Indeed, a worthwhile and impactful resume is a must for all individuals while looking out for a job opportunity. Your resume acts as a marketing tool for you that showcase your skills & learnings to the recruiters and helps you to land an interview opportunity. Though, in today’s competitive world, you’ll find thousands of candidates (or even more) running behind a single job opportunity. Meanwhile, as recruiters get such a large amount of job applications, it becomes quite daunting for them as well to pick out the relevant ones. And here comes the role of a well-created professional resume. Yes, an enriching and effective resume can give you an edge over other candidates and help you to get some good career opportunities that you usually don’t get with a poorly-made resume.
Building a resume has become easier than before. No more writing a Resume and CV on blank paper with a pen and racking your brain to think what to include and what not to.
With neveropen Resume Builder, you can create an ATS-proof resume within 5 mins or less. GFG Resume Builder provides various prominent features like different templates, easy customization, download & sharing option, etc. increasing your chances of securing an interview. However, apart from these provided features, there is much more to consider while creating a resume to grab the attention of recruiters and enhance your chances of getting an interview opportunity.
Here, in this article, we’ll let you know about those several most recommended do’s and don’ts tips to create a professional resume in 2023 that will bag you your dream job:
1. Do Write a Concise Resume
The first and foremost thing you need to keep in mind while creating a resume is – Keep it short and concise! Recruiters usually don’t want to spend much time assessing your resume and prefer to look over a concise resume. Meanwhile, you’re recommended to create a one-page resume as it is most preferred by the interviewers. Furthermore, if you have relatively more work experience and you need to go for a two-page resume or more then you must try to make it relevant and epigrammatic.
2. Do Customize Your Resume Accordingly
Indeed, you’re required to customize your resume regularly according to the particular job descriptions. The recruiters usually do the screening process of picking out the relevant and worthwhile resume by searching for the specific keywords related to the required skills, qualifications, experience, etc. for the job. Hence, you’re required to update your resume insights regularly and showcase the skills on your resume relevant to the particular job profile. Moreover, the process of regular customization of the resume is also necessary for situations like the change of contact information, skill up-gradation, etc.
3. Do Mention a Summary Statement
A summary statement is used at the beginning part of the resume which usually gives an idea about how you can be beneficial to a particular organization. In general, the summary statement emphasizes your skills and relevant experience to the recruiter. Moreover, try to avoid too long and objective statements in the summary section. Meanwhile, you’re strongly recommended to not directly copy the summary statement from any other resources (though you can get an idea about the same) and try to write a unique & enriching summary statement.
4. Do Highlight Your Achievements
Indeed, highlighting your achievements (whether it be relevant experience, accomplishments, or any other) gives a clear idea to the recruiters about your relevance to the job opportunity. Meanwhile, you’re recommended to mention and highlight the more important & relevant achievements first. Though you’re not required to mention these achievements in detail and can include them in a concise way such as Implementing New Processes or Working on Particular Projects, etc. Moreover, you are also recommended to not highlight any obvious or unnecessary skills as it can create a negative impact on the interviewer.
5. Do Include Your Contact Details
It is one of the basic, yet most underrated aspects of the candidate while writing a resume. You’re recommended to include your valid contact details such as email address, phone number, etc. on your resume so that recruiters can easily reach out to you for the interviews. Moreover, you can also include your LinkedIn ID or any other professional networking platform address. Meanwhile, you’re not required to mention unnecessary personal details such as religion, marital status, etc. on your resume and can avoid including unusual social media account links.
6. Do Mention Relevant Soft Skills
One of the major mistakes that most candidates commit while creating a professional resume is they include all the technical skills, certifications, etc. but they don’t focus on mentioning relevant soft skills. Indeed, recruiters expect you to have relevant soft & analytical skills such as time management, leadership, team spirit, etc. along with the required technical skillset. Though you’re strongly recommended to not mention unnecessary or irrelevant soft skills instead include those skills in which you are proficient and that are relevant to the particular job profile.
7. Do Mention Relevant Experience
Writing down relevant information in a resume is very important. It would be best if you listed what you have done in your careers, such as skills, accomplishments, and challenges. Also, it is vital that you include your job roles and responsibilities that you did in your previous organization as it gives a clear idea about the skills you possess. Also, if you are trained in any professional course then do mention them, the certification they include, and their expiration date as it showcases your additional talent.
8. Do Write Your Necessary Personal Information
Mentioning your personal information in the resume is quite necessary. However, people add their name, phone number, and email id but some job positions also require your address for proper verification. Also, it is important to give your employer a realistic overview that how much time it will take you to reach the office. Sometimes, the employer does assess people’s personal information to hire someone, hence making it quite important to write them down in your resume.
9. Do Optimize According to ATS
Optimizing your resume according to Applicant Tracking System in order to get it recognized among other candidates. There are companies that receive a huge number of resumes regularly, there, in order to sort them they use ATS, so if your resume has proper keywords then it will act as a boon. This system goes through each resume and shortlists them as per the keywords and relevant phrases which are used for describing the keywords. This process makes things easy for the hiring manager as they only have to go through minimal things.
10. Do Write Action Verbs
Writing down action verbs in the resume is the easiest way to improve your resume. You can start pointers with them in order to make them look more communicable. While writing these the pointers lead in the right direction and also the challenges that you face. You can use words like transformed, increased, or achieved, in order to show the importance.
11. Don’t Use a Complicated Resume Template
As mentioned above, you’re expected to come up with a resume that is easily readable and less time-consuming to grab the attention of the recruiter. Hence, you’re recommended to pick out a simple and basic resume template for better results. However, you can prefer several creative resume templates as well to stand out from the crowd but keep the flow of the content simple and concise. Further, you’re also recommended to not do that many experiments with font styling, infographics, etc.
neveropen Resume Builder offers the most sought-after resume templates that are designed to cater to students and professionals and are easy to read and look simple and basic to the eyes.
12. Don’t Use Passive Voice on Your Resumes
Furthermore, you’re also advised to not use passive voice sentences on your resume as it not only increases the content length but also makes it unclear to the recruiters.
For example – instead of writing ‘the particular project was managed by me’, you should write ‘Managed particular project’ or ‘Implemented new processes’ over ‘the new processes were implemented by me’, etc. As you can see in the given examples that the active voice phrases are quite concise and easy to understand for recruiters.
13. Don’t Include Irrelevant Hobbies or Interests
Indeed, no interviewer wants to see any irrelevant hobbies or interests on your resume, e.g. your favorite cartoon character, etc. Though you’re recommended to put those interests of yours that are professionally relevant to the particular job for example – if you’re applying your resume for a writer’s profile then you can mention reading novels and blogs as your hobby or if you’re applying for a UX/UI Designer, you can include sketching or photography. Moreover, you need to prepare an appropriate justification in your mind for the mentioned interests or hobbies for future interview processes.
14. Don’t Write Negative Things
Meanwhile, while creating a resume, you’re required to be more concerned to avoid mentioning any negative thing or phrase whether it be about your previous company, work profile, or any other. You need to create a positive impact on the interviewer through your resume. You are required to focus on your strengths and skills instead of discussing your previous failures or mistakes in your resume. Moreover, you’re also recommended to not use such content in your resume that leads to any kind of biases or discrimination.
15. Don’t Include Irrelevant/Unrequired Personal Information
Furthermore, you’re recommended to not provide highly personal or confidential details in your resume as neither it would be beneficial for the interviewer to assess your skills nor it will be a good move to share such details with anyone. Moreover, the practice of mentioning extremely personal details in the resume is also not preferred by the interviewers to avoid any kind of partiality or discrimination in the recruitment process.
16. Don’t Forget to Check Grammatical or Other Related Errors
Last but not least, you’re strongly recommended to proofread your resume multiple times to check for any grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, etc. Indeed, these small mistakes on your resume can make a negative impression of yours on recruiters. You can use various online tools to check for grammatical or other related errors. Moreover, you can also ask your friends, mentors, etc. to look over your resume and give you some suggestions or feedback regarding the same.
17. Don’t Add Every Single Position
Getting experience is right but mentioning each one on your resume is not. You should always keep a check that which skill is relevant and which is not. Do not update your resume with outdated skills as it draws a negative impact on your resume. Therefore, always be careful and always mention the relevant as not doing this can be a cardinal resume sin.
18. Don’t Mess Up Important Information
Messy things are unattractive and doing it in your resume is a big no. You are required to write down all your vital information, for example, achievements, skills, experience, certification, etc, in pointers (bullet points). As it will make your resume look more attractive and the person reading will not have any confusion while doing so. Also, make different sections for everything do not mix up your quantifiable and measurable things together.
19. Don’t Forget to Improve Your Resume with These Phrases
We all want our resumes to stand out and in order to accomplish that one must use some specific phrases or words. For example, you can demonstrate success with these words– created, built, achieved, Track record with these words– delivered, executed, impacted, Responsible for with these words– managed, led, raised, etc.
20. Don’t Use First Person Pronouns
“I” and “My” look very unprofessional and sound quite a bit rude while written down in the resume. Therefore it is necessary that you should not use first-person pronouns in order to look friendly and professional at the same time.
Bonus Tips:
- Do Use Bullet Points In Your Resume – Do not write any information in the form of long paragraphs in the resume. Use Bullet Points to write any information Instead. Because the recruiter reads your resume for just a few seconds. So they do not have enough time to read all the things, and they will see some major points or words in it and if those points and words are looking good to them, then chances are more that they will select your resume.
- Make Your Resume Classic and Professional – Though it is not something necessary – still, you can opt to make your resume classic and professional and use only two colors in the resume. For a better format, you should always use black and blue colors in your resume. Also, always save your resume in pdf format and send your resume in pdf format to companies.
- Page Count – Keep your resume to just 1 page. Only make it 2-3 pages if you’re a mid or late-career professional.
Conclusion
So these are several most recommended do’s and don’ts tips that can be taken into consideration to create a professional resume. Now, what are you waiting for? Follow the tips mentioned above, build a worthwhile resume, and get prepared for your upcoming interviews!!
