When you are thinking about writing or updating your resume, there are a lot of things to consider. There are three main elements that all resumes need to include if you want to achieve success during your job search. Many times while we are reaching for the stars in our career, we lose sight of the bigger picture. How are we going to get there? What type of personal branding strategy do I need to employ? What should I include in my resume that is going to help propel me into my dream job? Here are the top three elements that all resumes need to include if you want to land the job of your dreams.
Strategy
When you start planning your strategy on how to best market yourself on your resume, one of the most important things you can do is to identify your job target and focus on your skills that will be an asset in that capacity. Resumes have evolved over the years and they are no longer a simple document that says “hey, I want to work for you”. In order for your resume to be effective and yield the best results, you have to methodically plan your strategy. What type of job will I apply to? What kinds of skills should I showcase that relate to my goal? Is there something specific that I need to add in order to get the best results? You need to focus on developing a personal brand and PVP that is unique to you and what you want to showcase to hiring managers.
Content
After you focus on your best strategy for marketing yourself, the next step is to determine what content goes into the resume. While you are determining what is noteworthy for your resume, first consider readability and purpose. You need to have content that is easy to digest by hiring managers while still appealing to applicant tracking systems. Your sentence structure should effectively convey your points without giving an abundance of detail. If you give away the farm on a resume, you end up losing the opportunity to get in front of hiring managers via job interviews. They feel they already have enough details from your resume, so why waste time with a job interview. The more prudent strategy is to include content that has a purpose while still creating a call to action to want to interview you and learn more about you.
Formatting
When you consider the formatting for your resume, you need to be aware of applicant tracking systems (ATS). In order for your resume to get results, it needs to be succinct while also balancing brevity with detail. When you are writing the resume, you should be sure it appeals to the reader while optimizing keywords. If you make the resume too overly verbose, then it will not appeal to hiring managers that are reading a hard copy. When you apply to jobs, companies use ATS to store your resume. When it comes time to put together candidate pools, the ATS helps to source candidates that are qualified for the job. As long as your formatting is readable by ATS, you will maximize the results you get for job interviews.
When you are applying to jobs, there are a lot of strategic elements that go into making sure your resume gets results. Being cognizant of things like your strategy, content, and formatting will help to propel your job search forward.