Your resume is the one piece of paper that will make or break your ability to get the job. Resumes project your ability to sell yourself in terms of design, writing ability, personality, and experience. Selling yourself correctly on your resume is a skill and art within itself. Similarly to taking the SAT, it’s less about your knowledge and more about finding patterns and trends. Instead of word vomiting on your resume, treat it like the SAT; learn how to maneuver your way through it. Here are the top components that hiring managers and recruiters look for on your resume.
Keywords in your skills and experience
When you apply for the job, you should always, and I mean always read the job description in its entirety. Every job you apply to has its unique list of requirements and qualifications. It can be easy to use the same resume when applying to different jobs but adjust your resume to the specific role.
While you read the job description and edit your resume, include relevant keywords. If the job description calls for agency experience, pharma experience, or HCP experience, include those specific keywords. If you don’t have that specific experience, don’t lie on your resume to match it.
Adjust your resume accordingly to the job description and always be honest about your experience. The more time you put into adjusting your resume with relevant keywords, the more luck you will have when applying.
Data and statistics on your performance
As you are writing your experience about your work positions, do your best to include information about your performance that is valuable to the company. Recruiters now heavily look for numbers and statistics on your accomplishments.
A great example of a statistic could be if you are a social media manager, you grew their LinkedIn following by 30% in the past year. Listing your duties in each experience is valuable, but a company wants to hire you based on your performance and how you can benefit them.
Take time to think about your performance and research your personal statistics. Think about it like sports. You want a player that has excellent statistics and a high-performance level. Companies are starting to look at you the same way; they want a valuable player that will perform well and make their company grow.
Why should they hire you over peers?
This component can be the hardest to demonstrate out of these three tips. Every person has their specific skill set and ability to perform in different roles and tasks. Do a deep dive and try to understand why you stand out compared to your peers.
A great exercise to do is to pretend you are the hiring manager or recruiter receiving your resume. Read it alongside the job description and see what skills you have that match the description and what you think they are looking for to make you the most placeable candidate.
Looking at your resume and experience from an outside perspective can help you understand what makes you valuable, and you can then decide how to express that in your resume. Whether that’s a client you worked for, where you worked or a skill level, sell that on your resume.
Overall, writing resumes and cover letters and putting together a portfolio can be exhausting and even more frustrating when you don’t hear back. Putting work into your credentials is putting work into yourself. You want a job that you will love and will bring you happiness. We hope these tips help you in your hiring process, and we wish you the best of luck!
Clutch is a creative staffing partner. We connect digital, creative, and marketing professionals with companies looking for freelance, temp-to-hire or direct hire resources.
