If your phone isn’t buzzing during a job search, it could be tough to tell if it’s your resume, the labor market, or anything else that’s the problem.
If you are applying to jobs for which you are well-qualified, a lack of replies often comes down to a poor resume. Quite a few experienced professionals are unfortunately still relying on an outdated curriculum vitae. Take a look at these updates you can make to your resume, and if one or more apply, it could explain why you haven’t been getting any responses.
Get Rid of the Objective Section
Once upon a time, putting an objective section at the top of your resume was all the rage. But like an AOL email address, an objective section just looks outdated in 2022.
Also, an objective section is redundant if you think about it. The point of this section is to explain your current career goal, but if you’re sending it to a hiring manager – they probably know your goal is to get a job with their company.
Throw away the objective section and start your resume off with a summary section instead. This section should list the most relevant achievements and abilities for the position you’re trying to get.
Have a Clear Identity
When hiring managers go through a resume, they need to see what distinguishes you from other promising candidates. A hiring manager has a position to fill, and your resume should indicate the ways you can effectively fill the role by smartly expressing your unique value. If it’s tough to tell the ways you can succeed in the role, then the hiring manager won’t see the value in calling you over a different candidate.
Cut the Fluff
When you write a resume, you may feel the need to impress your reader with a lot of information, but that impulse can cause you to include a lot of fluff –information that is irrelevant to a hiring manager.
If a sentence, paragraph, or section does not include experience, knowledge, qualifications, or unique value that is highly relevant, you should remove it. Take the all-killer, no-filler approach: stick to the projects or teams you have led, processes you have improved, technical tools you have used, and positive results you’ve achieved.
Stress Results in Your Work History
A work history section that only lists rudimentary projects and responsibilities usually falls short. Instead, discuss the challenges you tackled, the ways you addressed them, and the results you were able to achieve. Make this section more memorable by including hard numbers. Phrase results in terms of: how much, how many, and how long. For instance, you could say you increased sales 20 percent for five years in a row.
Hard numbers enable you to define your achievements, build your identity and present yourself more effectively to hiring managers.
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At NextStep Resources, we use our knowledge and network to connect job seekers to best-fit job opportunities. Please contact us today to find out how we can help you.