When it comes to snagging that ideal job and turning contacts into coworkers, your resume is key. If you’ve ever wanted to redo your resume but felt overwhelmed and intimated, you’re in the right place.
In today’s post, I’m going to show you step by step how to revamp your resume (or build a new resume from scratch) without spending a whole lot of time doing it.
After going through this guide, you will know exactly how to optimize your resume for both the robots (ATS) and humans reading it.
If you get stuck or have questions, simply send me a message or DM me on Instagram and I will do my best to help you out.
Let’s get started!
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Step 1: Define Your Specific Goals
Many people fail in creating a resume that resonates for the simple reason that they don’t actually set specific goals for what the resume’s job is other than to ‘get a job’.
You should always clearly define and understand your career goals as well as your next role goals so that you can understand what it is your resume needs to say and who it needs to say it to.
Understanding your goals is important too because it will help you know what to focus on when it comes to featured sections of your resume.
And ultimately, if you know what you’re working towards, it will be easier for you to create a path to get there.
To make this step go as smoothly as possible, make sure you highlight your goals by applying the following tips:
Think of your career narrative and how you want to tell that story
Don’t offer up a resume full of role responsibilities you never want to engage in again
Curating your skills and experiences to reflect who you want to be in your next role
Step 2. Know Your Audience
Another critical step in reworking your resume is understanding your audience. This step is important because it helps you create a document that they will respond to.
I came to realize just how important this step is when I became a recruiter. I made some rookie mistakes that stopped me from getting great candidates in the door because I’d presented the hiring managers with resumes that didn’t catch their interest.
Once I understood that this was a necessary step, I was able to get candidates to really start paying attention to their audience and I was able to get them hired for the jobs they’d been dreaming of snagging.
When you really nail this step, you’ll have a much better idea of where to focus your energies on your resume and your narrative..
Step 3. Take Stock of Your Skills
The next step is to take stock of what skills you have and build your foundation on those.
You don’t want to simply list every skill you’ve ever acquired. You want to showcase skills that you want to continue to use in the future and skills that have gotten you to where you are.
If there is a skill you know you’re good at but never want to engage in again, do. not. put. it. on. your. resume.
To get started, you can audit all your skills. Write them all out so you can see everything you know how to do in black and white.
Then cross out everything you don’t want to do moving forward. Now, highlight those skills you do want to continue to use in your next role.
Cross reference those with what the job descriptions you’re looking at are asking for. Those are the skills you want to put front and center in your resume.
Step 4. Tell A Story: Don’t just tell me what your job descriptions were
A great thing about creating a career narrative and building your resume is that there are many different ways you can go about it. So you can try a few strategies and see what works best for you.
As you go about testing highlighting certain skills and shining the light on certain accomplishments, you’re going to want to tweak things just a handful at a time instead of changing it all up at once.
Once you test and apply the first few narrative bullet points, you can gather data on what works and then incorporate changes as needed.
I recommend starting with the very obvious overlap between your narrative and what the organization you want to join is looking for..
A few ways you can approach this:
Speak to a contact in the company and ask what is most important
Use AI to compare your resume and narrative to what the job description is really asking for
Tell your story as you would to a networking contact, edit it craft your professional bio
Step 5. Clean/Clear Formatting (for the robots)
Once you've told your story, it’s time to make sure it’s easy to read by humans and the robots too. Applicant tracking systems AKA ‘ATS’ are finicky creatures and they hate highly designed resume formatting. Colors, shapes and charts just make them say ‘no’ automatically.
While humans like a little color and some zhuzh, too much also can turn off a hiring manager who wants, yes even, a creative professional.
And since you already know your audience and have a clear story to tell, it’ll be a breeze to outline your accomplishments.
This step is important and one that most people overlook. But it’s incredibly important because if a person or robot can’t suss out who you are and what you do (and why you’re awesome at it) because your formatting is confusing, then you’re better off not applying in many cases.
Keep these tips in mind for maximum results:
Stress your accomplishments, skills and metrics of success not just a history of jobs
Focus on highlighting points of story that your audience is interested in
Step 6. Cohesive Structure
Now that you’ve gone in for that sweet, sweet clear formatting, it’s time to make sure your structure is cohesive.
Many people overlook this step and then aren’t getting the results they expected with their highlighted skills or accomplishments.
I’ve helped several clients finally find resume success after completing all of the steps I’m sharing today, and this one is especially important.
The reason is that you can’t craft an effective resume without carefully considering not just what information you include but how to organize that information in a cohesive, uniform manner.
Here two questions to ask yourself:
What is the most important information I’m trying to get across?
What is the best way to convey that information?
Think about who your audience is (remember step 2) and do your best to offer them the information they need, in the way that will make most sense to them.
If you need help with this, check out my post: CREATING AN IMPRESSIVE RESUME AND PORTFOLIO: YOUR GATEWAY TO CAREER SUCCESS. It shows you what to do step by step.
Step 7. Metrics
Offering metrics is a crucial aspect of an effective resume because they provide concrete evidence of your accomplishments and capabilities. Part of giving the information in the best way for the reader is numbers. Human brains, hiring managers (and yes, those pesky robots too) love numbers.
By including quantifiable data such as sales figures, project completion times or percentages you showcase your ability to deliver results and make a tangible impact. Metrics give hiring managers a clear understanding of your professional achievements, setting you apart from other candidates who only offer vague descriptions of their responsibilities.
By incorporating metrics strategically throughout your resume, you paint a compelling picture of your competency, making a strong case for why you are the ideal candidate for the job.
Step 8. Summary Not an Objective
One outdated mistake I still come across on client resumes occasionally is the dreaded Objective statement. Back in a bygone day, Objectives we de rigeur. You stated what job you wanted and gave a vague description of your general career interests.
Now, a Summary is the way to go. It focuses on you, your skills and what you offer as a candidate.
Where do you start? With your story.
Before you slap together a profile, format a google doc, or whip up a website - you need to start with a clear story of who you are, where you want to be, and why you want to be there. Most people treat their resumes as a list of past job descriptions. What you should be doing, is using them to tell your story. To outline why you’re the perfect fit for that bigger, better job.
Gather a list of 5-10 bullet points that highlight your unique value, impressive stats and skills you want to build on. Use these “Story Bullets” to build out your summary, job history, and ‘about me’ pages. Your LinkedIN, resume and website need to be cohesive and work together. Using the same wording for your summaries on each will not only save you time but help you form your personal sales pitch.
Look at your bullets and focus on the ones that a recruiter hiring for the “next big gig” you want would be searching for. Don’t focus on the job you want out of - show that you’re right for the next level up.
For example, Jack, of Beanstalk fame, might have the following bullets:
• Co-Founder of Giant Slayers Inc (which sold for $45 million farthings)
• Deep understanding of the gold-egg market
• 62% rise in used-cow sales within two years
• First to market with singing harp services app
These could be summarized as: “I’m a marketer with six years of in-depth experience in multiple markets including golden eggs, harps, and cows. My experience in multi-channel campaigns, campaign management, and technology development has given me unique insight into the giant-slaying arena.”
That’s it!
If you cater to both the people and the robots and offer clear, concise information, you’ll be well on your way to stellar resume success. Keep in mind that the steps I just shared all work together and build off each other.
You’ll get the best results if you incorporate them all into a focused document that makes you shine.
Yours in ‘go shine and sell yourself!’ goodness-
EBS
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EB Sanders | Career Coach for Creative Types
ebs@ebsanders.com
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