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Everyone’s resume could use a few tweaks, especially people who have been putting off a resume update for years.

If you’re someone who hasn’t touched his or her resume in a while, you should know that the things hiring managers look for change over time, meaning your resume could very easily be out of date.

Below are a few things to consider when looking to tweak your resume or bring it up to date.

Get specific

Job-seekers have a tendency to forget that hiring managers review resumes quickly, often looking at each one for only a handful of seconds. Therefore, it’s important for someone quickly looking at your resume to be able to understand right away what you are looking for and the value you can bring to the company.

Your resume must focus on essential strengths that speak to a particular need and job. Hiring personnel expect your resume to be specifically customized to the position you’re seeking. The reader ought to be instantly capable of telling what job you’re targeting and what organizational needs you can meet.

Use keywords

Many companies today use an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) that has an automation feature capable of sifting through resume submissions to single out those that have specific “keywords” – terms extremely relevant to the open position.

Because keywords are so important, your resume must feature the latest industry jargon in the form of keywords. For instance, someone looking for an administrative position should include words like “Microsoft Office” or “Google Calendar”.

A word of warning: Don’t get so obsessed with stuffing keywords into your resume that it turns into a word salad. Human eyes will eventually see your resume and have to make heads or tails of what you have written.

Emphasize accomplishments, not past responsibilities

Hiring managers know what a person must be capable of in order to fill their open position, so they’re pretty familiar with what qualified applicants did in previous jobs. For example, it is a bit redundant to say you “tested samples for biological contamination” as a quality control technician in the food industry.

Instead, your resume should emphasize your accomplishments, such as the amount of times you were able to save the company money, the innovations you helped put into place or the awards you received. These accomplishments set you apart from the pack and make you more appealing to hiring managers.

Make a sales pitch

Most people don’t think of it this way, but your resume is actually a marketing tool used to sell your professional self, it’s not a legal document that must be rigid and boring.

Tweaking your resume so that it has unique “sales pitch” elements can help to make the case for why you are the best person for the job. These unique touches should be part of your natural personality so that a reader can get a sense of who you are as a person.

At Action Group Staffing, we regularly help people tweak their resumes to make them more appealing to potential employers. Please contact us today if you are looking for some resume assistance.


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