Job seekers are often encouraged to update their resumes with recent experience as well as optimize it to match changing employers' requirements and expectations. While it is a good piece of advice, many people are confused because they simply don't know how to improve one's resume. If there are no problems with understanding how to update it with recent employments or trainings, job seekers often have no idea how to make it better in terms of its quality. Especially, if is a well-written resume. We believe that no matter how good your resume looks, it can always be improved. It doesn't mean you have to re-do the entire thing obviously. There are just some things that could be made better regardless of how effective the document looks. Besides, sometimes good is not enough to land a job. Sometimes, you just have to be above "good" to receive a chance at the interview meeting. Below you will find some ways how you can get your resume to a different level.
Three Simple Resume Improvements
- Make sure it's tailored to match employer's needs. It is always a temptation to have one resume tailored for the industry and send it out to multiple companies in hopes it will bring you some interview opportunities. However, it is only a good resume that is adjusted to address the common needs of the entire industry. The truly effective resume is the one that is tailored for a particular position within a particular company. So before you send it to a prospective employer, make sure it is not flawless in terms of grammar and structure, but also it is customized to a particular job opening. It, in essence, means that the document addressed the issues mentioned in the job opening.
- Organize the content better so that employers could easily skim through the text and find needed information. The truth of the matter is that hiring authorities don't read all resumes. Even those that look good at first glance. They rather skim through the content in search of specific details they are interested in. So rather than thinking relevant content only, keep in mind how resumes are approached by decision makers. In other words, you have to arrange your information in a way that would allow HRs quickly find what they look for. Pay special attention to the first words of each bullet statement and include key words in the very beginning.
- Make it compatible with mobile viewing. You have probably noticed how many things we do with the help of our smartphones today. Online shopping, watching movies, taking pictures are just some of the things that new smartphones can offer. You might have never thought about this but your resume can actually be viewed on a mobile device. If that happens, will it still look good? Or will the entire thing collapse and the structure of the document look distorted?
These things are something to think about as you polish up your resume. The times when people were sending a hard copy of resume are gone. Today applications are reviewed on a computer and even mobile decice. One thing that can definitely help make your document more mobile friendly is go with one column format. It will be much easier to navigate from a mobile device and applicant tracking systems like one-column resumes better.
