10 Best Ways To Optimise Your Resume If You're Looking To Land Your Next Job

Imagine this, you walk up to an interview worrying about how things will turn out. You try your best to keep your nerves under control as you hand over your packed resume file to the evaluator while you gauge their reactions. You get back and pray that you land the job. What if I told you that you could skip all the jitters and praying just by tweaking your bundled resume?

The only way a recruiter has to know you in the least amount of time is by studying your resume. So, the most important part of landing a job is not just having a great track record but also the means to endorse yourself with just a few pointers. Here are 10 ways you can optimise your CV to land your next job.

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Simply listing your skills and accomplishments on a piece of paper is surely a recipe for disaster. Having a plain and boring summary of your otherwise adventurous work life can get you stuck in a rut where your dream company keeps on overlooking your resume, despite you having the needed skills and experience to enter the organisation.

Back in 1482, when Leonardo da Vinci created the first ever resume recorded in history, he would have had no idea that his initiative to introduce himself with a piece of paper will lead to the most pivotal part of any corporate recruitment process.

Research Resume Trends

After the recent layoffs, many long-term employees were left behind by major corporations. If you are someone who hasn¡¯t applied for a job in a long while, then it is time you get acquainted with the latest trends in the recruitment process.

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Get a good idea about what the employers of today want to see in a resume. If we compare the HR scene with a decade-old system, then it is easy to recognise that much has changed in recent years. So, research topics such as which templates are being used by most candidates and also if your resume is formatted according to the new trends which mostly gives more priority to quantifiable achievements than structural skills.

For instance, you may prefer to use a functional resume that focuses on your skills, qualifications, and experience without emphasizing the dates, helping you avoid showing gaps in your employment history especially after getting laid off.

Write Down Your Accomplishments

An extremely crucial part of charting a resume is to write down your accomplishments so you do not miss even a single chance of impressing a potential employer. While most people start writing down all the things they have done at a previous job without much thought, if you want to optimise your CV then that will not do.

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First of all, it is imperative that you use quantifiable achievements as your main show and then mention the other accompaniments. To make such a list use the CARL (Content, Action, Result, Learning) or START (Situation, Task, Action, Result & Takeaways) methods to reflect your growth in your previous roles. Summarizing your employment history in such a way will give you a clearer picture of your own achievements which you can then add to your resume accordingly.

Get Past The Resume Robots

Many big companies use artificial intelligence tools to eliminate unconscious bias and sort through the hundreds of resumes they receive every day. These ¡°resume robots¡± can leave out many qualified candidates if their CVs are not optimised with the keywords and qualifications required for their desired position. This system is known as the applicant tracking system (ATS).

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Without adding important keywords to the blend, your hard work goes down the drain when your resume faces these virtual gatekeepers. To pass them it is important that you identify the right keywords and add them to your resume. You can use sites like Tagcrowd to help you identify such keywords. Also using the full form and the acronyms of your job title is important.

Mention Your Expertise Below Your Name

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It is always better to summarise who you are as a professional before going into any details about your career history. This can take up around two or three lines in your resume where you can mention your area of expertise like ¡°design specialist¡± or ¡°investigative journalist¡± and can include a list of your more relevant skills. However, keep in mind that this section should be concise and crisp.

Use Action Verbs & Eliminate Clutter

Alongside using keywords to stand out among your fellow applicants, use action verbs such as ¡°implemented,¡± ¡°managed¡± or ¡°developed¡± to describe the task you performed or the operations you took care of in your previous role.

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Next comes decluttering. Once you are done charting out your resume, go through it once again and eliminate any information that seems like an unnecessary detail. If there are any job experiences mentioned from long ago, or graduation dates, hobbies and interests that seem excessive, and even usage of buzzwords like ¡°hard worker¡± can make a resume seem cluttered.

Optimise The Top Quarter

When a recruiter first picks up your resume, the top quarter is the first area that is visible to them. This tells you that the top quarter should be persuasive and get their attention instantly. This section usually covers your profile, core skills, and current role.

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Make sure that this section is not just filled with keywords but also optimized with the requirements the employer has posted on their job description. Highlight your most suitable skills for the role you are applying for in this section if you want the hiring process to be quick and smooth.

Select A Template

This might seem like an excessive step but selecting a fine-tuned template can change your recruitment game. Picking out a template that is simple and easy to comprehend is the way to go when looking for the right piece. Look for templates that prioritise your achievements over your educational endeavours. See that the core skills tab is high up in the format.

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Besides this, it is important to skip over any template that requires you to put your profile image in the resume. It is highly recommended that applicants avoid attaching their personal photographs to their resumes.

Review The Job Posting

Before sending in your resume to a new organisation, it is advised that people have a long and hard look at the job posting. In order to tweak their CV's according to the job description. Based on the requirements of the job you are applying for, it is always a good idea to flip around some of the bullet points in your resume.

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As you examine the posting, look for keywords such as special skills or achievements the employer is looking for then edit your resume accordingly. This process of optimizing your resume for a job will significantly improve your chances of getting the job and will make you stand out among people who send in their stock CVs.

How to Deal With Employment Gaps On Resumes

If you are worrying about how you will justify a gap in your resume, then rest assured because it might not be as big a deal as it appears to be. We are often told that breaks or gaps of any kind in your resume show a lack of passion and drive but that is hardly ever true.

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Most recruiters want to focus on the things you have done, rather than pick out the thing you haven¡¯t. Well, with that said, gaps in a resume do bring up some queries by evaluators. To answer these questions, remember that taking a break isn¡¯t the end of the world. The only thing that matters is what you did with the time you had.

Clearly explain why you took the break and highlight what you have done since. If your gap is related to personal reasons like health or having a child then most recruiters won¡¯t pay any heed to the gap. The only time gaps can become a problem is when they have a pattern. So, ensure that if you do have a tendency to take breaks on a regular basis then you are ready to cover these up with new skills or other career upgrades.

How To Mention A Layoff In Your Resume

The most important part of getting back on your feet after getting laid off is how you bounce back. So, if you are contemplating mentioning your shocking termination from your company then the best option is to stop. A resume should show off your strongest achievements, including the details of a lost job that would get in the way of shedding a positive light on your career.

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It is one thing to be honest with a recruiter and another to shoot yourself down. Therefore, do not mention your termination on your resume instead you can explain your layoff in the cover letter.

Following these simple steps to optimise your resume is sure to bring you more callbacks and better offers from employers.

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