How to Write a Resume
Posted on July 16, 2021 by Alysha Chin, One of Thousands of Career Coaches on Noomii.
A resume is such an important document. It is a summary of your professional accomplishments and a note to employers showing your success.
It is a summary of your professional accomplishments and a note to employers showing your success. But there are so many conflicting messages on how to write one and what it should look like. Here are some guidelines that will help you land an interview and (hopefully) clear up some of the confusion.
Cater Your Resume to Each Application
You can have one base resume that you edit each time you are applying to a new job. However, you do not want to be sending the same resume to every position you apply for. Every time you apply to a new position you want to make sure you are editing the resume to include information that is in the job posting.
This will help you get past applicant tracking systems and show employers how you are specifically qualified for THIS position.
Summary
In your resume you want to create a summary that connects you to the position you are applying for. It should be curated for this company. Let them know what about you will bring value to the company and what makes you uniquely qualified for the position.
Skills
Under your skills section you want to match the skills that are in the job posting that you possess. Adding these key words will help the employer see that you have the skills they are looking for, that you thoroughly read the job posting, and it will help your resume get past any electronic applicant tracking systems.
Avoid Words Like:
Hard worker
Self-motivated
Team player
These words are generic and over used because of this they no longer hold the same sway they once might have.
Work Experience
You want to include your relevant experience. For each bullet point of your work experience make sure that you are using examples that match the roles and responsibilities in the job posting. When possible try and quantify your examples.
You want to start your examples off with strong action words. Some options include:
Managed
Achieved
Resolved
Trained
Mentored
Created
Developed
Established
Engaged
Initiated
Improved
Increased/Decreased
Influenced
Implemented
Launched
Use these words as the starting point to describe your responsibilities. Then explain the results your responsibilities held as a way to quantify your work.
For example:
Created a product database that was used for analyzing consumer data. Using the information from this database resulted in 25% more sales over the next 6 months.
Education
Here you want to include your education or any relevant certification. If there are specific courses that are relevant you can describe them here.
Most resumes now go through applicant tracking systems (ATS) before they are seen by human eyes. If they are even the slightest bit complex the ATS will not be able to read it and get the information. This will lead to your resume never being seen.
In our sessions together I will not only help you with your resume but teach you everything I know so that you can independently work on these and have these tools forever.
