How to create a perfect resume in 2019

If you’re in a quarter of the population looking to make good on that New Year’s resolution to find a new job in 2019, you’ll need a resume.

It’s the first step many of us take grudgingly, grappling with the best way to phrase our degrees and ultimately hoping to achieve with just a few tweaks to the same format. We’ve been using it since college.

But a well-crafted resume serves as both a strong first impression and a compelling sales pitch. This is your chance to showcase your talents and get recruiters and hiring managers to make offers.

How to get a piece of paper to give all of that is easier than hearing. With the help of career coaches and resume experts, CNBC Make It breaks down the formula for creating the perfect resume..

We’ve all heard the conventional wisdom that a one-page resume is the way to go, that managers and recruiters lose patience with longer resumes and spend it anyway. 7.4 seconds to review the document, so keep it brief.

But a recent study from ResumeGo, a resume and CV writing service, found that recruiters and hiring managers are 2 times more likely to hire two-page resume candidates. ,3 times more than similar one-page resume candidates. And the callback benefit of including a second page further enhances senior roles – candidates with longer profiles were hired 70% more of the time for mid-level or management-level jobs.

This doesn’t mean you should write your resume with irrelevant information or lengthy sentences just for the sake of filling two pages, but if you’re struggling to cram all the details need your experience or skills into a single page, stop cutting and embrace the second page.

“If you’re a newbie, you should probably stick to a page, but once you’re past that first job, we hope you’ll be,” says Amanda Augustine, a career coach. Graduate with a two-page resume. TopResume, though she notes that “it would be very rare to encourage someone to write more than two pages.”

Make an impact with your words, not with your style.

“Employers hate designs that are too complicated or fancy,” says Augustine. “They’re used to finding the information they need in certain places, they don’t want to look for it.”

Choose a neat layout with clearly marked sections and breathing space. Align your most important information along the left side of the page and the top corners, as this so-called “F-pattern” design best mimics how we skim documents and capture attention. by employers longer than what’s centered or viewed from left to right, according to a study from the job site Ladders.

The best performing resumes also use one or two easy-to-read fonts, section titles and headings, and bold job titles backed by bulleted achievement lists, following the same study by Ladders. Stick to standard titles like education, experience, summary, and skills, as that’s what the computer system that handles your online application scans.

If you want to add visual appeal, try using a single array of colors to break up text, such as in dividers or subheadings. Skip adding your own photos, graphics, logos or other unnecessary embellishments.

Augustine said: “Online application processing systems, used by most large companies, don’t understand images or graphics. Some can’t process PDFs. Some won’t read the information. placed in the header or footer of a Word document”.

Test the bots’ understanding by copying it into a plain text file. “If weird symbols pop up, if things are out of order, that’s how the computer will read and process it,” Augustine said. If you love your current design, save it to send it directly to the hiring manager.

Augustine says, “The top third of your resume should be a snapshot of everything a recruiter or hiring manager needs to know: your contact information and LinkedIn, your professional summary, and your resume. your last major and job.

This part is the main real estate. If you’re going to make a sale, it’s because of what you put here. And that’s why most resume experts recommend starting with a summary statement, usually a short paragraph that serves as your ad highlighting what you’re up to. identity and how you can meet this employer’s needs.

But it also needs to capture their interest, which is why executive career coach Roy Cohen encourages you to be a little proactive: “Make a bold statement about what you’ve done. do or your ability to make a difference. If you do something better than everyone else, say it.” But you also need to be able to defend and prove claims like So, don’t let the hype overwhelm you.

And whatever you do, don’t label this section an “objective statement”.

“Objective statements are all about friend. Augustine said: “What you want, what you are looking for.” But a resume is a marketing document. They need to cater to the intended audience and what they care about. “

Submitting a common resume for all job postings won’t cut it in 2019.

“You need to tailor your resume to the specific job you’re applying for,” says Vicki Salemi, career expert at Monster. “Save the job description and look at the jargon recruiters are using. You want to match the words on your resume with the keywords they’ve chosen to use, it shows recruiters. you understand what they do and what they need.”

This doesn’t mean you need to start from scratch, but rather find a way to subtly mimic the employer’s language. If they emphasize negotiation skills, briefly mention your abilities in the summary. Rearrange the bullet points below your job title to mimic the order of qualifications the employer offers. For example, if one of the first things the job ad emphasizes is managing a team, any experience you have in that field should be top of the line.

“Jobs these days want so much specialization that using a generic resume won’t be as interesting to anyone reading it,” says Cohen.

It will also help you bypass an applicant tracking system, programmed to look for certain keywords and qualifications, and weed out irrelevant or weak applicants. The more thoroughly you reflect on the job listing, the more likely your application will not be rejected during this first stage.

For help understanding what keywords to incorporate into your resume, Augustine suggests finding three to five lists that describe the role you want and then pasting that text into an online word cloud generator. free.

“The words that appear in the largest font are the words you should include on your resume, assuming you have those skills,” says Augustine.

Recruiters and hiring managers are looking for expertise. The skills section, often placed below the summary, quickly draws them to that knowledge and demonstrates your value. It should be a short list of attributes, organized so that they can be easily measured or proven, and really rare or required in your field. Specificity is also key. Don’t just list coding – name each coding language you’re fluent in.

But be careful not to overload this part. It is not a laundry list of everything you can do. Adding skills that are unrelated, outdated, or highly general, such as filing or Microsoft Office, isn’t going to impress, Salemi adds. You also want to avoid listing skills that are readable as personality traits, such as “self-starter”. Instead, demonstrate these abilities in the description you write about each of your past gigs.

“This section has become much more prominent. 90% of the resumes I do have this section,” says John Suarez, a professional resume writer and career coach. “You can catch a lot of keywords in there that app tracking systems might be looking for.”

And that increases the likelihood that a person will actually see it.

Employers are most interested in what you have achieved in your previous roles. Prove that you’re worthy of being hired by demonstrating that you get measurable results in the description of each former role.

The metrics that show you’ve increased your company’s revenue, productivity, or growth are most important. But success is not always expressed as a statistic. Any industry award or company recognition, culture improvement, positive customer or mentor feedback can be used to support the claims made in the skills section and in the model. describe your job.

“You have to show it, not say it,” Augustine said. “If you don’t back up your claims with evidence, it’s all bullshit.” “Hiring managers want to know what you’ve accomplished with those skills. You always want to think about how your projects or tasks pass the needle to your department or client.”

It will also give you an edge over your competition.

Augustine says: Failing to back up your skills claims with concrete numbers is one of the biggest mistakes job seekers make. And sadly, it is often fatal.

You don’t have to list your entire career history on your resume – employers are most interested in what you’ve done recently.

In most industries, going back 10-15 years will be enough to prove that you qualify. Detailing any position beyond the 20-year mark can frustrate you, clutter your resume and probably won’t impress, because they’re often your most junior roles.

Drop your college graduation year or other certifications unless their recent visit is one of your main attractions, as they could also date you, says Suarez.

You can also omit including the mailing address.

“Everything is online,” says Salemi. Employers will email or call you if they want to follow up. Employers can also be thrown by the address if you’re applying from another state, she added.

Save the references until they are required. It’s not necessary to include them on your resume – it’s limited real estate that should be used to showcase your experience and skills.

Unless your Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook accounts are directly related to the position you’re applying for, leave them out.

And finally, get rid of the pronouns, says Augustine. Resumes are written in silent first person.

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