Source: Giphy
Most folks will remember this famous phone conversation between Cuba Gooding Jr. and Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire.
The same philosophy is applicable to resumes the world over - don’t tell the recruiter what you can do; show them what you can do! Recruiters are seldom interested in what candidates claim their abilities are. Instead, they prefer evidence in the form of (quantifiable) achievements and accomplishments, projects, promotions, and examples with concrete facts and figures to show that the application for the candidacy is worth considering. Vague statements are often overlooked, but points laden with numbers, names and years always curry favour with recruiters.
The same philosophy is applicable to resumes the world over - don’t tell the recruiter what you can do; show them what you can do! Recruiters are seldom interested in what candidates claim their abilities are. Instead, they prefer evidence in the form of (quantifiable) achievements and accomplishments, projects, promotions, and examples with concrete facts and figures to show that the application for the candidacy is worth considering. Vague statements are often overlooked, but points laden with numbers, names and years always curry favour with recruiters.
Stories
Boring resumes with point after point of responsibility are out. You have 1 chance to leave a good first impression on the recruiter through your resume. As mentioned in What Makes a Resume Standout, don’t ruin it by copy-pasting job descriptions and beginning most of the points with “Responsible for…” Everyone likes a good story. So, tell a story! Put in a timeline, add some actors, throw in some numbers, and watch your resume come to life! At the same time, watch the verb tenses. If you are working somewhere currently, make sure the verbs are in the present tense, unless you are mentioning something that is done and dusted. And vice versa for any role that is over – don’t write the responsibilities and duties in the present tense.
Achievements
Quantifiable achievements are a bonus, but not a prerequisite. In some roles and industries, it is extremely easy to put a number for many of the achievements - $5M profit, $2M in revenues, 35% increase in sales, 0 injuries, 500+ Managers trained, 50+ international clients, 20+ multinational projects, and so on. If your achievements are quantifiable, don’t miss the opportunity to highlight them! If you are in an industry or role where quantifying data is not possible, do not despair. Concentrate on the technical skills and experience instead, and ensure that you mention whom you reported to in senior management, which teams you collaborated with, and which important clients you interacted with.
Word Processor
As consumers, we are spoilt for choice today. Depending on which device, operating system and version we use, we have a wide variety of word processors that we can choose from to write our resumes in. However, you should ideally use MS Word (2003 or newer), as an overwhelming majority of the world uses it. If you use Apple’s Pages, Apache OpenOffice, MS Works, Google Docs, or any other word processing software that isn’t MS Word, there will be formatting incompatibilities and glitches, and a beautifully-crafted resume could turn into an illegible and and unattractive mess when opened by the recruiter on MS Word. Docx is the expected format globally, but .Doc is also widely accepted.
Fonts
Additionally, using fancy and unique fonts for a brilliant design will go to waste if the readers do not have the same fonts installed on their computers. The word processing software will then try and substitute the nearest match, throwing your careful formatting out the window, and transforming a beautiful 2-page resume into a 3-page horror. Hence, it is advisable to stick to popular and common pre-installed fonts such as:
Arial | Arial Narrow | Times New Roman | Verdana | Tahoma | Garamond | Georgia | Calibri
PDF
Finally, sending a PDF file seems like a good answer, and it normally is. Not only does it take care of formatting changes due to incompatible software, but also makes it difficult for anyone to alter the contents of the resume, even by mistake. But every now and then, a company might be using legacy HR software that cannot scan a PDF file, or need an option to comment and highlight on the resume itself without having to pay for expensive PDF-editing software or using risky but free 3rd party solutions. Hence, sending your resumes in both, .DOCX and .PDF, would be ideal.
Boring resumes with point after point of responsibility are out. You have 1 chance to leave a good first impression on the recruiter through your resume. As mentioned in What Makes a Resume Standout, don’t ruin it by copy-pasting job descriptions and beginning most of the points with “Responsible for…” Everyone likes a good story. So, tell a story! Put in a timeline, add some actors, throw in some numbers, and watch your resume come to life! At the same time, watch the verb tenses. If you are working somewhere currently, make sure the verbs are in the present tense, unless you are mentioning something that is done and dusted. And vice versa for any role that is over – don’t write the responsibilities and duties in the present tense.
Achievements
Quantifiable achievements are a bonus, but not a prerequisite. In some roles and industries, it is extremely easy to put a number for many of the achievements - $5M profit, $2M in revenues, 35% increase in sales, 0 injuries, 500+ Managers trained, 50+ international clients, 20+ multinational projects, and so on. If your achievements are quantifiable, don’t miss the opportunity to highlight them! If you are in an industry or role where quantifying data is not possible, do not despair. Concentrate on the technical skills and experience instead, and ensure that you mention whom you reported to in senior management, which teams you collaborated with, and which important clients you interacted with.
Word Processor
As consumers, we are spoilt for choice today. Depending on which device, operating system and version we use, we have a wide variety of word processors that we can choose from to write our resumes in. However, you should ideally use MS Word (2003 or newer), as an overwhelming majority of the world uses it. If you use Apple’s Pages, Apache OpenOffice, MS Works, Google Docs, or any other word processing software that isn’t MS Word, there will be formatting incompatibilities and glitches, and a beautifully-crafted resume could turn into an illegible and and unattractive mess when opened by the recruiter on MS Word. Docx is the expected format globally, but .Doc is also widely accepted.
Fonts
Additionally, using fancy and unique fonts for a brilliant design will go to waste if the readers do not have the same fonts installed on their computers. The word processing software will then try and substitute the nearest match, throwing your careful formatting out the window, and transforming a beautiful 2-page resume into a 3-page horror. Hence, it is advisable to stick to popular and common pre-installed fonts such as:
Arial | Arial Narrow | Times New Roman | Verdana | Tahoma | Garamond | Georgia | Calibri
Finally, sending a PDF file seems like a good answer, and it normally is. Not only does it take care of formatting changes due to incompatible software, but also makes it difficult for anyone to alter the contents of the resume, even by mistake. But every now and then, a company might be using legacy HR software that cannot scan a PDF file, or need an option to comment and highlight on the resume itself without having to pay for expensive PDF-editing software or using risky but free 3rd party solutions. Hence, sending your resumes in both, .DOCX and .PDF, would be ideal.