Top Tips to Quickly Improve Your Resume
If you’re endlessly submitting your resume and not getting the number of callbacks you desire, it’s likely time to change things up.
Formatting matters, so we’re sharing several changes that are quick, easy to make, and can help you put your best foot forward. After all, when recruiters are likely spending less than a minute looking at your document, creating a clean CV that’s easy to read is a huge advantage.
Read on to discover our top tips to quickly improve your resume.
1) Add a Career Summary Statement
Adding a summary statement doesn’t require that you fully rewrite your CV, but it’s an easy change that can quickly improve your resume. To add this to your document, create a short 2-4 sentence paragraph or add several bullets to the top of your resume that summarize your highlights as a candidate. This statement is the first thing hiring managers will see when they look at your resume. So, it should be concise and communicate a clear vision of who you are.
2) Personalize Your Job History
Delete any work history that isn’t directly related to the position for which you’re applying. It’s incredibly common to make mid-career changes, but that makes it likely that some of your earlier positions aren’t relevant to your new career direction. If you have enough experience in the realm of your new job, remove anything from your resume that may confuse hiring managers.
3) Remove Outdated Information
This advice generally refers to the education section of your resume. If you’re several years out of school, your work history is more important than your education. So, move your education information to the bottom of your CV and limit it to include your college, major, and dates of attendance.
You should also remove any outdated (or irrelevant) job information and skills from your document. Space is limited on your resume, so use it wisely and make sure you’re communicating the most recent and relevant information to potential employers.
4) Focus on Results
Take a look at your CV and see how many metrics you’ve included. There should be a lot. Employers don’t want to read through a list of tasks from your previous roles. Rather, they want to see how you’ve added value to previous organizations. The best way to communicate this is to use metrics. For example, instead of saying you “led the sales division for three consecutive quarters,” say that you “achieved a 30% growth in ad revenue over the last three quarters.”
If your job is not directly related to sales, you can use soft metrics such as the size of the budget you managed, the number of employees you oversaw, or the increase in efficiency you created within your department.
5) Make Sure You’re Using a Common Font
It can be tempting to add design elements to your resume to make it stand out. However, readability is key, so use a well-known font that hiring managers are familiar with and can easily read. This includes standard fonts such as Calibri or Times New Roman.
In addition to the type of font, make sure you’re also paying attention to your font size. The font should be large enough (10 or 12 pt) to be easily read on any device.
6) Use Consistent Spacing Throughout
Spacing errors are obvious at a glance and can make or break the look of your document. To create a neat resume that allows your content to shine, make sure that your spacing is consistent between lines, sections, and titles.
7) Double Check Margins
The standard for resume margins is to set them to 1 inch on all sides. This spacing instantly creates a balanced design and adds some necessary white space to your CV. This white space ensures your document isn’t too dense.
If you desperately need more space, you can consider decreasing the margins slightly, but do not make them smaller than a ½-inch, as this will leave your document looking too cluttered.
8) Call Attention to Critical Information
Using boldface can quickly call attention to the most important parts of your resume. Make sure you’re using bold to highlight your previous job titles and employers. You should also bold the section headers throughout your document (ex: career history and career summary).
While boldfacing is important, use this design element appropriately and sparingly. If you overuse bold text, readers won’t know where to focus their attention, and your document will appear scattered.
9) Organize Text
You shouldn’t include long blocks of text on your resume; it makes your doc too dense and difficult to read. Instead, use bullet points to create lists. Using bulleted lists organizes your information and makes it easier to skim.
If you’re looking for small changes that can have big results, implement some of our top tips above to quickly improve your resume.