You have been sending your resume time & again and the only answer you get back is “Better Luck Next Time!” You have done what the general recommendation reveals -your resume should not be too long, it should feature a nice template, and clearly showcase your skills and experience levels. What could be ultimately going wrong?

It might not be a question of what you are doing wrong. On the other hand, it could be more of what you can do to improve your professional resume and secure your dream job.

Writing a powerful, engaging resume is not an easy task. However, in the modern online, digital-driven, and tech-centric employment landscape, the task of preparing the right resume and sending it for assured employment can be overwhelming. This is why it is crucial to optimize your professional resume for both human readers as well as automated resume scanning systems if you wish to guarantee your recruitment.

Why Enhancing Your Resume is Important?

The importance of a well-composed and comprehensive resume cannot be stressed enough. A professional resume serves to be a medium to promote yourself. It is the first-ever way you will use to present yourself as a potential job applicant while claiming that you are the best choice of candidate to the prospective employer.

A professional resume is expected to evolve with time. Therefore, improving and modifying your resume while maintaining different versions is crucial to help you move ahead in your career. You should consider your resume as the business card. It serves to be an easy medium to help you with garnering relevant contacts while portraying your skills in front of the potential employers.

As you upgrade your resume, it is important to note that your resume should be attractive and visually-appealing. Ensure that it is well-organized, neat, and features a list of your successful endeavors and achievements in different roles. The resume and its style should cater to the specific requirements of the job.

5 Ways to Optimize Your Resume

A resume serves to be a living document. Therefore, you should always be open to the concept of upgrading your resume from time to time. Ultimately, an improved resume will imply higher chances of achieving your dream job. Here are some useful ways to optimize your professional resume:

Add Keywords

It is a no-brainer. Still, this aspect is most often overlooked. Ultimately, it could be the reason why your resume is constantly falling behind the recruitment line. Why? It is due to the involvement of the ATS or Applicant Tracking System in the resume screening process.

An ATS is utilized by a wide number of employers nowadays. Upon feeding a resume into the ATS, the automated system conducts in-depth analysis on the different sets of resume keywords utilized in the respective job application. It is recommended to use the ATS-friendly template while preparing your professional resume. It improves the overall chances of getting to the interview stage.

Search for the right resume keywords based on the given job description. Add relevant keywords to the resume and you will start observing results.

Start with a Strong Summary

The resume summary or objective is one of the first things that any hiring manager will observe. Therefore, you should pay attention to it if you wish to make your resume stand out.

If you are only starting out in your career or considering switching careers, you can go ahead with including the resume objective. It is aimed at focusing on your skills and knowledge while showing hiring managers that you will succeed.

On the other hand, if you have relevant years of expertise in a particular industry, you should include a comprehensive resume summary. It will focus on your overall job skills along with relevant work experience to reveal to recruiters that you are the right option for them. The summary section of the resume is presented as a short, professional synopsis for highlighting several years of experience, major achievements, and job history. Therefore, a strong summary has significantly replaced the concept of including resume objectives.

Use Action Words

You can consider setting your document apart with the help of dedicated resume action words describing your contributions. Action words serve as resume boosters and help in changing the content from something plain & non-interesting to something intense and compelling.

Action words in your resume not only help in conveying actions, but also your overall willingness to be proactive, to take relevant action, and the ability to handle different situations effectively. In addition to including action words for your resume, you should also pay attention to selecting the ones that fit your industry standards specifically.

Make It Skimmable

As far as resume reading is concerned, most recruiters will effectively skim through your document rather than going through it line by line. Therefore, it is important to pay attention to the writing style. Ensure that you make use of shorter paragraphs of 3-4 lines. If you have something more to say, you can include a para with a bullet list.

Precise Your Formatting

Irrespective of how well you describe your industry expertise or knowledge levels in the resume, your resume should be well-formatted and organized to make it easily skimmable. It is important to improve the resume format by double-checking the respective guidelines:

• Choose a professional, modern resume font like Georgia or Arial with 12pt font size.
• Set the resume margin to 1” across all sides
• Confirm whether or not your resume section is standing out. It will make it simpler for potential employers to come across relevant information about your skills or experience.
• Ensure that the entire resume layout is smart and neat.

Conclusion

There are several ways to make your resume stand out. By leveraging the right technology and strategies, you can create a compelling resume to garner the attention of the prospective employers. Ensure that your resume is always professional and well-organized to help you land your dream job.