If you want to boost your career, your resume is the first thing you need to review. It’s your first impression – a summary of your skills and experiences. Your resume has to reflect a lot about you in a fraction of time.

Building your resume is a lot more than listing your previous jobs on a piece of paper.

As a recruiter, I spend a lot of time with resumes, but it’s not quality time. There are weeks where I’m staring down an email inbox with 500+ emails. So, as you can imagine, each resume is getting a few precious seconds of my time before I have to move onto the next one.

That first impression comes quickly, and your resume has a lot of heavy lifting to do in a short amount of time. How can you maximize its impact?

Fundamental vs. Flashy

You can do a series of things to create a strong resume. Unfortunately, many people focus on flashy details that catch the eye instead of focusing on values that speak volumes about their ability to do a job.

Long story short: everyone has an opinion. The below list my opinion, and as you can probably tell, my opinion is that fundamental trumps flashy every time.

16 Resume Building Hacks You NEED to Boost Your Career (from Top to Bottom)

1. Make your name stand out.

You don’t need fancy fonts or flashy colors. A simple font with a decently large size and bolded style will work! Your name should be easy to find.

When writing your name, make sure to make it as professional as possible. Avoid including nicknames and middle names. It clutters up the resume and is unnecessary. The only exception to this rule is if you go by your nickname or middle name. Usually, the best practice is to write your given name, then in brackets, include the name you use (i.e., Catherine (Kate) Middleton). The brackets signal your preference with the recruiter, and they will confirm how you like to be addressed once you meet in-person or digitally.

2. Address matters.

If you’re applying for a position outside of your geographical area, I suggest not including your current address. Some recruiters will assume you’ve applied blindly without looking at the location if your current address is too far for you to commute.

3. Use a phone number that has voicemail enabled.

Most people have cell phones and use these as their primary contact number. That’s great, except when they don’t answer! I understand that people have lives outside of their job search, but you need to ensure that voicemail is activated if you can’t answer.

Also, ensure that you’ve set a professional voicemail message. You want to make sure that you come across as reliable and trustworthy. Leave those quirky messages for some other time (or ideally, never.)

4. Your email address should be professional.

I’ve had the pleasure of seeing a lot of unique email addresses. And that’s putting it nicely. You’re a grown-up looking for a job; you need a grown-up email address! The best option is some combination of your name. In terms of email provider, most are fine.

If this is an email address you use exclusively for job searches and other professional communication, then be sure that you’re actively monitoring it when you’re applying for jobs. It’s not uncommon for recruiters to email you the same day to set up an interview.

5. Include social media.

Include a link to your LinkedIn profile. It’s an excellent way to let recruiters know you’re open to connecting and allows them to review more than just your job history. If you choose to include your LinkedIn profile, make sure that your profile is up-to-date and matches your resume.

You’ll also want to ensure that you’ve got a professional image for your profile picture. Not having an image isn’t a deal-breaker, but it is more professional to have one. It’s also important that this image is clear, friendly, and professional – it shouldn’t be a picture of you binge drinking at your sister-in-law’s bachelorette party.

Besides making sure your LinkedIn profile is up-to-date and professional, you should also consider what is visible on your other social media channels. Hopefully, you’re not out there spreading inappropriate content, but if that’s your thing, then make sure it’s private (friends and family only!)

6. Rethink your objective.

I see the objective section revamped as a summary of who you are. Keep it brief, and highlight a few of your strong qualities. You can tailor this section to mention the specific job you’re applying for, but you should keep the focus on yourself.

Example: I am a confident, self-motivated Human Resources professional with excellent communication and strong time management skills.

7. Consider matching your layout with your goals.

There are three types of resumes: chronological, functional, and combination. The purpose of the different styles is to present the information effectively.

Resume Genius has a fantastic post about the difference between these types of resumes and how to determine which style is best for you.

Templates are fantastic to help create an excellent, professional-looking resume, but be wary; often, templates are overused. If you’re going to use a template, I would recommend looking online instead of using one in Word. You’ll find a wider variety of cleaner, more polished resume templates.

8. Place education in a sidebar or after your work experience.

Except for recent grads, education should go in either the sidebar or near the bottom of your resume. Recruiters will assume you’ve completed some form of post-secondary education and only look at the education section to confirm that it matches their requirements. The prime real estate on your resume should consist of your work experience.

9. Keep formatting consistent.

When you begin to list your work experience, ensure that you’re sticking to a consistent format. This applies to how you record your job titles, company names, locations, dates, and bullet points. Consistency is key!

10. Use power verbs.

Using power verbs shows confident action! You want to show that you’re a solid contributor to a company, even if you’re applying to an entry-level job. Employers want employees who can grow, but they want employees with the drive to succeed even more than that. Power actions speak louder than passive actions.

The Muse has a comprehensive list of powerful action verbs to use on your resume and breaks their blog post down into categories to help you choose with ease. Read it here.

11. Keep everything on message.

Everything in your resume should be relevant to the job you’re applying for. Your resume needs to do the work; it needs to show all the reasons why you are the best candidate! There isn’t room for anything that does not highlight your unique skillset.

A brilliant resume hack is to review the job posting and pull keywords directly from the posting. I learned this when I was in school for HR, and it blew my mind! It’s not that I had never thought about it previously, but I always felt that it would look lazy to the employer.

Coming from a recruiter: Not so!

As it turns out, this is smart, not lazy! It helps you get past the initial screening phase, whether it’s an automated function through an ATS (Applicant Tracking System) or an over-zealous, old-school recruiter with a highlighter (and a paper shredder.)

12. Consider removing your high school volunteer experience.

I don’t mean to imply that volunteer work doesn’t matter. I mean to indicate that you need to be an active volunteer. Unless it’s a recent experience or one heavily related to the job you’re applying for, don’t worry about having a volunteer section. It’s unnecessary, and it looks like you’re just trying to fill space on your resume. Seriously! That fluff does nothing for you and dilutes your resume.

Need proof? Read about Elon Musk’s single-page resume here.

13. Skip the Interests & Activities section unless it’s relevant.

Again, this is another section that you want to avoid if you don’t have anything specifically relevant to the job. For example, if you’re applying to a marketing job, mentioning that you run a successful blog is a good idea. If you’re applying to be a bookkeeper, mentioning you write fan fiction in your spare time is irrelevant.

14. Don’t worry about references.

You don’t need to include your references on your resume. You can add that they are available upon request at the bottom if you want to, but unnecessary. Interviewers understand that references will be provided once they’re explicitly asked for.

15. Overall, keep things SIMPLE.

There is no need to include fancy graphics or a picture of yourself unless you feel that it will have a direct impact. Someone applying for a job in marketing or graphic design may benefit from a fancier resume, but even then, it’s best to be conservative. A glitzy resume might get you noticed, or it might get rejected by the ATS and never see the light of day.

Want to make sure your resume is robot-proof? Check here.

16. Size doesn’t matter.

After you’ve applied the above resume-building hacks, you might be wondering about how many pages your resume should be. If you can keep it down to a single page, that’s great! But, two pages won’t kill your chances of getting a job.

In this case, one size does not fit all.

You want your resume to be as concise as possible without cutting out anything important about you and your abilities. If your accomplishments are relevant to the job, ensure they’re in your resume! Recruiters scan resumes at lightning speed, looking for keywords, so it is more critical to include any applicable information than to cut down your resume to a cookie-cutter size.

Final Thoughts on Resume Building

Building a solid resume is about making many small decisions that come together to create a significant impact. Using the above 16 resume hacks, you’ll craft something more than just a piece of paper. That is what you need to stand out and boost your career.

Remember:

• Recruiters receive hundreds of resumes and often only spend a few seconds scanning them.
• Clean and simple is the best way to go. Flashy is unnecessary.
• Organize the information on your resume to fit your goals.
• Be consistent and stay on message.
• Focus on yourself and what you bring to the table; don’t worry about how many pages it takes to do that.

If you’re currently job searching, let me know your biggest questions about your resume or the job search process in general.

Leave me a comment below; I’d love to hear from you!