area, State
555-123-4567
- Most important is your resume’s headline. Do not use the words like Objective or Summary. Instead, tell resume reviewers how you can help in 3 to 10 words. For example, the longest business resume headline I ever used was “Recruit and Develop The Right Leaders for the Right Roles.”
- Support your headline with three-part value statements. Here’s the list with examples.
- Employer needs you seek to meet: I served business owners and executives who needed change in organizational leadership.
- Your most relevant experiences and abilities: My number one gift was quickly networking, connecting, and attracting qualified candidates.
- The value that employers will receive from the work you do: My clients hired leaders with character, competence, and the right chemistry for the organization and the job to be done. If I messed up, I did the assignment over for free or gave clients their money back.
- Resumes that get results feature results. Analyze your most outstanding and relevant accomplishments using the STAR story Do not tell the whole story in your resume, but rather only list the results so resume reviewers will want to interview you. For example, increased sales by 24%, installed a new ordering system, hired five new associates, etc.
- Customize your resumes. Target each resume for each job and employer. Use words from job postings and employer descriptions that are true of you.
- Make no mistakes. Poor grammar, misspellings, and incorrect information are candidacy killers. Get friends who are detailed-oriented to proof your resume.
- Find personal referrals to help you deliver your resumes. Most mid-size and large employers require that you apply online, usually with your resume. But to get someone to actually look at it, you need a third-party to email your resume to a person in the company – either the recruiter, human resources rep, or hiring manager.
- Consider social media. If you already have LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, or other social media accounts, use the information from your resume to reinforce your headline, value statements, accomplishments, and more.
- What best-ever resume tip do you have? Don’t be shy. Share your experience in writing winning resumes.
Reply Below with Your Top Tips
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I had to quit my job at harris 3 years ago to take care of disabled mother she was just put in assited living it would be great for your company to help me im a Christian thank you
Hi There, Kenneth. We would love to help you. Have you seen our site in its entirety? What exact help are you looking for? Do you have a new career in mind that you would like to pursue. I think its admirable that you loved on your mother in a difficult time.
My son will soon be part of the job-hunting world and I wanted to help him out as early as possible. I found it very helpful when you stated that grammar errors and misspellings are to be avoided at all costs because my son comes from a prestigious university and it would only do best to make sure that he lives up to the education he received. I’ll be looking for any services that can help put some resumes together for him when the time comes. Thank you!