4 Things to Tweak on Your Resume for the New Year

As we enter the new year, it offers a good time to take stock on your resume in its current form. Here are some great “tweaks” to modernize it for the 2018 job search.

Good luck with your job search in the new year.

Add Hyperlinks

Since most recruiters will first see your resume on a computer screen its a great idea to add hyperlinks to your resume. Links give you more freedom to bring content and reference material pertinent to your skills. You should be making your email a link, and of course link to your LinkedIn profile and other web portfolios at the very least.

Emphasize Your Accomplishments

Start making a list of all the responsibilities you had then pull out an accomplishment for each one that you can use as a bullet point on your resume.

Here’s an example of two resume statements that one of our writers gives:

Handled accounts for an advertising agency

Managed 7 accounts in excess of $3 million annual billings with no turnover

Not only is the second statement better, it shows how much you accomplished during their time, rather than what the boring first one says.

One Page Rules

Unless you absolutely need to, keep your resume to one page. Too many times we see people fall into the trap of stuffing every little internship, keyword and skill into a document when, with a little pruning you can make it more succinct for the reader. Remember, recruiters are very busy so the less they have to read the better. Brevity is always a better option.

Customize it to Applicant Tracking Software

Your resume is often first seen by an applicant tracking system (ATS). Its’ an automated web based software that scans your resume for keywords and ranks applicants. Read the job description thoroughly and use the keywords they use so that your application will rank higher and be more relevant to the reader. As a general rule it’s a good idea to have multiple versions of your resume on hand for different types of positions.